Speaking at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, Mhlanga, who spent two and a half months in harsh pre-trial detention in Zimbabwe in early 2025, warned that the flow of illegal migrants to Western countries is often a direct consequence of political repression in their countries of origin. Below is Mhlanga’s statement:
“I want to thank you very much for having me here, and I’m humbled. For 25 years, I’ve been reporting on stories in Zimbabwe that others dared not touch. That has been my work.
“But it was disrupted last year when the Zimbabwean regime sent me to 75 days of horror—a hell in pre-trial detention for another man’s speech, a speech made at a press conference that was broadcast at a TV station I work for.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new face of repression in Zimbabwe, laced with sophistication. In the past, it was naked violence on the streets, abductions, and forced disappearances. This has changed. It is now violence committed through the legal system, what I call ‘lawfare’—violence by law.
“In February 2025, the regime arrested me and charged me with transmitting messages likely to incite violence, even though I had no involvement whatsoever in this alleged crime. I was denied bail three times, a violation of our Constitution.
“The state deliberately misled the court, presenting redacted transcripts that were deliberately manipulated to support their allegations of violence and to keep me in prison without trial.
“Today, ladies and gentlemen, I sit in front of you free, but not free; without chains in my hands, but chains in my mind and pain in my heart. I was given bail; my passport was taken. Freedom to move or work was taken away from me under bail conditions, crippling my finances.
“The regime punishes you by punishing your family. It hits your pockets to the extent that your children suffer. They know that you’re strong, but they want to hurt those that you care about so that you think twice before doing your work.
“Many, as the stories that have been told here, think Zimbabwe is turning the corner; it is becoming a democratic dispensation. I’m here to tell you that no, it has just become more sophisticated in its oppression.
“Just yesterday, the government of Zimbabwe proposed new changes to the constitution. They want to increase the presidential term from five years to seven and allow the president to appoint judges directly—an unelected president appointing judges.
“For a president who promised to stick to the constitution and respect human rights, this attempt to extend terms, appoint judges without scrutiny, and steal voting rights from the people opens, ladies and gentlemen, a very, very dark door which must scare the world, the UN, into action.
“Because when repression hides behind the law and hides behind sovereignty, the poor suffer, and they are forced to flee from their home, from their country, as refugees into your homes—into your homes—and you call them illegal immigrants, and you push them out violently. But it is because of your silence that they have been pushed away from their homes that they love so much.
“I stand here; I will stay in Zimbabwe regardless, because I believe in my country and I love it. We need international and diplomatic pressure and solidarity to protect the weak, to protect the poor, and to protect human rights, not only in Zimbabwe but in all the other countries.
“I know that international pressure works because it is this pressure from the UK, from the US, and from the EU and my fellow Zimbabweans that secured my release on May 7th.
“The fact is, Zimbabwe is not democratising; the worst is yet to come. And as a journalist, I will continue to tell the truth, because journalism is all I know and it’s all I intend to do.
“Oppression in one country has consequences in all other countries. It breeds instability and distability to citizens whose country’s democracy is working well. It is like COVID: it will spread to everyone. I thank you.”