6 - The Trials of the ‘Traitor’ in Harare’s Magistrates’ Courts under the Unity Government

Summary

Chapter 6 moves away from the focus on performances by human rights lawyers and defendants to look at the narratives state prosecutors told in the court. It focuses on the trial of Munyaradzi Gwisai, leader of the International Socialist Organisation in Zimbabwe and his five co-defendants. Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring uprisings, ZANU-PF used its courtroom narratives to delineate the limits to the party’s tolerance for political protest, and articulated the consequences faced by those who were thought to be testing these limits. Two state prosecutors, Michael Reza and Edmore Nyazamba, and their star witness, Jonathan Shoko, reminded the court, and the public within and beyond its wall, of ZANU-PF’s responsibility for upholding the security of the nation against local manifestations of ‘foreign’ and ‘imperialist’ influences.