AN investigating officer yesterday told the court that Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) president Emmanuel Sitima was on the run for almost a month after police tried to arrest him for displaying placards and insulting police outside the Harare Magistrates Court.
Sitima (25) was arrested on Wednesday this week after police reportedly received information that violent skirmishes had erupted at the Zesa Training Centre in Belvedere, Harare, where the students were reportedly gathered.
The student leader is facing a charge of criminal nuisance. Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi released him on US$100 bail.
Mangosi ordered Sitima to return to court on July 31 for routine remand.
Meanwhile, in a statement tendered in court, investigating officer Fadzai Chafa said Sitima was arrested on Wednesday without a warrant.
He said Sitima had been on the run since June this year.
“The accused had been on the run and since the offence occurred, efforts to locate him were in vain,” Chafa said.
He further told the court that Sitima was identified in a video footage singing, chanting slogans and hurling abusive words in the middle of a crowd at the magistrates court.
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Prosecutor Thomas Chanakira told the court that on June 27 at Harare Magistrates’ Court, Sitima in the company of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) supporters held a demonstration while holding placards after the party’s secretary for presidential affairs Jameson Timba and 78 other activists were denied bail.
He said Sitima and his co-accused, who are still at large, chanted CCC slogans while tossing placards and using abusive language towards the police.
The police reportedly ordered them to disperse and they resisted, which led to some being arrested while Sitima fled.
