Zimbabwe’s high court on Friday said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, being tried on treason charges for allegedly calling for the violent overthrow of President Robert Mugabe, could be released on bail. In its ruling, the court also said it was restricting what political statements Tsvangirai could make.
Judge Susan Mavangira said the head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change would be violating conditions of his release if he advocated the removal of Mugabe and his government by what she termed ”violent or other unlawful means”.
Mavangira ordered Tsvangirai to pay Z$10-million (about US$ 12 000) in a cash bail bond and hand over property deeds or rights to other assets worth Z$100-million (US$ 120000).
Mavangira said state prosecutors failed to argue Tsvangirai might fail to appear for trial on the new round of treason charges.
On the first treason charges, Tsvangirai paid Z$3-million (US$ 3 600) in a cash bond and surrendered his passport to the High Court.
Mavangira said the new bail was higher because of Zimbabwe’s record inflation that has soared since Tsvangirai was charged on the assassination allegations shortly before he ran against Mugabe in presidential elections last year.
Tsvangirai was arrested on June 6 at the end of a mass strike action by his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
The state had opposed bail for Tsvangirai.
The treason charges against Tsvangirai stem from his party’s call for the action in early June, which included street marches and job stayaways, to protest alleged misgovernance.
The MDC blames Mugabe’s government for the economic and social woes in Zimbabwe, where unemployment is at around 70%, annual inflation higher than 300%, and nearly half the population is threatened by famine caused by a drought and the government’s chaotic land reforms.
Earlier this week the government moved to withdraw the operating licences of transport companies that shut down during the week of mass action, state-run ZBC radio station said.
Some 44 transport companies in the private sector have already had their licences withdrawn or are in the process of losing them, the radio said.
At the beginning of the protests, the government ordered businesses that had shut to reopen or lose their licences.
The government accused company leaders of barring their employees from working during the week-long protests, which took the form of work stoppages and ”peaceful marches for democracy,” in the MDC’s words.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of 350 civil organisations, said in a report on Thursday the opposition’s objectives in calling the protests earlier this month were unclear and that publicity for it was confusing.
Some of the publicity called for ”a final push” to remove Mugabe. Other fliers said the protests were to bring him to the negotiating table.
The Coalition said the opposition ”dangerously oversimplified” the protests, leaving many of its supporters with the naive expectation the entrenched government would lay down its arms in a single week of protests.
The opposition has promised more protests and ”mass action.”
The Coalition said more coordination and better planning was needed in future protests for democratic reform.
It said at least 600 people — including five opposition lawmakers and scores of district party officials — were arrested in the effort to crackdown on the recent protest action. – Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP