Warrant Of Arrest For Award Winning Playwright Tsitsi Dangarembga

After she failed to turn up for her court hearing yesterday, in a case in which she is being accused of participating in an illegal demonstration during the Covid-19 national lockdown in Harare sometime in 2020, award winning playwright and filmmaker, Tsitsi Dangarembga, was issued with a warrant of arrest.

This is despite the fact that Dangarembga’s lawyer, Chris Mhike, told Harare magistrate, Barbra Mateko that his client could not attend court on medical grounds.

The court also heard that Mhike had written to the state notifying them of Dangarembga’s medical condition. Dangarembga’s co-accused, Julie Gabriel Barnes, howewver turned up for the court hearing and was ordered to return back to court on August 4.

It is the state’s case that the pair of Dangarembga and Barnes unlawfully gathered, holding placards intended to promote public violence at corner Whitwell and Borrowdale Road, Harare, on July 31, 2020.

They reportedly held placards inscribed: “We want better, reform our institutions, free Hopewell free Jacob #Zimbabwe.”

Zwnews