HARARE – A Harare magistrate has ordered the police to find and arrest Winstone Tadiwa Chikosha for his failure to appear in court for his trial continuation today.
Chikosha is well known as the youngest person arrested during the 2018 election protests last year. He was caught by police along with three other youths Takunda Phiri, Munyaradzi Tembo, and Farai Dube.
They were accused of inciting violent protest demanding Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to release 2018 Presidential election results. People were angry and went into the streets because they wanted the election results to be released quickly. During the protest, the military used guns, and some people were sadly killed while some were injured.
Chikosha and his friends are members of the MDC-T and MDC Alliance youth groups. The party split into two groups after their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, passed away.
After the August 1 shootings, the government set up the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry. This commission was led by a former president of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe. They invited Chikosha and other youths to testify before the commission about what they saw during the protests.
"He was just a young boy when this started, but he was caught up in big political problems," said Farai Dube.
After their arrest in 2018, Chikosha and the others were released on bail. This means they were free while they waited for their trial to finish. However, they were expected to appear before the Magistrate on October 3 2018 but Chikosha did not show up.
The Harare Magistrate issued a warrant of arrest.
His lawyers Doug Coltart and Chris Mhike tendered a medical report from Chikosha indicating that he is outside country in Zambia seeking medical treatment.
The state lawyers objected to the medical report arguing that they are need for verification of the authenticity of the medical report. The matter has been postpond to October 17.