Madhuku urges ‘arrogant’ CCC to negotiate Sikhala’s release

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CONSTITUTIONAL law lecturer and opposition politician Professor Lovemore Madhuku torched a storm Tuesday after suggesting that political negotiations were now the only realistic route for securing the release of Job Sikhala from prison.

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislators Sikhala and colleague Godfrey Stole have now spent 84 days in remand prison awaiting trial on charges of inciting violence.

The MPs have failed to secure release on bail with several applications dismissed by the courts.

Sikhala is now said to be seriously ill after suspected poisoning at the notorious Chikurubi prison in the capital.

Commenting on the saga, Prof Madhuku – who is also one of the country’s leading legal practitioners – said the legal route now appeared a dead end in terms of conditional release from custody.

He however, said the CCC party needed to stop being arrogant to facilitate a breakthrough.

The remarks drew a spirted challenge from CCC spokesperson Fadzai Mahere, who is also a lawyer and a former student of Prof Madhuku at the University of Zimbabwe.

Said Mahere in response; “But Prof Madhuku, is this the Constitutional Law that you taught us? Does the presumption of innocence fall away because one is CCC?

“What remains of the rule of law if bail is obtained by ‘political negotiation’ whatever that means? Is demanding constitutionalism ‘arrogant’?”