Zimbabwean opposition leader Job Sikhala’s wife arrested for political reasons not reckless driving - lawyer

Job Sikhala, an outspoken member of Zimbabwe’s Parliament for the main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) — formerly the MDC — has been detained without trial for more than three months in Harare’s notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.

Freddy Masarirevu, the lawyer of Sikhala’s wife, Ellen, told Daily Maverick that while driving to see her husband on Tuesday, she was stopped by police officers from Harare Central police station as well as traffic officers.

“They alleged she was driving recklessly against oncoming traffic. She denied that. She told them she was navigating an accident and that there was no oncoming traffic at that moment.”

When she told the police she was driving to Chikurubi Prison to see her husband, they insisted she accompany them to Harare Central police station, where they charged her with reckless driving.

They then released her and told her to appear in court on Thursday. Masarirevu said normally a driver would only be fined in such circumstances — if the police really believed the driver had committed such an offence.

He noted that the police had charged a few other drivers for the same offence, but believes they did so only to mask the fact that they were taking action against Ellen Sikhala for political reasons.

Masarirevu said he then went to see Job Sikhala in prison and found that he was struggling to cope with his detention, as he was not a young man and Chikurubi was “one of the worst places to be — conditions are hard”.

Sikhala fell seriously ill in prison this month and suspected he had been poisoned. He has since recovered. Masarirevu said prison authorities had examined Sikhala and taken samples, supposedly to establish the cause of his sudden illness.

‘Political prisoner’