HARARE - Edmund Kudzayi, the Sunday Mail editor, who was sensationally arrested on Thursday, yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court and was charged with insurgency, terrorism, banditry, sabotage, subverting a constitutionally elected government and not securing firearms.
He appeared before Harare magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe, who remanded him in custody to Monday.
Kudzayi also stands accused of publishing falsehoods in an article critical of President Robert Mugabe.
The 28-year-old who arrived at the Rotten Row courts on the back of a single cab truck, was escorted by assistant commissioner Crispen Makedenge, the officer commanding Criminal Investigations Department Law and Order division in Harare among other police officers.
He appeared relaxed in court and even joked with a reporter from the Sunday Mail while seated in the dock saying: “Don’t forget I’m still your boss.”
If found guilty of the offences, Kudzayi, could face life imprisonment.
He is also accused of conniving with his older brother Phillip Tawanda Kudzayi and others who are still at large to overthrow the Mugabe regime in the run-up to last year’s harmonised elections.
The State argues that a gmail account called babajukwa2013@gmail.com was registered using Tawanda’s mobile number before the creation of the Baba Jukwa Facebook account.
According to the State, Kudzayi and his accomplices allegedly planned and organised themselves to form what they termed the Gunda Nleya Brigade as well as the Zimbabwe Revolutionary Army ready to overthrow the government by waging a war.
The State also alleges that they had put in place a Dare Rechimurenga (War Council) to study the Zimbabwe situation during elections while also posting Facebook articles encouraging rebellion if the election was stolen.
On May 11 this year, the Sunday Mail published a story titled Hackers unmask Baba Jukwa.
However, police believe that Kudzayi was Baba Jukwa as he was in control of the Baba Jukwa gmail account.
In the second count, Kudzayi is being accused of publishing articles branding Mugabe a dictator in the full knowledge that the facts may not be accurate.
Prosecutor Tawanda Zvekare, from the Prosecutor General’s Office, said the article falsely labelled Mugabe a dictator who commits gross human rights abuses.
The article, according to Zvekare, stated that Mugabe stole the 2008 elections and that he presided over the country’s economic collapse.
“He further called the president a tyrant and accused him of taking the land from white farmers and giving it to his cronies and not the people of Zimbabwe,” read part of the charge sheet.
Kudzayi was also found with four rounds of ammunition at his home while another nine rounds were recovered at his work office.
Reads part of the charge sheet: “Sometime in April 2013, the accused connived with his elder brother Philip Tawanda Kudzayi and others who are still at large and hatched a plan to overthrow the Government of Zimbabwe by unconstitutional means in the run up to the 31st July 2013 Zimbabwe General elections.
“Accused created a gmail account called babajukwa2013@gmail.com using an Econet line registered to Philip Tawanda Kudzayi which line is being used by him. The said gmail account was used to create a Facebook account called Baba Jukwa.
“The accused planned and organised with other accused persons calling themselves, The Gunda Nleya Brigade and Zimbabwe Revolutionary Army, to overthrow the Government through waging war and urged people to join the Zimbabwe Revolutionary Army.
“The accused posted articles on the Baba Jukwa Facebook page which encouraged rebellion against the government if the said election is stolen.
“They also posted articles to the effect that they had a Dare Rechimurenga in place and that a team was on the ground studying the situation in Zimbabwe.”