HARARE – Jacob Ngarivhume will wait longer to know the outcome of his freedom bid after High Court judge Pisirayi Kwenda Tuesday reserved judgement in the jailed opposition leader’s bail application.
Ngarivhume, leader of opposition Transform Zimbabwe, was last month jailed for four years for inciting public violence in 2020.
This follows a Twitter post in which he was encouraging a peaceful national protest against government’s failure to stamp out corruption.
Ngarivhume, who denies originating the tweets, is serving an effective three years behind bars after magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka conditionally suspended a year of his sentence.
Aggrieved by the ruling, the politician mounted a High Court application for bail pending appeal against both conviction and sentence.
His lawyer Lovemore Madhuku said the lower court erred in treating his client as a violent person when he called for peace.
“This is the first time we have seen a politician being sent to jail for saying statements that allegedly incite the public,” Madhuku said.
“The court in its ruling treated it as if he had actually committed public violence.
“There are other factors which we believe were not taken into account.
“We should not create a situation whereby we just jail politicians. In fact, it is on record that nothing happened, there was no violence on July 31 2020.”
He added, “We pray that he pays half a million (bail), which is quite a substantial amount, to continue residing at the same address and not interfere with witnesses. There is no intention for him to abscond.
“We believe that the High Court will certainly not uphold the conviction. We are very confident about that.”
