Villager in court over Mugabe slur

Villager in court over Mugabe slur – NewZimbabwe 22/03/2016

HARARE: A Goromonzi villager is being dragged to the courts for insulting President Robert Mugabe while at a local bar.

Moenda Mbera, of Juru Growth Point in Goromonzi, was issued with summons to appear at the Murewa Magistrates court, charged under Section 33 (2) (b) of the Criminal Law Codification and

Reform Act (Insulting the authority of the President or insulting the President).

Part of the summons read: “In that on the 15th day of October 2015 and at Till Bottle Store, Juru township, Moenda Mbera, publicly, unlawfully and intentionally made an abuse, indecent or obscene statement concerning Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe saying:

‘I don’t know why people from Zanu PF are still thin because of poverty. When we voted in 2013 and this a*****e called Mugabe won, I then knew that we are going to suffer but I have been hardened’.”

Moenda is expected to appear at the Murewa magistrate’s court again on May 19 and will be represented by lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Earlier this month, a policeman, Thompson Joseph Mloyi, 44, appeared in court after he, while at a camp shared by police and the army, allegedly said that President Mugabe was too old to rule.

In December last year, a former MDC councillor was hauled before the courts for allegedly making derogatory remarks over President Robert Mugabe’s health.

His case was, however, struck off the register after the State failed to provide a trial date. In 2013, a Great Zimbabwe University Lecturer, Chenjerai Pamhiri, 38, was jailed for calling Mugabe a rotten old donkey and urged people not to vote for him.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has recorded more than 60 cases of this nature since 2010.