Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)
9 January 2009
press release
Freelance photojournalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere, who is being charged with banditry, was, on 9 January 2009, remanded in custody to 23 January after Harare magistrate Olivia Mariga threw out defence applications for a refusal of remand.
His lawyer, Aleck Muchadehama, had argued that Manyere and his co-accused were victims of the crimes of torture and kidnapping and that they should actually be the plaintiffs in the case. It was also argued that the state did not have reasonable suspicion to link the accused to the alleged crimes.
The court threw out both applications. Mariga said the state had established reasonable suspicion that the accused committed the alleged offences. She further ruled that the state should order the police to investigate the allegations of torture and kidnapping. The defence lawyers are now expected to apply to the High Court for bail.
Manyere is being charged, along with six other alleged Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists, either under Section 23 (1) (a) (i), (ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which criminalises acts of insurgence, banditry, sabotage or terrorism, or, alternatively, under Section 143 of the same act, which relates to aggravating circumstances in relation to malicious damage to property.
The state is accusing Manyere of having been involved in bombings of the Manyame River Bridge in Norton on 21 August 2008 the Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters in Harare on 17 November and the Harare Central Police Station on 20 November. Manyere has denied all of the charges.
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Thus speaks justice, classically founded justice, blind justice: rocking justice, which is music to the soul, music as sothing to the souls as Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D Major and as vigorous as Beethoven's Grosse Fuge.
Mano o mano.
Polite;
When Motlanthe made the comment you refer to he was concerned more about maintaining SADC unity than about facts. We, therefore, shouldn’t read much into that statement as it was a political statement made by a politician. The learned magistrate made the decision to remand Manyere in custody based on FACTS and the articles clearly says that “the state had established reasonable suspicion that the accused committed the alleged offences”. This is what is important and not any statement coming from any quarter, whatsoever.
When you say, "We, therefore, shouldn’t read much into that statement as it was a political statement made by a politician," are you expressing the idea that politicians sometimes say things that they don't rightly believe to be true in their heart, but that they must say to support their political position?
This idea implies that politicians sometimes twist the truth, such as the current unelected president of Zimbabwe claiming that he is rightfully elected, that there is no cholera and that Zimbabwe is his and his alone. I'd say all of those are wishfully political statements; but not moral… [Read Full Text]
The whole SADC and the world, and the Zimbabwean government for that matter know that there is no such training facilities for Zimbabwean rebels in Botswana, and the SADC leader, President Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa has told this to the world. Please Mugabe, in the name of God,leave these innocent people alone and allow His people to live.