Job Sikhala, one of Zimbabwe’s most vocal and fearless opposition figures, has now reached 500 days in prison. Today, a court dismissed his application for discharge, ensuring that he continues to languish behind bars. His alleged “crime”? Speaking out, loudly and emotionally, against the brutal murder of his colleague Moreblessing Ali by a known Zanu PF thug. For that, the state has kept him locked away like a dangerous criminal, denied him bail, and crushed his right to fair justice.
This is not justice. This is political punishment.
What is unfolding in Zimbabwe today under Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule is nothing short of modern-day Rhodesian oppression, dressed in liberation rhetoric. Just like the white settler regime before 1980, today’s black government has weaponized the courts, the police, and the prison system to crush dissent, silence opposition, and send a chilling message to all Zimbabweans who dare to speak out.
Sikhala has not been convicted. Yet he sits in a crowded, filthy, colonial-era prison for 500 days. He is presumed innocent by law, and yet the Mnangagwa regime treats him as guilty, dangerous, and expendable. This is not about justice. It’s about fear—Zanu PF’s fear of losing control, fear of popular resistance, and fear of voices that speak truth to power.
Mnangagwa’s government is behaving like the same Rhodesian regime it claims to have fought against. The illegal detentions, the use of courts to suppress critics, the beatings, the abductions, the silence from state media—this is not liberation. This is tyranny.
Zimbabweans hoped that the coup of November 2017 would lead to a new beginning. What we got instead was a recycled dictatorship with even more brutal tactics and a more paranoid leadership. Sikhala’s incarceration is just one example of this growing authoritarianism. He has been turned into Zimbabwe’s number one political prisoner—just like the colonial regime once did to nationalist heroes.
The conditions in which he is held are inhumane. Reports describe overcrowded, disease-ridden cells with no proper food, no medical care, and barely any light. It is designed to break a man. But Sikhala has not broken. His voice remains loud, his resolve unshaken, and his cause still just. In his suffering, he has become a symbol of resistance—not only against Zanu PF but against the rot and repression that grips Zimbabwe today.
The courts have failed him. Parliament has been silent. The media, except for a few brave outlets, has looked the other way. And so, it is up to the people of Zimbabwe—and the international community—to raise their voices louder than ever.
If they can jail Sikhala for demanding justice for a murdered woman, they can jail anyone. If they can silence an elected MP with impunity, no citizen is safe. This is why the struggle must continue—not just for Sikhala’s freedom, but for the freedom of all Zimbabweans who live in fear, poverty, and silence.
This is not just about one man. This is about an entire country being dragged backwards into darkness.
Job Sikhala has now endured 500 days in chains. But in those 500 days, he has exposed the true face of the regime that calls itself “liberation.” The world must not look away. Zimbabweans must not be silent. It is time to say enough. Free Job Sikhala. End political persecution. Dismantle the dictatorship. And return Zimbabwe to the hands of its people.