Kariba pastor Patrick Phillip Mugadza, who was arrested last week Friday for demonstrating at the just-ended Zanu PF Annual People's Conference is still in remand prison in Victoria Falls after he failed to raise a $500 bail set by magistrate Lindiwe Maphosa on Tuesday.
Mugadza, a pastor with the Remnant Church, was charged with contravening Section 46 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly staging a one-man protest denouncing President Robert Mugabe for presiding over the collapse of the once prosperous Southern African country’s economy.
His trial has been set for 5 January 2016.
Spokesman Kumbirai Mafunda of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said Zimbabwe’s new constitution grants every citizen the right to say what they want.
“He is still in custody because he has not managed to raise the astronomical figure which was determined by the court,” said Mafunda.
Mafunda said Mugadza’s lawyer Thulani Nkala of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights will be looking at ways of seeking a review of the case in an upper court.
Mugadza is the second citizen demonstrating against Mugabe’s rule following in Itai Dzamara’s footsteps.
Dzamara disappeared after he was abducted by unknown assailants early March this year.
