Zimbabwean author and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga has had her conviction for inciting violence by staging a peaceful protest overturned.
The critically acclaimed writer was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined 70,000 Zimbabwean dollars (£170) in September 2022 for staging a protest calling for political reform. During the 2020 protest, alongside fellow activist Julie Barnes, Dangarembga held a placard inscribed: “We want better. Reform our institutions.”
On Monday, the high court in Harare overturned the verdict handed down by magistrates last year. Her lawyer Chris Mhike said the court did not find evidence of any wrongdoing, but the full judgment is yet to be released.
“Eventually, justice prevailed in this case. It is most unfortunate that it took so long for Tsitsi and Julie to be set free. Be that as it may, this vindication from the high court is most welcome,” Mhike said.
Human rights organisations including Amnesty International and the writers’ association Pen International had called for the charges against Dangarembga to be dropped.
Dangarembga, a longtime critic of the ruling Zanu-PF party, which has been in power since 1980, said her conviction was a “miscarriage of justice”.
“The high court ruling overturning the magistrate court verdict shows that justice was not served in the magistrates court. I am most encouraged that the high court shows respect for the law of Zimbabwe as it is codified and I pray the high court continues to serve the people of Zimbabwe by doing so,” Dangarembga said in a statement.
She went on to accuse Zanu-PF of using the magistrates courts to weaponise the law against its “opponents or threats to its apparent project of hijacking all political power in Zimbabwe”.
Dangarembga was arrested amid a crackdown by security agencies on human rights campaigners, which included the arrest of the investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. Chin’ono, who was arrested three times between 2020 and 2021 after accusing the government of corruption, told the Guardian the pair were being persecuted for standing up to “tyranny, corruption and the abuse of the rule of law”.
“The acquittal of Tsitsi Dangarembga and Julie Barnes is another testimony of how the rule of law has broken down in the magistrates court,” said Chin’ono.
Dangarembga, whose novel This Mournable Body was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2020, has been a fierce critic of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government, which has faced allegations of corruption and human rights violations.
Zimbabwe holds a presidential election this year and there are growing fears that freedom of expression could be curtailed. Critics say the democratic space is shrinking.
Opposition politician and activist Job Sikhala has been in prison for nearly a year on charges of inciting violence, while, two weeks ago, another opposition leader, Jacob Ngarivhume, was jailed for four years for inciting public violence by calling on Twitter for anti-corruption protests in 2020.
One of Zimbabwe’s most vocal opposition politicians, Fadzayi Mahere, last month avoided a prison sentence after being convicted of “communicating falsehoods” in 2021. Mahere, the spokesperson for the main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change, was fined US$500 (£400).
