375 people convicted over January protests

Zimbabwe’s courts convicted 375 people linked to the violence during the three-day stay-away in January, a police report shows.

The police report shows that most convictions from across the country’s 10 provinces were in Bulawayo, the second-largest city, with 225 convictions.

Other convictions were:

• Harare, the capital, 69;
• Mashonaland West province, 27;
• Manicaland province, 19;
• Mashonaland Central, 14;
• Midlands, 6; and
• the two Matabeleland provinces had three convictions each.

The only province which did not have any convictions was Masvingo.

The longest jail term given by the courts was for seven years, with eight people receiving this sentence. Six people were jailed for six years, 40 for five years, 29 people for four years, 48 for three years and 65 for two years.

Ninety-two people were jailed for a year, 35 people for six months, four people for five months and 30 people for three months.

A further 200 people – spread across the nine provinces – paid a fine of $20, with the most, 124, in the Midlands province.