New York Times Covers Shadreck Mufute’s Arrest
Quoting The Herald, even the New York Times has now mentioned (online in its 11 April 2008 issue) Shadreck Mufute’s arrest as an example of how “severe” the state’s move against election officials has been. To me, it also shows how petty it all is — 10 votes here or there for one candidate or another in a presidential election clearly aren’t going to affect the national outcome one way or another — not enough to refuse to release the election results, nor to summarily throw primary school headmasters in jail.
Zimbabwe Opposition Rejects Runoff - New York Times
“…The state’s move against the election officials was severe. The Herald reported, for example, that the police arrested a primary-school headmaster, Shadreck Mufute, 47, ‘on allegations of depriving President Mugabe of 10 votes which he allegedly gave to Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential race.’
The state opposed giving Mr. Mufute bail. The magistrate granted him bail of $600 million in Zimbabwean currency — only about 14 United Stated dollars on the black market — but required that he report to a police base every Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Herald reported that Mr. Mufute’s lawyers denied the authenticity of the document used as the basis of the charge against him and said he had neither prepared it nor signed it.”
