The legislators who relied on the youths for their campaigns allegedly fear that the convictions might harm their re-election chances in next year’s polls.A number of MPs have been linked to widespread violence against supporters of rival parties in previous elections.
The sources said Zanu PF fears that the prosecutions will dissuade the youths from campaigning vigorously for the party after a realisation that no one is above the law.
The issue has been discussed in Zanu PF circles but some of the party’s MPs want the matter raised with President Robert Mugabe so that he can use his powers to stop the trials.
In the past, Zanu PF, which controls the police and the Ministry of Justice, has managed to block the prosecution of its supporters accused of violence or election-related murders.
A few days before the 1990 general elections, Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives Elias Kanengoni and Kizito Chifamba shot the late Gweru businessman Patrick Kombayi who was challenging the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda for the Gweru urban seat.
Kanengoni and Chifamba were convicted by the courts on charges of attempted murder but were pardoned by Mugabe.
Kanengoni is now CIO deputy director general (internal).
Another CIO operative, Joseph Mwale, accused of killing MDC activists, Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya, in the 2000 elections is still a free man. The lack of action by police led many Zanu PF activists to believe that they were above the law, a state of affairs about which opposition and human rights groups have complained over the years.
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But last month’s conviction of Farai Machaya, the son of Midlands governor Jason Machaya and five other Zanu FP members on charges of killing Moses Chokuda, an MDC-T activist, is said to have sent the former ruling party into panic mode.
Farai and his accomplices were sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Chokuda’s parents have since 2009 refused to bury his remains until they get compensation from the Machaya family.Another Zanu PF supporter, Norman Sibanda, who murdered an MDC activist in 2003, was recently sentenced to death by hanging. Sibanda of Nkayi struck Zenzo Maphosa with a log and fractured his skull.
In Masvingo, five Zanu PF activists from Zaka District appeared before High Court judge Justice Samuel Kudya last week accused of the murder of two MDC-T activists in 2002.
Sources said, stung by the jailing of Machaya’s son, some senior politicians in Midlands were reportedly considering approaching Mugabe to pardon the murderers.
Didymus Mutasa, the Zanu PF secretary for administration said he was not aware of such manouevres.
Political analyst Charles Mangongera believes the prosecutions would be a deterrent for political violence in the future.
He, however, added that Zanu PF may soon use its political muscle to stop the prosecutions as they will jeopardise its re-election chances.“They may soon interfere with the judiciary process by putting spanners into the justice delivery system,” he said.
“The prosecution and convictions showed that there are still men and women of integrity in the judiciary,” he said.
But another analyst said the prosecutions and convictions were hollow as some of the convicts will be released and then be unleashed to lead Zanu PF’s traditional violent campaign.
Convicted serial rapist Madzibaba Godfrey Nzira was last year pardoned by Mugabe after serving just seven years of his 42-year sentence. Soon after his release Nzira, the leader of Johanne Masowe WeChishano Apostolic Church, threw a party that was attended by Attorney-General Johannes Tomana and Information minister Webster Shamu.
MDC-T has accused Tomana of refusing to push for the prosecution of Zanu PF members despite having been provided with credible evidence that they were involved in violence.
