LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Citizens Coalition for Change senior member Job Sikhala has been convicted for disseminating false information,Business Times can report.
He will return to court on February 16 for sentencing.
The former Zengeza West Member of Parliament, who was arrested in June 2022 and spent nearly 600 days in Chikurubi Maximum Prison, was charged yesterday with communicating false information when he claimed on social media that a police officer had killed a baby by striking it with a baton stick while enforcing traffic laws.
Regional magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka of Harare declared that the State had proven Sikhala’s falsehoods beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The Facebook page contains the accused’s name and face.The utterances align with the accused’s political rhetoric.
“The State laid out a prima facie case which required the accused to respond.
“However the accused only opted to invoke his right to silence. The court is convinced that the evidence before the court points to one thing, the Facebook page belongs to the accused,” Chakanyuka ruled.
She said according to the country’s laws, the State has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and it does not have to close every avenue of doubt.
“Therefore the accused published the prejudicial statement which was meant to undermine the authority of the ZRP.Therefore the accused is found guilty of communicating falsehoods,” Chakanyuka pronounced.
The court heard that in 2021, a police officer had smashed the baby, strapped on its mother’s back, with a baton stick and the incident went viral and caused an uproar on social media.
It was discovered that the child was alive and this led to Sikhala and Fadzayi Mahere’s arrest.
In April 2023 Mahere was convicted and fined US$500 for publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the State.
