HIGH Court judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda has reserved his judgment in jailed opposition Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume's challenge against both conviction and sentence.Ngarivhume was jailed for four years last month for inciting public violence in 2020.
He will serve three years after magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka conditionally suspended a year of his sentence.His lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku, said the lower court erred in treating Ngarivhume 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 that 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. We believe that the High Court will certainly not uphold the conviction. We are very confident about that.”