Former American ambassador to Zimbabwe Bruce Warton has taken a swipe at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s so-called new dispensation, saying nothing has changed.
This also comes, as the arrests and persecution of opposition party leaders continue while it has been noted that the magistrates are not willing to hear bail applications so as to prolong the accused people’s detention under squalid conditions.
Some analysts believe the declining to hear bail applications by magistrates is a ploy meant to punish the accused persons before any conviction or a release.
Commenting on his tweeter account Ambassador Warton has this to say; “It appears that ZANU-PF have instructed magistrates to decline to hear bail applications from people held during the stay away.”
In the same light, political analyst Elder Mabhunu agrees with Warton that the Mnangagwa administration has tactfully connived with, or directed the magistrates not to entertain bail applications. He adds that the idea is to buy time, while at the same time prolong one’s stay in the country’s dirty cells.
“This is an indirect punishment by the regime, so that even if one is to be released he or she would have served a term indirectly. And if one is to be eventually convicted, then it would be as good as a double punishment,” says Mabhunu.
The sentiments by the political analyst come at the time the country’s magistrates are referring all bail applications being sought by persons arrested for allegedly having had caused violence, to be placed at the High Court of Zimbabwe.
The latest victim of the ploy being the MDC-Alliance Member of Parliament for Harare West Joana Mamombe has been remanded in custody to 19 March 2019, pending bail application to the High Court.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s detention cells have been degraded as filthy and condemned for human occupation.
Being held in them for even a single day is as good as serving a prison term, analysts believe.
Apparently, another MDC-Alliance MP Charlton Hwende was arrested on similar charges, and he too risk the prolonged period of detention before he could have a bail application heard.
In the same light, the United States of America has since extended sanctions on Zimbabwe citing lack of democratic space and the necessary reforms in the country despite the so-called new dispensation.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday extended sanctions on Zimbabwe by another year, severely jeopardising re-engagement efforts by President Mnangagwa, which has indicated that diplomatic efforts to bring the country back into the global family of nations remains a pipe dream for now.
