Sikhala is prepared for a longer detention period

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INCARCERATED Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) deputy chairperson Job Sikhala has accused Zanu PF of deliberately keeping him jailed out of fear of his political influence and capacity to mobilise masses in next year’s polls.

Zengeza West Member of Parliament (MP) Sikhala, who has been imprisoned at Harare’s Chikurubi Prison for the past 151 days, said being held at the maximum-security prison among the country’s most dangerous criminals had not deterred his conviction, as he was ready for a longer haul.

He was arrested mid-June alongside co-accused Godfrey Sithole and 14 other opposition activists who protested the brutal killing of colleague Moreblessing Ali by a Zanu PF member, Pius Jamba in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza.

Sikhala and Sithole were denied bail at the lower courts and the High Court before Sikhala was hit with fresh charges based on the same circumstances.

Following the development, a leading international law firm, Amsterdam & Partners, in July joined Sikhala’s Zimbabwean legal team to bring justice to the case, which they say is politically motivated and without merit.

Various courts’ efforts to seek bail for him have been in vain, while Sithole was ‘surprisingly’ granted bail Thursday at the Rotten Row Courts after having spent 149 days in jail, without trial.

Sikhala, a fervent admirer of the late South Africa iconic Statesman Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years for fighting against apartheid, once said his blood will water the tree of freedom in Zimbabwe.