Mthwakazi condemns re-arrest of activist who served jail term

The Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) has condemned the re-arrest of one of its members over an offence for which it says he has already served a prison sentence, describing the development as "shocking" and a serious miscarriage of justice.

Welcome Moyo, one of the party's nine activists popularly known as the "MRP9", was arrested this week and detained at Bulawayo Central Police Station. He was expected to appear in court on Friday.

The MRP9 were arrested in March 2021 after staging a protest at Bulawayo Central Police Station demanding the release of party leader Mqondisi Moyo following a raid on his home by State security agents.

In June 2022, Bulawayo magistrate Tavengwa Sangster convicted the group of public violence.

Seven members were sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment, while Welcome Moyo and another activist each received 36-month prison terms.

During their incarceration, eight of the activists were transferred from Khami and Mlondolozi prisons in Bulawayo to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare under circumstances the party said were never adequately explained.

MRP president Mqondisi Moyo said Welcome Moyo had been arrested, convicted and completed the sentence imposed by the court.

"This is not justice," Moyo said.

"This is persecution, confusion and State cruelty rolled into one."

He said the activists endured three years in various correctional facilities, including Khami, Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and Harare Central Prison.

"He served that sentence under the custody of the Zimbabwean State.

"Yet today, the same State has turned around and treated him as though he never served it at all," Moyo said.

According to the MRP leader, the party's lawyers filed an appeal while the activists were serving their prison terms.

However, he alleged that the appeal was never heard or formally regularised by the courts, creating what he described as a procedural anomaly.

Moyo claimed the unresolved appeal had apparently been interpreted to suggest that the activists had absconded from serving their sentences despite remaining in State custody throughout their imprisonment.

"The court and State records appear to reflect a fiction that these men absconded, even though the Zimbabwean State itself had them in custody for three years," he said.

He described the situation as evidence of a justice system that had failed to properly account for the activists' incarceration.

"This is a damning indictment of a justice system so disorganised, so reckless and so hostile to truth that it can imprison a man, release him after sentence and later hunt him down as if he were a fugitive," Moyo said.

Efforts to obtain comment from national police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi were unsuccessful.

The Mthwakazi Republic Party is a political organisation that advocates for the restoration of an independent Mthwakazi state separate from Zimbabwe.

The party has frequently clashed with State authorities over its campaign for self-determination, which it says is motivated by longstanding concerns over marginalisation and historical grievances.

The circumstances surrounding Welcome Moyo's latest arrest are expected to come under scrutiny when the matter is heard in court.