The lawyer representing media monitors facing charges of insulting President Robert Mugabe has challenged the 87-year-old to develop “thick skin” and accept criticism even if it is couched in unpalatable words.
Kossam Ncube made the remarks in Gwanda yesterday during the trial of the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) trio of Molly Chimbanda, Fadzai December and Gilbert Mabusa.
“President Mugabe is a public figure whose performance is subject to public scrutiny,” Ncube said. The section (Criminal Codification and Reform Act Section 33) muzzles the public from making candid and hard-hitting criticism of the President’s performance and it makes the people only speak what is good about him and his office.
“It is made in such a way that the public cannot know which statement is insulting or offensive to the President, leaving it being subjective to the valuation of the law enforcement agents and leading into arbitrary arrests.”
He said the section did not protect the public from the law and it had seen some people being arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted.
The three media monitors were arrested in Gwanda last year for allegedly distributing a DVD perceived to undermine the authority of Mugabe.
Ncube yesterday applied to have the case referred to the Supreme Court, arguing the law under which his clients were being charged infringed on their right to freedom of expression.
“The application is a bona fide one, which is not premised on vexatious and frivolous grounds,” he said.
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“What the accused said in their statements does not matter in this case as what is being challenged is the whole section which is viewed as unconstitutional.
“To put the accused to trial will be tantamount to harassment and denial of their right in terms of the Constitution and a mere waste of the court’s time and their money in legal representation.”
However, the area public prosecutor for Matabeleland South, Blessing Gundani, opposed the application, saying it had no merit and its chances of success in the Supreme Court were minimal.
“The section does not infringe on anyone’s rights and it is also not vague as it is specific in its definition that the public should not peddle falsehoods, obscene and offensive statements about the President and his office,” Gundani said.
“Even an ordinary person does not want falsehoods to be peddled against him and how does it become wrong because the President is involved?”
Gwanda resident magistrate Sheila Nazombe ruled in favour of the MMPZ officials and said their application had merit and refusal to have the matter referred to the Supreme Court would be tantamount to denying them access to the highest court in the land and would be a violation of their right to protection from the law.
Soon after the matter was referred to the Supreme Court, Ncube made another application for the three to be removed from remand.
The application was, however, dismissed by Nazombe, who ruled it was too early to make such a determination.
