HARARE – Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of Transform Zimbabwe, has been released from prison after a successful appeal that overturned his widely criticized four-year prison sentence.
The sentence, handed down by a Harare magistrate in April 2023, accused Ngarivhume of inciting violence through his Twitter account.
High Court judges Pisirayi Kwenda and Fatima Maxwell found that Jacob Ngarivhume was wrongly convicted, citing a lack of evidence linking him to the Twitter account in question.
“This is a unanimous decision of the court. The appellant appeared in the court below charged with incitement to commit public violence. The state case was that the appellant posted numerous messages on his Twitter handle pertaining to the July 31, 2020, protests,” explained Justice Kwenda.
Ngarivhume had consistently denied the charges and, in his defense outline, asserted that he did not own the Twitter handle used as evidence against him.
The judges concurred that the state failed to present conclusive evidence, and the conviction was quashed.
The key message attributed to Jacob Ngarivhume in the case was: “31 JULY DEMO: THIS IS NOT POLITICS, IT’S A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. WE HAVE BEEN PATIENT, TOLERANT AND QUIET BUT THESE CORRUPT CRIMINALS ARE DESTROYING OUR FUTURE… LET’S BRING OUR SUFFERING TO THE GOVERNMENT’S ATTENTION. LET’S COME TOGETHER AS CITIZENS AND SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!”
Ngarivhume’s lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku, addressed the media after the court hearing, expressing satisfaction with the outcome.
“The judges agreed with us even in respect that the magistrates court did not have a basis at all (to convict), so he had his eight months wasted,” said Madhuku.
Ngarivhume had been serving an effective three-year sentence for alleged social media posts urging peaceful protests against corruption and denial of socio-economic rights to Zimbabweans under Zanu PF rule.
His imprisonment, along with that of former CCC legislator Job Sikhala, who remains incarcerated, had sparked widespread condemnation as critics labelled them political prisoners under President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule.
