Magistrate Denies Mhlanga’s Request To Sit Exam Under Prison Supervision
Chris Mhike, the lawyer representing Heart & Soul TV senior journalist Blessed Mhlanga, on Friday, 14 March, raised concerns about the State’s classification of Mhlanga’s docket as a security risk.
Mhike questioned the rationale behind the designation, to which Magistrate Isheanesu Matova responded that it was for administrative purposes only.
Mhike also informed the court that Mhlanga is a student with an important examination scheduled for March 19.
He requested that the court allow Mhlanga to sit for the exam under the supervision of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service.
However, Magistrate Matova stated that the defence was seeking something beyond his authority. Said Matova:
I can only operate within the four corners of statutes. That is beyond our reach.
Mhike, however, argued that the court had the authority to grant the application allowing Mhlanga to sit for his examination.
The matter was subsequently remanded to April 4.
Award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono suggested that Mhlanga’s arrest was part of a broader strategy by State institutions to silence journalists and hinder their ability to perform their duties. Said Chin’ono:
A Zimbabwean journalist and political prisoner, Blessed Mhlanga will spend another weekend in jail for a crime he did not commit.
His only crime is interviewing Jealousy Mawarire, who exposed a corrupt scandal to steal the People’s Own Savings Bank (POSB) linked to the President on Mhlanga’s television programme.
The use of state institutions to silence journalists from doing their work is not only oppressive but kleptocratic.
The fact that Mhlanga has been imprisoned for close to three weeks for merely conducting an interview with a whistleblower exposes the extent to which state institutions have been weaponised to silence dissent and investigative journalism by ZANUPF and Mnangagwa.
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