Pride Mkono is a social justice activist, human rights defender and former Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Youth Committee Chair.
Persecution in numbers:
14-15 January 2019 Zimbabwe witnesses mass protests due to economic hardships
16 January 2019 ZRP releases a list of wanted persons including Mkono. The same night his place of residence in Chitungwiza is raided by armed men who assault other tenants and his young brother.
14 August 2019 Pride Mkono is arrested after returning from South Africa where he had travelled for a medical procedure. He is charged with subverting a constitutional government.
16 August 2019 Mkono is remanded in custody detained at Chikurubi Maximum Prison for a month.
The State pleads for 6 weeks to complete investigations. After almost a month, he is released on bail with conditions to report twice a week at the Police Law and Order Section
By August 2020, one year later, Mkono had appeared 7 times on routine remand.
6 applications of refusal for further remand after the State had failed to indict him for the trial at the High Court were dismissed.
On 30 July 2021 he appears yet again in Court almost 2 years after his arrest
Mkono’s case highlights the weaponization of the judiciary to persecute dissenting voices in Zimbabwe.