Anti-Mugabe critic and leader of Remnant Church, Pastor Phillip Mugadza was on Monday 16 January 2017 arrested and charged with unlawfully acting in a manner likely to create nuisance after his prophecy that President Robert Mugabe will not see the end of 2017.
According to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, (ZLHR), Police officers picked him outside the Harare Magistrates Court where he had gone for routine remand hearing.
Police alleged that the clergyman on Friday 13 January 2017 unlawfully acted in a manner which is likely to create a nuisance by giving a prophesy that President Mugabe is going to die on 17 October 2017.
However, Pastor Mugadza, who is represented by Gift Mtisi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights denied the charge in a warned and cautioned statement he signed at the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station.
Initially, ZRP officers had indicated that they would charge Pastor Mugadza for insulting and undermining the authority of the president in contravention of Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act before altering the charge.
Pastor Mugadza has had several run-ins with Zimbabwean authorities. In December 2015, the clergyman was arrested and detained during the ZANU PF National People’s Conference for allegedly staging a demonstration denouncing President Mugabe’s 35 year-old reign.
Pastor Mugadza was charged with criminal nuisance in contravention of Section 46 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 after he allegedly protested against the manner in which the ZANU PF party leader had presided over the affairs of the country.
