HARARE – Prominent MDC Alliance activist Makomborero Haruzivishe will begin the New Year at home after the High Court ended his nine-month incarceration on Wednesday.
Justice Cathrine Mzawazi of the Harare High Court quashed a decision by a magistrate to revoke Haruzivishe’s bail in March after he skipped a court appearance in a matter in which he is accused of holding Impala Car Rental workers hostage.
A month later, in April, Haruzivishe was convicted and jailed for an effective 14 months on a separate case of inciting public violence and resisting arrest. In July, he secured bail pending appeal in that matter, but the earlier bail revocation in the Impala Car Rental case – which is still pending – kept him in jail.
“I can confirm he has secured freedom,” his lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said.
“The case which was referred to me is the one in which his bail had been revoked for skipping court.”
Haruzivishe – facing four separate criminal trials for his activism – had been going to court religiously but failed to turn up during the Level 4 lockdown period after he got in contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid-19.
Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi ruled that the activist was in wilful default and ordered that he must be held in prison custody until his Impala Car Rental trial is completed.
In the Impala matter, he and half-a-dozen other activists are accused of staging a protest outside the company’s Harare office after one of its vehicles was used in the abduction and torture of student activist Tawanda Muchehiwa. Prosecutors say Haruzivishe chain-locked the main door from outside – leading to the kidnapping charge.
