THE High Court has brought relief to four students, who had been languishing in prison, after they were arrested and detained last month for disorderly conduct, when they allegedly chanted solidarity messages outside a courthouse, demanding the release of a former student leader.
The four students namely Liberty Kudakwashe Hamauswa, who is the leader of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Richard Nyamandi, Takunda Mareverwa and Dylan Chisenwa, had been in remand prison after they were arrested by Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers on 13 May 2026 and charged with disorderly conduct in a public place as defined in section 41(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
According to prosecutors, Hamauswa, Nyamandi, Mareverwa and Chisenwa unlawfully and intentionally engaged in disorderly conduct in a public place by gathering at Mbare Magistrates Court while shouting “Free Stima”, in an act, which they claimed was intended to provoke a breach of peace.
The prosecutors alleged that Hamauswa, Nyamandi, Mareverwa and Chisenwa had been at Mbare Magistrates Court, where they had attended a court session in solidarity with two pro-democracy campaigners Emmanuel Sitima, who is a former ZINASU leader and Takunda Mhuka. The four students had been languishing in detention for close to a month after they were denied bail by Mbare Magistrate Dennis Mangosi. The denial of bail led their lawyer Gift Mtisi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to file an appeal at the High Court, wherein he argued that Magistrate Mangosi had erred and misdirected himself in refusing to set them free.
On 9 June 2026, High Court Judge Justice Esther Muremba ended Hamauswa, Nyamandi, Mareverwa and Chisenwa’s detention after upholding their appeal against Magistrate Mangosi’s refusal to grant them bail and ordered them to pay US$100 and to continue residing at their given residential addresses and report at Harare Central Police Station once a fortnight including not to interfere with state witnesses and investigations.
ENDS
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