Footprints in the chains: The life story of Job Sikhala

The book, Footprints in Chains: The Life Story of Job Sikhala, is less biographical than an indelible account of human rights abuses, the excesses of a securocratic state that is Zimbabwe under the current regime.

All the same, the biographical notes on Job Sikhala, born  in 1972, are fairly representative of that generation of activists that formed and constituted the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999. Born out of the twin dynamics of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe Congress of   Trade Unions (ZCTU), the opposition movement's life coincides with Job Sikhala's own political history.

Among the fascinating accounts in the history and development of the MDC is Sikhala's mention of such external factors as Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and the latter (financial) contribution to the opposition movement in a country with whom he was locked in battle during the conflict in the Democratic Rebublic of the Congo in the late 1990's.

But as in the case of all those factors that contributed to the work of the MDC, this was merely coincidental rather than the reasons for the emergence of an opposition movement that grew pari passu the disenchantment with Robert Mugabe's regime and his Zanu  PF party.

That trend  has intensified over the last two decades and accounts in a large measure to the emergence of the securocrat state the coup of 2017, and such excesses as the jailing and torture of the opposition activists like Job Sikhala.

Not to mention the 360 who were killed during the 2008 election run-off, the many who have disappeared before then and after, including Itai Dzamara.

In fact, it would have been adequate if the book had confined itself to its title, Footprints in the Chains, the 595 days of pre- trial incarceration, including the state's insensitivity to the many pleas made on his behalf by citizens at home and abroad.

 The latter included the efforts of Chenayi Mutambasere who engaged jurists across the world, particularly the likes of Lord Jonathan Oates who raised Sikhala's  case in the British parliament; and the petition which I initiated together with Tsitsi Dangarembga and Simba Makoni, and signed by almost 100 000 petitioners, including Strive Masiyiwa, Arthur Mutambara, Trevor Ncube and many others.

No doubt, Job's imprisonment remains a rallying point for the opposition movement in Zimbabwe, "a symbol of the State's brutality and blatant disregard for human rights".

 But, for me, it is this excerpt from the book describing the torture Job Sikhala had to endure during an earlier incarceration; it is in testimony to such brutality that still characterises the state in Zimbabwe and a sad epitaph on a judiciary not only so captured, but also incapable of defending and safe guarding the citizen:

"Electro-persecution took several hours in rotations. He urinated and messed up himself on the floor. They forced him to drink his urine.

His body was full of torrential waters from his sweat and urine. The humiliation was overwhelming…"

"They then took another cable and tied it to his penis and released electricity. He was burned to the heart and marrow.

"Pain ran through his nerves, and a piercing fire ravaged his genitals to the very core of his manhood soul.

"The pain was excruciating, a horrific burning sensation. Who on earth could do such a thing to a fellow human being? ..."

"As if that were not enough, to turn him into a eunuch, they took another cable, tied it to his scrotum, and switched on the electricity.

"He sweated, torrential water pouring from his sweat glands. The pain reached his very nerves. Screaming no longer mattered here; death was his only escape…... "The final act of torture was a cruel and twisted joke. Job's captors asked him, "If we are done with you, where do you want us to take you? Home or where?"

 Job, his mind shattered and his body broken, replied, "Please take me home to my wife and kids, we will see what we can do."

 The torturers requested his wife's cell phone number, and Job, in daze, provided it to them.

They had been taken from Nyamutamba on January 13 2003, and cell phones were becoming increasingly common in Zimbabwe.

The torturers handed Job an electrified cell phone, and as soon as he put it to his ear, unknowingly, a jolt of electricity struck him, sending him crashing to the ground, unconscious…

"As Job slowly regained consciousness, he heard the voices of his captors, including Makedenge, discussing what to do with him.

He felt drops of water on his head and heard one of them saying, "Gentlemen, if this person does not wake up, what shall we do? Shall we throw him into the dam?"

Job's mind was foggy, but he knew he had to survive. He later discovered that the dam was a notorious spot where the regime's enemies were often disposed of.

They were relieved upon realising that he was still alive and warned him against saying anything about the torture after his release: Sorry shamwari, zvinoitika. Kana wabuda usaudza vanhu kunze uko, ukataura unofa. (Sorry, friend these things happen. Please do not tell the world about this; you speak, you die.)"