Job Sikhala Says He’s at Chikurubi in Solitary Confinement
NB – Solitary confinement consists in keeping an inmate alone in a cell for over 22 hours a day. Because of the harmful effect on the person’s physical and mental well-being, solitary confinement should only be used in exceptional circumstances. It should be strictly supervised and used only for a limited period of time.
Harare | Politician Job Sikhala, who is incarcerated with the CCC, has disclosed that he is being confined in solitary confinement at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
Sikhala was incarcerated since June 2022, and he reached his 18-month mark in Chikurubi on Thursday. He was found guilty in May of obstructing justice, and in addition to a year in prison, he also received a suspended 6-month term and a US$600 fine.
The Zimbabwean High Court reversed Sikhala’s conviction and sentence for obstructing justice last month. But his trials for inciting violence and disruptive conduct have been drawn out, so he is still behind bars.
Yesterday, to mark 18 months in jail, Job Sikhala released a statement talking about his condition. He said he is staying in solitary confinement at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
He disclosed:
“Today marks exactly one and half years, that is, the full 18 months under persecution, incarceration in a metre by two and a half metres solitary confinement in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison by the regime in Zimbabwe since my arrest on the 14th of June 2022.
During this period of hot weather and electricity blackouts in the dark solitary dungeon where you can hold the thick of darkness, I wake up during the middle of the night.
The room is fully flooded with my sweat, mosquitos having completed feasting breakfast, lunch and supper from my bare body.”
“I taught myself that decency is only for free. I am under repression, and I must conquer the mental motives of my persecutors.
What must be known, my dearest friends, is that there is no amount of suffering that I have not gone through in my life.
I slept on an empty stomach for days to no end but was never tempted to steal from anyone all my life.”
“I and my late parents laboured in other people’s’s fields for school fees, food and clothing. Railway stations and bus terminuses became my shelter in search of a better life.
I used thatched slums built of poles as accommodation for going to school. I used to travel 46 Kilometers daily to and from school, living in Zaka, walking around Siya Dam to Mazunguye Secondary School in Bikita.
Crossing paths with hippopotamuses from Siya Dam and Leopard harboured in the mountains separating Zaka and Bikita during dark hours coming from school. There is no difficult situation insurmountable to me.”
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“I am a typical field Negro. This must inform everyone about the comfort and satisfaction I get by living among poor people.
We share our poverty together. That is why I am passionately prepared to die for the poor and the downtrodden.
They deserve complete protection and shelter from those who wield power.
I lived the experience, and the new experience I am going through has strengthened me”.
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