Zimbabwean activist Tsitsi Dangaremba acquitted on charges of incitement
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Zimbabwean activist, novelist, and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangaremba has been acquitted by the High Court of Zimbabwe for staging an anti-government protest in 2020. She initially received a six-month suspended jail sentence and a fine of 70000 Zimbabwean dollars.
Dangaremba was found guilty by a lower court of participating in a public gathering with intent to incite public violence while breaking COVID-19 protocols. She was tried alongside her friend and fellow protester Julie Barnes, who was also found guilty on charges of incitement to commit violence and breaching anti-coronavirus health regulations.
Her legal counsel, Harrison Nkomo, confirmed her acquittal. “As her lawyers, we are grateful because she had not committed any offence in the first place,” he said. Nkomo said that the High Court judges did not outline the legal rationale for her acquittal.
Dangaremba was arrested in July 2020 after criticising the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government for its failures to deal with corruption, and to turn around an economic crisis. In the protest actions dozens of activists were arrested.
Inconsistencies
Tsitsi Dangarembga is a fierce critic of Zimbabwe’s government under President Mnangagwa. She has been one of the most high profile protestors against years of corruption, demanding reforms, as well as the right to protest, stances that she maintained during the trial.
Her acquittal is a lenient anomaly in an otherwise punitive regime against dissent. Zimbabwean courts have handed down a slew of strong sentences against political activists and dissenters. This has been seen as a way to suppress opposition voices ahead of this year’s upcoming general elections. Opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who was arrested at the same time as Dangarembga for organising protests, was sentenced last week to four years in prison on charges of inciting violence.
Tsitsi Dangarembga’s 1988 debut novel, “Nervous Conditions” was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe. It was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world. Among her literary awards is the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the PEN Pinter Prize. Her 2020 novel
In 2020, her novel “This Mournable Body” was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
