By Batsirai Muranje 

HARARE - He sauntered into court at exactly 1345hrs. He could hardly see because his face was heavily swollen, his half-shaved head clearly showing the eight stitches which armed ZANU PF thugs inflicted on his head during Sunday’s brutal attacks. 

As soon as a visibly bruised Morgan Tsvangirai entered Courtroom Six, leading a long queue of political and civic leaders, several people wept loudly. Another broke into a church song before police ordered the courtroom to be quiet. 

A member of the Tsvangirai camp’s national executive, Ian Makone, who was himself brutalised by the police during a workers’ union demonstration last year, broke down at the sight of Tsvangirai and had to be hurriedly led out of court. 

Silence gripped the courtroom as the 46 arrested activists found their place among the chairs. It looked more of a hospital ward that a courtroom. In fact, the whole bruised lot deserved to be in hospital and not in a courtroom. 

Those who were seriously injured included Tsvangirai, the National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku, the MDC’s deputy national treasurer, Elton Mangoma and deputy secretary for international affairs Grace Kwinje. 

The usually “alive” Nelson Chamisa, the MDC’s spokesman, stood quietly in the corner, all the energy and verve apparently gone after two days of detention in the grimy cells. 

Sekai Holland, usually talkative, remained mum even as fellow female activists mobbed her as she feebly acknowledged their greetings and words of encouragement. 

Kwinje had almost half of her right ear severed off while her hands were a deep purple from the savage assaults at the hands of crack commandos in police attire during her detention at Braeside police station. 

“They came for me. They were about four of them and they asked what kind of woman I was who could not stay at home and cook instead of being involved in politics. 

“They assaulted me in my cell and left me for dead. When I woke up, I could hardly see and talk but at least I was alive,” Kwinje told ZimOnline as she fumbled with her obviously painful ear. 

“A cellmate, an elderly woman who appeared to be a staunch Christian, then took me in her arms and started singing a hymn. I slept in her arms that Sunday night.” 

Tsvangirai could only manage to mumble a few words to the crowd, which included his wife Susan, which mobbed him as people waited for the trial to begin. 

“Let us all be strong. We will get there. One can never subjugate the collective spirit of the people forever. We shall be strong,” he said, before he slumped on the stoep. 

Tsvangirai and his fellow political and civic detainees were all arrested last Sunday in Highfield after the police violently crushed a prayer meeting organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a coalition of political and civic groups demanding political change in Zimbabwe. 

Police shot and killed an MDC activist during the violent crackdown on the prayer meeting. 

The detainees were all brutally assaulted at Machipisa police station, where they were detained without charge and denied access to legal and medical assistance.   

Tsvangirai, who appeared to be the police’s most prized possession, reportedly lost consciousness three times during the savage attacks which witnesses say lasted for about two hours. 

It was indeed a somber moment that will remain etched in the minds of the 500-strong crowd the thronged the courtroom to hear the verdict for Tsvangirai, Arhur Mutambara, the leader of the other faction of the MDC, and several senior opposition leaders and civic activists. 

Armed riot police, in full combat, stood guard both in the courtroom and outside. 

Madhuku was visibly in pain, with his right hand in a sling and his head severely bandaged. Tsvangirai collapsed on the prison stoep and had to be helped to a sitting position by Mutambara. It was a rare show of the “prison unity” of the two leaders of the different factions of the same party. 

It appeared most of the opposition supporters wished the solidarity and the unity of their leaders in court yesterday could be transferred outside the courtroom and the prison walls. 

They appeared to say the two would do the nation a lot of good if they could forge a formidable unit outside the courtroom by making sure there is one united MDC. 

Twice, Tsvangirai failed to sit up. Twice, Mutambara, who appeared not to have been seriously assaulted, helped him, patting his shoulder for encouragement. 

More than twice, the two exchanged whispers and ended up smiling and shaking hands. 

If only it could be more than a courtroom gesture, the smiles from onlookers in the courtroom seemed to suggest. 

Then the Zimbabwean justice system exposed itself once more to the world. 

For more than two hours, we all waited for the remand hearing, hoping to hear what crime these political civic and political leaders had committed. For more than two hours, nothing happened. 

No court official or magistrate turned up to kick off the hearing. 

Then Advocate Eric Matinenga, representing Tsvangirai and his colleagues, stood and told the courtroom that all the court officials had fled their chambers. There was no one to hear the case. 

This was clearly in contempt of court. On Monday night, High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu had ruled that all the arrested people should have access to legal and medical assistance, failure of which the State had to produce all the detainees at 8am the following morning. 

The police neither gave the detainees access to medication and legal assistance, nor did they bring them before Bhunu by 8am as ordered. 

Bhunu had also ordered that they should be brought before a magistrate before 12pm, but they only turned up at 1345hrs. Another case of contempt of court. 

Then there was no trial magistrate. Again, another case of contempt of court. 

Welcome to Zimbabwe, where the wheels of justice move so slowly that the snail will be green with envy! 

As the bemused people in the courtroom wondered what would happen next, six armed riot policemen, President Robert Mugabe’s dogs of war, viciously charged into the courtroom and ordered everyone to leave except the accused. 

The defence lawyers and the entire courtroom stood their ground and refused to budge. But the police had another ace up their sleeve. They simply left the courtroom and left Tsvangirai and his colleagues as well as the packed courtroom to stay in the cramped courtroom for another two hours! 

After deliberations between the lawyers and the police, police vans appeared outside the courtroom. 

The detainees were all whisked away for medical treatment. Hundreds of people outside the courtroom stood in awe as the police vehicles drove off with their prized possessions. 

They all seemed to be wondering if these brutal policemen were really taking them to hospital or to the gallows. - ZimOnline