Job Sikhala acquitted after appeal against falsehoods conviction; reflects on the ‘horrible abuse’ he endured

ZIMSPHERE 

HARARE – Former Zengeza West Member of Parliament Job Sikhala has been acquitted by the High Court following an appeal by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) against his conviction and sentence for communicating falsehoods on social media.

Job Sikhala

Justices Kwenda and Chikowero presided over the appeal and subsequently quashed Sikhala's conviction and sentence. 

Earlier this year, Magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka had fined Sikhala and imposed a nine-month suspended prison sentence after finding him guilty of publishing falsehoods on social media.

Sikhala, represented by Harrison Nkomo, Advocate Mutero, and the ZLHR team, was convicted in February 2024. Magistrate Chakanyuka's ruling required Sikhala to pay a fine of US$500 by March 4, 2024, or face two months in prison. 

The nine-month suspended sentence was conditional on him not committing a similar offense.

In response to the original verdict, Sikhala's lawyer Harrison Nkomo criticized the judgment, stating that his client should never have been charged under a law deemed unconstitutional by the top court.

"We are going to file our appeal as a registration of our displeasure of the judgment. We disagree with it; it has no foundation and is not sound. The law no longer exists, and it is wrong for a court to convict someone under a law that has been struck down by the Constitutional Court," Nkomo said at the time.

Following the acquittal, Sikhala released a statement on X reflecting on the "most horrible abuse" he endured while incarcerated, and below is the statement: 

For 595 days, I was thrown into solitary confinement, shackled in chains like a terrorist, and suffered the most horrible abuse any person can endure, all at the hands of the criminal regime in Harare for allegedly inciting public violence to avenge the gruesome murder of Moreblessing Ali.

I told everyone who would listen that I did not commit any crime in my professional capacity to represent the Moreblessing Ali family. I insisted that it was the evil residing in the hearts of those who run our country, and that it was political persecution to remove me from the 2023 general elections.

Today, the High Court in Harare heard my two appeals—one for a false conviction of publishing falsehoods and another for inciting public violence in connection to Moreblessing Ali's death.

The High Court acquitted me of both charges. The state concurred that the first case was a wrongful conviction based on a law that does not exist. In the second case involving Moreblessing Ali, the state agreed that there was no evidence on record showing that I incited anyone.

To those who have persecuted me, my family, and everyone associated with me, remember that there is a God in heaven. Your day of judgment will come.