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Zimbabwe's Free Speech Policy

A 72-year-old businessman became the third Zimbabwean to be convicted in just under two months for allegedly denigrating President Robert Mugabe, local media reported on Wednesday.
In an attempt to explain to his workers why he failed to either host a Christmas party for them or pay annual bonuses, Jason Gambitzs blamed Mugabe for his financial woes.

"President Mugabe has printed useless money, he is disrupting my business," he reportedly told them.

[snip]

"Mugabe has his own money printing machine which he uses to print money, keeping it for himself," Gambitzs was quoted allegedly telling his workers.

Prosecution said the utterances risked causing hatred, contempt or ridicule of Mugabe and his office.

[more]

Note that Zimbabwe's financial woes do indeed stem from Mugabe's policies which caused international lenders to pull out of the country [more]. Inflation (an increase in the money supply) has been 600%, poverty levels have doubled, the economy has contracted 30%, and unemployment is up to a record 70%. In addition, Mugabe's farm redistribution program has led to a food shortage that the government admits and denies simultaneously.

It should be obvious that Gambitzs was jailed for telling the truth and that Mugabe, a cruel and ruthless dictator who was elected amid voter intimidation and election fraud, is destroying this once prosperous country.

Similarly, many others have suffered the same fate as Gambitzs. For example,

An unemployed Zimbabwean was sentenced to 140 hours of community service for calling President Robert Mugabe a dictator and saying British Prime Minister Tony Blair was a liberator.

Douglas Saungweme, an official of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party heard Tafirei tell other passengers on a bus that "Mugabe is a dictator who rules by the sword while Tony Blair is a liberator."

Saungweme ordered the bus driver to go to the police, who arrested Tafirei.

At his trial, Tafirei, who could not afford a lawyer, pleaded guilty.

more from SA

Free speech does not exist in Zimbabwe, a fact that should be obvious considering that the government shut-down the last independent newspaper in Sepember, 2003.

Posted by tim at December 30, 2004 11:24 PM

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