Zimbabwean journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono has criticised the government for its “double standards” after organisers of Mbare New Year Eve gala were sentenced to spend 6 effective months in prison.
The organisers, Dhama, DJs Fantan and Levels were arrested and convicted of violating COVID-19 regulations. Chin’ono said the government should also have arrested Kuda Tagwirei since he had a party on the same day. He said:
They were wrong because they endangered the lives of thousands of citizens by holding a Covid-19 super-spreader event!
However, the law must be applied evenly without fear or favour.
We posted and also saw videos of Tagwirei and his crew hosting a New Year’s Eve event without masks, and nothing has been done.
Dreams night club DJs posted videos with their club packed to the brim, and again nothing has happened to them!
The MDC-T had a while Congress with thousands of delegates, we made noise about it, nothing happened to them.
So it seems like the law only applies to those who are from poor neighborhoods, and not to the well connected and powerful.
This will further increase the mistrust that ghetto youths have towards the police, because they only act when it involves township folks, and not when it involves northern suburb folks.
Justice and the Rule of Law should be for all, and not selectively applied!
His remarks were echoed by many on social media who also observed that maskless government officials who attended Minister Monica Mutsvangwa’s birthday bash were never arrested.
It is also reported that a number of prominent people across the country hosted parties on the day in question but nothing was done about it.
Meanwhile, Chilspot has issued a statement saying the sentence on the trio was too harsh.
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