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A Zimbabwean school head, together with his two colleagues have been arrested for photo-shopping President Robert Mugabe’s pictures and sharing them via social media, said a report on Thursday.
According to New Zimbabwe, the police described the images as “belittling” the veteran leader.
Headmaster Edson Chuwe, 42, together with school’s secretary Edna Garwe and the school government body committee member Lenman Pwanyiwa were charged with undermining the authority or insulting the president.
One of the images showed Mugabe being kicked by a white farmer, while the other one, a cartoon, depicted the president sitting down wearing traditional ornamental beads, with the caption “Mambo Wedu” (Our King), the report said.
According to section 33(2) b of Zimbabwe’s constitution, it is jailable offence to insult the president.
The law had initially been scrapped by the constitutional court in 2013, according to a News 24 report, but the police continued to jail people who insulted the nonagenarian.
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa defended the law late last year, saying it was ‘justifiable’, as it sought to enforce respect and dignity of the president.
Mnangagwa, who is also Zimbabwe’s justice minister, argued that the law “foster[s] responsible journalism” and must remain on the statute books.
