SELF-EXILED opposition CCC activist Makomborero Haruzivishe has described his recent acquittal by the High Court on charges of inciting public violence and resisting arrest — after spending a year in prison — as a confirmation of judicial capture.
RUVIMBO MUCHENJE
Haruzivishe was convicted and sentenced in April 2021 to 24 months behind bars at the Harare magistrates’ court, only for the judgement to be overturned 17 months later by a higher court.
“The sweet part in the bitter-sweet pill is that finally I have been absolved by the courts. I have been cleared and this case as it is it also proved that all my declarations in the past that we have a compromised justice system and that is weaponised against human rights defenders and pro- democracy activists. It’s there within the High Court order which acquitted me,” he said.
Haruzivishe said there was freedom to speak in Zimbabwe, but thereafter you are on your own.
“This is also proof enough that in Zimbabwe there is freedom of expression and freedom of speech but, more critically freedom after expression and freedom after speech is a fallacy. There is nothing like that because whilst I exercised my right of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, I suffered and definitely did not have freedom after exercising my freedom of expression a⁴nd freedom of speech,” said Haruzivishe.
Haruzivishe was arrested at gunpoint by detectives from the Criminal investigations Department’s Law and Order section in February 2021. He was tortured in custody.
To him the acquittal is welcome but the torture he experienced at the hands of the state cannot be undone.
“..I endured an illegal arrest and during that illegal arrest I suffered severe tortured in the hands of the police. I could not walk, I suffered a fractured arm, I was beaten, hit on my knee caps and under the foot with button sticks and then fists and booted feet all over the body indiscriminately. I served jail time at a time when there was Covid-19 and I seriously got sick in jail specifically serving this sentence. And still considering all the years that I have been going to court being labelled a criminal when I am not a criminal,” he said.
“So after I had endured all this; after serving; after they intimidated the people using me as an example to the people not to exercise their freedom of expression, they then say at the High Court, I am innocent. I am cleared of all the charges but will I be cleared of the pain that I suffered? Will the trauma and the terror that they used my persecution to intimidate citizens into submission, be cleared?” he asked.
Haruzivishe said justice should go beyond acquittal. He wants the magistrate to account for wrong doing.
“What must also be noted in that High Court judgement, is that the judges correctly pointed out that the magistrate tampered with the court records and this is proof of judicial capture. If there is justice, that magistrate must also face justice, she must be arrested. Those police officers who tortured me must be brought to book and I also need to be compensated,” he said.
“They must also apologise; the state must apologise to me for malicious persecution but they are silent. They are actually happy that I suffered and for them it’s actually a message that if you practise your freedom of expression, we will come after you; we will process you using the system; we will process you and I was processed only to be found innocent. It’s just painful that actually the system has mechanisms to prove me innocent when I am innocent but prove me guilty when I was innocent so that I suffer as a guilty person I suffer as a criminal only after suffering so much to be cleared.
Haruzivishe says the state oďt using the law to curtail freedom of expression and setting him as an example to fellow activists.
The state alleged that he had resisted arrest, but he claims there was no way that he would have resisted armed officers who were packed in three trucks.
“I was accused of inciting public violence and resisting lawful arrest. It wasn’t even realistic considering that during the trial police officers who were witnesses said they had over three trucks of anti- riot police. So how could I resist arrest by armed people? if I committed that violence and incited that violence then I should also have had some co accused but it was just me alone, the magistrate wanted to knail me. The justice system was biased against me,” he said.
This is Haruzivishe’s second conviction to be quashed at the High Court.
In 2016 he was co-accused with the late Patson Dzamara of stealing a helmet and a baton from police officer during the Occupy Africa Unity Square demonstration and the duo was handed a 12-month sentence.
The conviction was set aside at the High Court.
He said lower courts have been used to silence people with opposing views.
“This has been the second acquittal by the High Court where I successfully won my applications for appeal against these unfair judgements by the lower court and sentencing by the lower court. Most importantly, it proves that there is judicial capture in Zimbabwe and the use of law is weaponised to deal with dissent,” Haruzivishe said.
While in prison, Haruzivishe said he endured tough conditions.
“I stayed in the D-class section where the most dangerous criminals are kept and I think that was the first point of torture…There was absolutely no record or any allegations of violence but I was kept with the most dangerous criminals. I was kept in the D-class section where there are murderers, serial armed robbers and rapists. I was kept among them and I am sure you know at some point they tried to kill me, strangle me at night,” he said.
The inmate-on-inmate violence was rampant, and some clashes were even fatal as described by Haruzivishe.
Haruzivishe was in custody during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He recalls how Harare Prison was not equipped to deal with the infectious disease.
“One more issue which was so painful was how overcrowded we were in D-class section. We were over 1 000 at some point and the D-class section is supposed to house 300 inmates, but we were over 1 000 at some point and at the time that I came out they say that they tried to clear out people but still the time I got out of Harare remand we were 966 or somewhere there,” he said.
“…During the Covid-19 pandemic, when we were supposed to do social distancing, we could not do it. We were 1 000, so clearly was no means for you to practise social distancing and other basic things so it was mentally draining.
In April 2021, the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) released 320 prisoners to decongest prisons.
The overcrowding was affecting hygiene of cells as toilets were constantly blocked.
Although he was exposed to dehumanising conditions, his resolve remains unshaken.
“Jail time, when you know that you are innocent, is one of the most painful things. However, this happening strengthened my resolve. It made me want to fight harder at national, local, community and even international platforms for for reforms; the constitutional reforms in Zimbabwe. The justice sector needs to be reformed; it needs to be freed from the clutches of the dictators who have captured it,” he said.
“It needs to be used as an equalising institution to equalise people before the law to ensure that justice is delivered and not used as a weapon against those who are demanding a better Zimbabwe; not as a weapon against human rights defenders; not as a weapon against those who are speaking out against corruption or those who are speaking out against dictatorship.”
