By Costa Nkomo
The High Court of Zimbabwe has once again delayed the bail hearing of three human rights defenders – Namatai Kwekweza, Samuel Gwenzi, and Robson Chere – after the state failed to provide a transcribed record of the trio’s initial bail denial in the magistrate’s court on August 16, 2024.
The three activists were forcibly removed from a Victoria Falls-bound plane on July 31, 2024, and subjected to severe torture by suspected state security agents before being handed over to Harare Central Police.
Chere, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), had a medical report highlighting the urgent need for treatment to prevent permanent kidney damage.
Despite being denied bail by Harare Magistrate Ruth Moyo on August 16, the state has yet to produce a transcribed court record, hindering the progress of the accused’s bail appeal in the High Court.
The trio’s defence team, led by Paidamoyo Saurombe, Tinashe Chinopfukutwa, and Kelvin Kabaya from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), appeared before High Court Justices Lucy Mungwari and Joel Mambara.
“We filed a bail appeal after Namatai and other accused persons’ bail application was denied by Harare Magistrate Court on the 16th of August 2024,” Saurombe stated.
“The state had made an application to have the appeal struck off the roll because the record of proceedings had not yet been uploaded on the system, but we made a counter application. We requested the transcribed record from the magistrate’s court on the 16th of August. We followed up on the 22nd of August and again yesterday, the 27th of August, at the Magistrate Court, only to be told that only 10 percent of the record had been transcribed.”
“We asked the Magistrate for an order that the record be fully transcribed by the 22nd of August, and the state has no reason for delaying the record.”
The High Court has now ordered the state to rectify the situation by Monday, September 2nd, 2024, to allow the appeal hearing to proceed on September 4th, 2024.
The trio has been held in pre-trial detention for nearly a month, highlighting the state’s continued efforts to hinder their release and prolong their detention.
The trio is not alone in this situation, over 70 Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activists have been in jail since June 16, 2024, after the police raided them at the party’s administrator private residence while celebrating the Day of the African Child. They were denied bail by both Harare Magistrate Court and the High Court.
They are part of scores of activists who were arrested ahead of the 44th Ordinary SADC Summit which was held on the 17th of August 2024 in Harare.
Mutsvangwa’s statement on the deliberate arrests and detention of human activists by ZANUPF’s state security machinery are being proved very correct by the captured judiciary system.