EDITORIAL COMMENT: Evan Mawarire ruling keeps hope alive

Source: EDITORIAL COMMENT: Evan Mawarire ruling keeps hope alive | The Financial Gazette July 21, 2016

IN the midst of what might appear to be a hopeless situation, Harare magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe’s ruling last week came as a breath of fresh air.
Ahead of the arrest of Evan Mawarire last week, ruling party apparatchiks had come out guns blazing, threatening to crush anyone who dared  challenge its authority.
Having successfully campaigned for the shutdown of all economic activity a week earlier to demonstrate citizens’ anger over the deteriorating socio-economic situation, Mawarire — a pastor who is making waves through his campaign running under #ThisFlag — became a marked man whose supposed crime could not just be wished away.
And indeed, the Executive did deploy its full might on him, with the police descending on the defenceless cleric like a tonne of bricks.
A day after his arrest, Mawarire was arraigned before the courts, facing charges of inciting violence. Somehow, the State could have felt that there was need to send a strong message to all those who might have wanted to follow in Mawarire’s footsteps. In its wisdom or lack of it, the charge was changed to attempting to overthrow a constitutionally elected government, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, if convicted.
Without taking anything away from the defence team, which did well by pointing out that the State had acted unconstitutionally by shifting goal posts, the Harare magistrate deserves a pat on the back for doing a through and professional job. Faced with an Executive, whose ego had been bruised and battered, it is not every time that you come across professionals like Chikwekwe who will stand on the side of the law. For fear of rubbing society’s mighty and powerful the wrong way, some could elect “to play it safe”.
Chikwekwe’s ruling therefore represents that bright spark that continues to flicker in darkness.
It gives hope, even under these depressing times, that even though the potent might throw their weight around, the weak can also count on the judiciary to deliver justice, irrespective of their race, tribe, political affiliation, gender or creed.
Coincidentally, the ruling was delivered during the same week Bikita West Member of Parliament, Munyaradzi Kereke, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for raping his niece, who was only 11 years at the time of the offence in 2010.
That Kereke was able to dodge the courts for over six years highlights everything that has gone horribly wrong with our society whereby the all-powerful find it easy to ride roughshod over the less privileged members of our civilisation. But with judicial officers such as Chikwekwe and many other unsung heroes on the bench, one can be rest assured that no matter how influential society’s wrongdoers could be, the long arm of the law would eventually catch up with them. We are under no illusion that our courts are perfect as the corrosive effects of corruption have crept into all facets of society, including the three arms of the State.
It is encouraging, however, to know that there are some good apples out there who are keeping alive our hope for a better future.