Chants of “Wiwa, Wiwa, Wiwa” – a reference to Ken Saro-Wiwa, the well-known author and environmentalist executed by the Nigerian army regime in 1995 – rang out in a Zimbabwean courtroom this week.
It’s the nickname of the opposition politician Job Sikalawho was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence after a document 595 days in pre-trial detention.
The 52-year-old former MP and lawyer selected the nickname “Wiwa” whereas at college – and it outlined his political profession.
“He admired the bravery of Ken Saro-Wiwa,” opposition MP Daniel Molokele informed the BBC.
He went on to explain his shut good friend as “robust, outspoken, assertive, assured, and somebody who all the time responded to authority.”
Mr Sikhala, who says he’s pushed by his need to finish injustice and tyranny in Zimbabwe, joined the Motion for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999.
The MDC was the primary celebration to mount an actual problem to the Zanu-PF celebration Robert Mugabethe chief who dominated the nation from independence in 1980 till he was ousted by his deputy. Emmerson Mnangagwanicknamed the “crocodile” due to his political crafty, with the help of the military in 2017.
Now the president, Mr. Mnangagwa was a type of within the ruling celebration who misplaced his seat when the MDC contested its first election.
Mr Sikhala says that in his 25 years within the opposition he has been arrested greater than 60 instances – together with his sentence on Tuesday his solely conviction.
The ardent politician was final arrested in June 2022 for allegedly inciting public violence. His prolonged pretrial detention meant he was denied the chance to take part in final 12 months's election.
Following Tuesday's ruling on the Harare Justice of the Peace's Court docket, he was informed he would spend another night time in jail earlier than his launch from Chikurubi Most Safety Jail – a message that shortly circulated on and social media.
As an alternative, the jail authorities ordered him to pack his issues and go away instantly that night.
“I used to be escorted to the gates and dumped on the road,” Mr Sikhala informed the BBC.
He needed to name his attorneys to gather it.
I imagine that the authorities didn’t need the scenes of jubilation in court docket to be repeated exterior the jail gates on Wednesday morning.
“The transfer was meant to mislead those that are making ready to welcome me out of Chikurubi,” he mentioned.
Mr Sikhala with the authority precedes the MDC, says Mr Molokele, who was a pupil chief on the College of Zimbabwe within the Nineteen Nineties.
He was not afraid to criticize how Mugabe's authorities was operating the nation and its efforts to regulate the college.
“He endeared himself to different college students and held numerous positions within the Scholar Consultant Council from his first 12 months till he graduated,” says Mr Molokele.
One other former pupil, who spoke to the BBC on situation of anonymity, remembers an incident when college safety took away Mr Sikhala's megaphone: “That didn't deter him. He informed him that the scholars heard him and not using a megaphone.”
Youthful college students are likely to look as much as him and respect him as he had labored as a highschool trainer earlier than enrolling at college to check financial historical past, says Mr Molokele.
This was not the tip of his research – years later, when an opposition parliamentarian returned to school and certified as a lawyer.
“The persecution I suffered by the hands of the authorities pushed me to check the legislation, I needed to grasp why they had been arresting me as a result of the arrests appeared so spurious and arbitrary to me,” he informed the BBC.
Mr. Sikhala's transition from campus to nationwide politics has been seamless.
A month after graduating in August 1999, the MDC was fashioned – and he used his oratory expertise to win a seat in parliament the next 12 months.
The violence previous the vote set the tone for subsequent elections in Zimbabwe, with MDC members subjected to harassment, arrests and beatings.
Being in parliament has not tempered Mr. Sikhala's urge for food to indicate the institution his disdain.
In accordance with parliamentary etiquette, members are purported to bow after they move the Speaker's chair or after they enter or go away the chamber.
Mr Sikhala refused to honor Mr Mnangagwa, who was appointed Speaker after his humiliating defeat in 2000.
“I might by no means [show] courtesy to that dictator,” he informed me, explaining that he holds Mr Mnangagwa accountable for the post-independence massacres referred to as Gukurahundi.
Mr Mnangagwa, who was nationwide safety minister on the time within the early Eighties, has denied any position within the killings of ethnic Ndebele in southern Matabeleland.
Shortly earlier than Mr Mnangagwa assumed the presidency in 2017, Mr Sikhala wrote him an extended open letter saying: “How a lot you may attempt to reduce or trivialize your position within the bloodbath of harmless civilians in Matabeleland throughout Gukurahundi, we all know for a undeniable fact that one among our members of the family, who’s my aunt, died due to your energetic participation and direct command of the soterra.
He went on in charge Mr Mnangagwa for a litany of abuses courting again to the times of the liberation struggle. The letter concluded with a warning: “Zimbabweans are ready for that day when they are going to promote out towards you on the poll field.”
Throughout his profession, Mr. Sikhala has switched between opposition events, even founding his personal in 2010 – though this was unsuccessful.
He was elected vice-president of the principle MDC faction earlier than transferring to the Coalition of Residents for Change (CCC) in 2022 – a place he held on the time of his arrest.
Mr Sikhala believes the authorities stored him locked as much as stop him from operating for parliament final August.
However the Minister of Justice Ziyambi Ziyambi denies this: “Our courts are unbiased, they usually do their work with out interference.”
From jail, Mr. Sikhala wrote lengthy and open letters speaking about his prolonged detention and the inhuman circumstances in jail the place he was stored in chains.
Each time he was dropped at court docket, he was handcuffed and/or leg ironed.
That is in stark distinction to some members of the ruling celebration accused of corruption going to court docket with out restraint.
When Mr. Sikhala was admitted to the hospital for a couple of days throughout his detention, he was stored underneath guard in leg irons.
As an alternative of this silent therapy of essentially the most vocal critics of the president, it has turn into a well-known trigger, with the US, different governments and Amnesty Worldwide asking for his launch.
Mr Sikhala has all the time sought to stay a “man of the individuals”, refusing to maneuver from his household dwelling within the working-class neighborhood of Chitungwiza to the wealthier suburbs of the capital, Harare, the place most politicians reside exterior their constituencies.
“I’ll all the time stay among the many individuals I signify; I cannot transfer to the so-called leafy suburbs,” he informed the BBC.
After his return to Chitungwiza on Wednesday, the place the group got here to welcome him dwelling, he mentioned his incarceration had not dampened his need to behave towards injustice.
His ongoing authorized woes — costs of disorderly conduct, incitement to violence and publishing falsehoods which are nonetheless earlier than the courts — haven’t deterred him, he added.
“I'm stepping up the battle and I don't care if I get arrested once more.”
Ish Mafundikwa is a contract journalist based mostly in Zimbabwe.
