A Harare magistrate and prosecutor did not turn up for the hearing of jailed MDC Director-General Toendepi Shonhe on Friday, because they said they had to attend a mental health seminar. The MDC senior employee, who was arrested on Tuesday and granted bail Thursday, remains in prison after the State blocked his bail.

A frustrated defence lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, told SW Radio Africa he wasted his time going to the courthouse on Friday only to be told that magistrate Jackie Munyonga and prosecutor Allen Masiya were not going to be available. He was surprised to hear that they would not be in court, as they had not raised the issue of attending a workshop the previous day.

The State was supposed to have attended Friday’s hearing to respond to an application by the defence to have Section 121 of the Criminal Law and Codification Act referred to the Supreme Court. Muchadehama said he is challenging this Section because over the years it has been used by the Attorney General to deny people their liberty, after they have been granted bail.

Shonhe himself was not brought to court and the reason given to his lawyers was that officials at Harare’s Remand Prison only had one car and that car had gone to Kariba. The MDC Director’s case was then passed on to another magistrate who remanded him, in absentia, to Monday.

“This is what we complained to the new magistrate, who presided over the matter on Friday. That we are being taken for granted and our client’s rights were not being taken seriously,” said Muchadehama.

Meanwhile, the MDC-T reiterated on Friday that it is disturbed by the “flagrant disregard of the rule of law,” when the bail hearing of their Director General failed to take place due to the absence of the magistrate and the public prosecutor.

The MDC CEO is accused of lying under oath, when he swore to an affidavit that three members of his party had been re-abducted earlier this month. This is in spite of the fact that one of the three activists confirmed Shonhe’s testimony in court.

The party insists that Shonhe, who was granted a US$500 bail on Thursday, is facing trumped-up perjury allegations. A statement by the MDC said: “There is clear lack of sincerity on the part of certain players in the inclusive government who are bent on perpetuating the old order of injustice and non accountability. It is the MDC’s view that the continued victimisation of MDC activists and other human rights campaigners, such as WOZA, clearly causes a major threat to the efforts of the progressive forces in the inclusive government.”