As the year 2023 drew to a close, Zimbabwean citizens were alerted of the plight of a Bindura man that had spent nearly a month languishing in jail for allegedly insulting President Emmerson Mnagangwa.
Patrick Kingirasi, an unemployed adult resident of Bindura in Mashonaland Central province — considered as one of Mnagangwa and Zanu PF strongholds — was arrested on November 18 2023 and charged with undermining the authority or insulting the head of state and government as defined by Section 33 (2) (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
State prosecutors alleged that Kingirasi undermined and insulted Mnagangwa on October 2, 2023 when he called one Edison Chibaya using his mobile phone and made some utterances to the effect that members of the ruling Zanu PF were thieves.
The prosecutors further charged that Kingirasi accused Mnagangwa of causing suffering among Zimbabweans and for authoring the prevailing economic crisis.
He is said to have said: "Do not be thievery in Zanu PF way with your Mnangagwa, who is causing us to suffer.”
The prosecutors deemed the alleged utterances unlawful, intentional and abusive.
He was locked up upon his arrest on November 20, 2023 only to be released a few days before Christmas courtesy of the timely intervention of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) who represented him and subsequently got him bailed out.
It appears Kingirasi has not been the only one in this predicament in which the same law is being weaponised purportedly to silence citizens of the government under the guise of protecting the dignity of the office of the president.
A number of citizens continue to be arrested, detained and prosecuted.
According to human rights defenders there has been an increase in the number of Zimbabwe citizens that have fallen foul to Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act in the past few months.
Another case emerged just at the close of 2023 similar to that of Kingarisi also highlighting the continued prosecution of citizens for allegedly insulting Mnangagwa this time around involving one Blessed Mhembere (22) of Chitungwiza.
On his part Mhembere was accused of “moving around a bus terminus, shouting at the top of his voice” calling for the removal of the Zimbabwean president.
Mhembere spent nearly a month in jail before being released on bail during the second week of December. He is due in court in the next few weeks.
According to human rights defenders this is a worrying trend, which shows that the new dispensation is refusing to break from the past to allow unfettered free expression in which citizens were free to proffer opinions even involving the office of the president of the land.
In the past two years the ZLHR said it recorded 40 cases of citizens being arrested and prosecuted on charges of undermining or insulting t Mnangangwa, an indication the authorities are hell bent to continue using Section 33 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act to silence citizens such as Kingirasi and Mhembere, among others.
While the use of insult laws to gag citizens was undeniably rampant during the long reign of the late Zanu PF leader and former president Robert Mugabe in which more than 200 cases were recorded by the ZLHR, there had expectations Mnangagwa’s dispensation would expunge this provision in line with his mantra that Zimbabwe is “open for business.”
For advocates of free expression including journalists, musicians, poets and other artistes the seemingly heavy reliance on Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, is not a break from the past dispensation under Mugabe.
It is more of the same. It would seem it's a perpetuation of the old dispensation where citizens still have no rights to freedom of expression when it comes to critiquing the new rulers.
While the authorities could be within their rights to justify the use of Section 33 on the grounds of protecting the dignity of office of the president, it is my humble submission that this piece of legislation should not be weaponised to take away citizens' right to express their views and opinions.
As it stands the increased use of Section 33 on citizens is an affront to freedom of expression and freedom of the media as the section violates rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the media protected under Section 61 of the constitution of Zimbabwe.
Section 61 of the constitution guarantees freedom of expression through: (a) the freedom to seek, receive and communicate ideas and other information (b) and the freedom of artistic expression and scientific research and creativity.
The provision also violates Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The provisions from these three continental and international statutes are perhaps instructive.
Article 9 of the African Charter on Human Rights states: (1) every individual shall have the right to receive information (2) every individual shall have the right to express and disseminate her or his opinions within the law, while Article 19 of Human Rights states: everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive, impact information and ideas through any media.
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right includes freedom to seek, receive and impact information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through other media of his or her choice.
So Mr President allow citizens to freely express themselves.