Six of the nine Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) members who had been imprisoned for three years on public violence charges were released on Monday.
The nine activists were arrested in March 2021 after they staged a protest at Bulawayo Central Police Station, demanding the release of MRP president Mqondisi Moyo following a raid at his home.
The six released members include two females – Chairperson of the MRP’s Women’s National League – Sibongile Banda and Busi Moyo, who were released from Mlondozi prison.
The other four members are MRP’s Council of Elders representative – Tinos Nkomo, Nkosinathi Ncube, Ackim Ndebele, Liveson Ncube who were released from Harare Central Prison.
However, three party members will remain in jail for another three months as they had other charges.
The trio includes MRP Youth Chairperson, Mongameli Mlotshwa, Maxwell Nkosi and Welcome Moyo.
In an interview with CITE, an MRP official, Mbonisi Gumbo confirmed that their party members were finally out, having served time for ‘exercising their rights.’
“We are so excited as a party, and we are happy that they came out alive considering the deplorable conditions of Zimbabwean prisons,” he said, adding that the country’s prisons were struggling to meet the basic needs of prisoners.
Another MRP member Chilumbo Mudenda praised their comrades saying they had shown “great” resilience in the face of adversity and were courageous.
“The prison conditions are quite severe and our friends put up with those prison challenges because they believed in a cause. This is why honour them and when the time is right they will tell their stories of survival,” he said.
Mudenda said party official Thembisani Mfulongashi Mpofu had travelled to Harare to welcome the other four members.
“The next step is to check their health. We will ask the health department to do their research and make sure our members are ok since they stayed in the head of the enemy. We will take them for medical checkup to make sure they were not tampered with,” said the MRP co-chairperson.
“Otherwise for now this is what we have to say because this is a recent development.”
