Job Sikhala is expected to be released from prison after the courts granted him a two-year suspended sentence for inciting public violence on Tuesday.
The former Zengeza West spent over 590 days in jail since his arrest on June 14, 2022.
On January 24, 2024, Sikhala was convicted alongside Godfrey Sithole as they were charged with inciting public violence by encouraging members of the public to engage in acts of violence and seek revenge for the murder of Moreblessing Ali.
Ali, a Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activist, went missing for three weeks before her mutilated body was discovered on June 11,2022.
Sikhala was arrested on June 14, 2022, and has been held at Chikurubi Maximum-security prison in Harare.
Harare Magistrate Tafadzwa Miti sentenced the former Zengeza West MP to serve two years in prison, which she wholly suspended on the condition of good behaviour.
Magistrate Miti stated that she had considered that Sikhala had spent considerable time in prison.
On May 3, 2023, Sikhala was found guilty of obstructing justice and sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence with the option of paying US$ 600 or spending six months in jail; his trial was linked to a video posted on the internet in which he is accused of saying that the ruling Zanu PF party had killed Ali.
In November 2023, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) successfully overturned one of Sikhala’s convictions and sentences, however, he remained in jail for the above mentioned charges.
The State was alleging that the former MPs had provided transport to ferry members of the CCC from Chitungwiza and Epworth to Nyatsime where they engaged in acts of violence, assaulting members of the public, known Zanu PF supporters and vandalising shops and beerhalls.
