Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Zimbabwe prize-winning novelist gets suspended sentence, fine over protest

Published 29/09/2022, 17:29
Updated 29/09/2022, 17:31
© Reuters. Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga appears at Magistrates Court on charges of inciting public violence in Harare, Zimbabwe, September 29, 2022. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

© Reuters. Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga appears at Magistrates Court on charges of inciting public violence in Harare, Zimbabwe, September 29, 2022. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

By Nyasha Chingono

HARARE (Reuters) - Prize-winning Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga was found guilty of staging an anti-government protest and received a six-month suspended jail sentence and a fine, a court ruled on Thursday.

Dangarembga and her co-accused Julie Barnes, who was also found guilty, had been charged with participating in a public gathering with intent to incite public violence while breaking COVID-19 protocols, after they staged a protest in July 2020.

The two were fined 70,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($185) and received a suspended sentence, provided they do not commit a similar offence in the future.

A fierce critic of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government who has been fighting for years against corruption and demanding reforms, Dangarembga had maintained during the trial that Zimbabweans have the right to demonstrate.

"The two intended to incite violence and the accused are found guilty as charged," Harare magistrate Barbara Mateko said.

Their lawyer Chris Mhike said Dangarembga and Barnes were first-time offenders and asked for leniency.

"I am not surprised by the verdict because we are in a situation where media freedom is not encouraged. So this means the space for freedom of expression is shrinking and is being criminalized," Dangarembga, 63, said outside court. 

Human rights lawyers said at the time of their arrest that dozens of activists were arrested by the security forces deployed to quell protests against the government. Rights lawyers also said there were cases of abductions and torture, which the government has denied.

© Reuters. Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga appears at Magistrates Court on charges of inciting public violence in Harare, Zimbabwe, September 29, 2022. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

Dangarembga's first novel, "Nervous Conditions", won the African section of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1989. Her book "This Mournable Body" was nominated for a Booker Prize in 2020.

($1 = 378.0000 Zimbabwe dollars)

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.