Chinamasa and Gumbo made the utterances this month during interviews with the BBC and South Africa’s ETV respectively. Prominent human rights lawyer, Alec Muchadehama said the statements by the Zanu-(PF) big wigs who are also reportedly behind the party’s hardline stance in the implementation of democratic reforms, constitute an attempt to incite disorder and disaffection among the armed forces.
“Those sentiments are in themselves a criminal offence as they are meant to incite the army into an illegal act of revolting against a legitimate government that would have won the next election. Also, they are meant to cause disaffection among the armed forces which is illegal,” said Muchadehama.
He said it was unfortunate that the Zanu (PF) heavyweights were acting “as if they are above the law”, and that the constitution and the Defence Act prohibited the army from taking over power from a legitimately elected government.
“Since 2002, Mugabe has been losing elections and in 2008 it’s clear that the army took over – so it’s good we talk about these things now so that necessary measures can be put in place to guard against this,” said Muchadehama.
Other legal experts said incitement to stage a coup could attract a jail term, while constitutional Law expert Lovemore Madhuku said: “We do not need to talk about the legal implications because we can’t take them seriously. Let the MDC win the next elections and see what happens. They are only speculative utterances.”
Post published in: News