Wisdom Mkwananzi (32) from Bulawayo was arrested last Friday and charged with undermining the authority of or insulting President Emmerson Mnangagwa after he told the Kgalema Mothlanthe led Commission of Inquiry into the August 1 violence and killings that he had been orphaned by the president. Testifying before the Commission, Mkwananzi is alleged to have pointed at a portrait of President Mnangagwa which was pasted onto the wall and stated,
I am an orphan because of this man, he killed my parents.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) alleges that Mkwananzi engendered a feeling of hostility towards or caused hatred or ridicule of President Mnangagwa. He is also facing two other charges after the police added charges of lying under oath and assault. The police claim that he supplied a false name to the Commission of Inquiry after he allegedly told the probe team that his name is Siphatha Mandla. They also claim that he bit one Luckmore Dube once on the right hand intending to cause bodily harm. He is being represented by Jabulani Mhlanga and Tinashe Runganga of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and will appear in Court on Monday (today) for a bail hearing. Mkwananzi is the second person inside a month to be charged with insulting the president after Alexander Samuel Chidzedzere of Kariba.
More: ZLHR
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