Mocking 'sterile Bob' all legal, magistrate

Mocking 'sterile Bob' all legal, magistrate

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By Staff Reporter

MOCKING Zimbabwe's 83-year-old ruler, President Robert Mugabe, as "sterile Bob" is ALL LEGAL -- but just don't give away enough clues about Bob, a magistrate ruled.

Two men from Chivi, near Masvingo, were arrested under the country's tough security laws which criminalise any remarks "undermining the authority or insulting" of Mugabe.

The trial of the two men -- Gibson Murinye, 36, and Collen Mwachikopa -- collapsed after Masvingo magistrate, Daisy Mugobo, found insufficient evidence, according to the privately-owned Standard newspaper.

Mugobo took the opportunity to lash out at the police for arresting people on very flimsy evidence.

"Police should find sufficient evidence in such cases before they bring the accused here," said Mugobo.

Tongai Matutu, defending, successfully argued that merely mentioning the name "Mugabe" or "Bob" (nickname for Robert) without specifying the first name of a person should not be considered an insult against the President.

"The two did not specify which Bob or Mugabe they were referring to in this matter. There are several Bobs and Mugabes; how does the State witness know whether they were referring to Leo, Sabina or Chief Mugabe? Are they saying all matters of infertility or of reproductive health are related to Mugabe?" said Matutu.

The lawyer then turned the tables when he said it was the police themselves who were making serious allegations that the President was sterile, the Standard reported.

Prosecutors had tried to obtain a conviction, alleging that on November 15 last year, Murinye and Mwachikopa were "driving and drinking" when they met a female friend who asked for a ride home.

It was further alleged that on the way, the two men sang a song whose lyrics implied that the President was sterile, and his children with wife, Grace, were in fact those of the late Harare businessman, Peter Pamire, who died in a mysterious car crash.

"Bob hauna vana tora vana vaPamire udzorere kumhuri yavo, Mugabe chibva pachigaro chero ukauya wakabata pfuti hatikendenge. (Bob you have no children, take Pamire’s children and return them to their family. Mugabe leave the presidency; even if you come for us with guns, we don’t care)," the two men are said to have sung.

A police officer stopped the men and claimed he heard them sing the song, and took the lyrics to be aimed at the Head of State.

There has been an increase in prosecutions since the government passed the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), seen by Mugabe's critics as a desperate attempt to contain dissent against his increasingly unpopular rule.

Under the POSA, it is a criminal offence to insult the president. Section 16(2)(a) states that any individual who publicly and intentionally, "(a) makes any statement about or concerning the President or an acting President knowing or realising that there is a risk of or possibility of

(i) engendering feelings of hostility towards; or (ii) causing hatred, contempt or ridicule of the President or an acting President, whether in person or in respect of his office;

"(b) makes any abusive, indecent, obscene or false statement about or concerning the President or an acting President, whether in respect of his person or his office; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment".

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