Prosecutor who charged Minister is still locked up

By Lance Guma
23 April 2007

A state prosecutor who last year led a case against two cabinet ministers is still in police custody 4 days after his arrest last week Thursday. Levison Chikafu took on the might of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, after charging him with attempting to defeat the course of justice by putting pressure on a key witness in a trial against State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa. He also called for the arrest of CIO agent Joseph Mwale on allegations of murdering two opposition officials in the run up to the 2000 parliamentary election. In a cynical turnaround police arrested Chikafu over allegations he received money from a jailed murderer and consented to the granting of bail to undeserving suspects while he was an area prosecutor in Manicaland.

Speaking from his cell at Mutare Central police station Chikafu told Newsreel he was supposed to have been taken to court Monday but was told the investigating officer in the case had gone to Harare with the paper work. Chikafu sounded depressed and resigned to his fate saying ‘I don’t know who is blocking me from going to court.’ He described his holding cell as very dirty and not suitable for human habitation. The walls inside have not been cleaned since independence in 1980 because as he said there is still pre-independence graffiti written, ‘Mugabe achatonga’ (Mugabe will rule) and ‘Pasi na Muzorewa’ (Down with Muzorewa). Where Chikafa is sleeping, his head is just one metre away from a toilet.

Chikafu was reluctant to be drawn into linking his case with minister Chinamasa and Mutasa instead saying he was a loyal civil servant who had faith in the Attorney Generals Office and the police. He said as an experienced prosecutor he knew all 5 charges against him could never stick in any court. This he said was probably the reason for the prolonged incarceration and reluctance by the state to take him to court. ‘Until I hear why the Commissioner of Police wants me inside I cannot say much. I don’t want to be seen as anti-government or something like that.’ Asked if he did not feel let down by the Attorney Generals office who have maintained a silence on the matter Chikafu said the AG’s office had to be professional and because he is facing criminal charges they could not be seen to be interfering.

Those following the story have accused Chinamasa of leading a campaign of revenge and abusing his position in the justice ministry to get back at Chikafu by engineering a set of charges to place him in the dock. Several prosecutors avoided Chinamasa’s case on the grounds he was effectively their boss in the Justice Ministry but Chikafu bravely took it up. He was transferred from his job towards the end of last year and is said to have enrolled as a student at the Zimbabwe Military Academy.