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Opposition MDC Alliance activist Makomborero Haruzivishe was Tuesday morning sentenced to effective 14 months in prison for incitement of violence after he had demonstrated with colleagues demanding the release of ZINASU president Takudzwa Ngadziore.
This has invoked the evil perpetrated by this regime from the days the icon Morgan Richard Tsvangirayi was brutalised for speaking up just as Mako did.
Some analysts say Itai Dzamara a Zimbabwean journalist who was allegedly abducted by suspected state security agents in 2015 after staging anti-Mugabe protests and was never seen since then justifies perhaps the former President Robert Mugabe was worse than Mnangagwa and what happened to ”Mako” is better than if mugabe was leader today.
Meanwhile, some said dictators will never learn from the fate of those who were there before them. Mdc Alliance Secretary General Charlton Hwende said:”Gadaffi never saw his day coming, but it did. Power belongs to the giver not the receiver. Anyday it can be taken away, use it sparingly.”
In so doing the SG was firing warnings to the regime responsible for suppressing young Mako that one day a Gadaffi style uprising may be triggered by such.
The MDC Alliance national executive and youth leader Mako was yesterday sentenced to fourteen months in prison following his conviction on two separate charges.
The jail term has sparked varying responses with some saying the government is just trying to silence dissent.
Haruzivishe was last week found guilty of inciting public violence and resisting arrest by Harare magistrate Judith Taruvinga.
Magistrate Taruvinga sentenced Haruzivshe to 24 months in prison for inciting violence with 10 months suspended.
On the second count of resisting arrest, Hauzivishe was sentenced to 12 months in custody with 6 months suspended.However, the sentences will run concurrently meaning he will spend 14 months in prison.
MDC Alliance Vice President, Tendai Biti said a “very dark cloud descends on the motherland.”
MDC Alliance Vice-Chairperson, Job “Wiwa” Sikhala is one of the people who have reacted to the sentencing saying the development would not stop the democratic wave. He said:
The Prosecuting team claimed Haruzivishe, sometime last year incited the public through whistling a code to mobilise people to revolt against the police who were arresting vendors in Harare Central Business District.
Addressing the media before the police riot halted the presser, MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said Haruzivishe was being targeted for being a member of opposition while adding that his lawyers were going to file for an appeal.
“Mako has been given an effective 14 months in prison. So he is having a custodial sentence. We all know that Mako is being targeted simply because he is an MDC Alliance youth member and also because he speaks out against poverty, justice and corruption. That’s an abuse of the rule of law and it’s also unconstitutional and we are going to ensure we pursue all legal means to protect his rights.
“We have spoken to his lawyers and his lawyers are going to file an appeal definitely this week. We want to ensure that he gets bail pending appeal so that he spends less time incarcerated. We all know that the conviction is extremely controversial even the reasons for a custodial sentence,” Mahere said.
Others said the sentence was just unfair because there are many people who committed grave crimes who are still walking freely. One Che Guevara said:24 months for blowing a whistle yet some thugs and murderers are walking free the fate with Mako is similar jailed 14 months for a mere whistle.
Haruzivishe has pending charges including allegations of kidnapping after he participated in a protest against Impala car rental last year.
The magistrate courts were today marked by heavy police presence in anticipation of protests.
”Jailing of @MakomboreroH will never stop the wheels of change whose time has come. This is pure cowardice by a regime whose mark of a beast is oppression and human rights abuses. All progressive forces will stand with him to the bitterest end.” said Job Wiwa Sikhala.
While others suggested that the administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa was worse than that of his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe, in terms of violating human rights, others said Zimbabweans are too forgetful.
Still Mako has been jailed for whistling and human rights watchdogs are calling on the regime to reverse this kind of injustice.
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