A Pastor’s Wife in Zimbabwe Wails As Prison Officials Refuse to Release Husband.

The wife of incarcerated the pastor Phillip Mugadza sobbed uncontrollably at the Harare Remand Prison gates when she was told that her husband would not be released Friday evening despite being granted bail.
Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services officials said they would not free Mugadza until they verified with the High Court whether he indeed been granted bail.
The clergyman was granted $50 bail by High Court Judge Justice Priscilla Chigumba after spending 53 days in remand prison.
Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com a jubilant Thelma Masaka said she was happy that, after nearly two months, the Mugadza family would be “united” again.
“I was losing hope that he will get bail and today I am so happy after so many days.
“Life has been difficulty for me and I had run out of words answering the questions from the children who wanted to know when their father was going to come back.”
But few minutes before his expected release, Thelma’s joy was cut short and she started sobbing when she got news that her husband’s fight for freedom was far from over.
Human rights lawyer Obey Shava, representing the pastor, said the Clerk of Court had refused to accept Pastor Mugadza’s bail money.
“He said he wants to verify with the High Court if the order is genuine. Efforts to push his release became difficulty as he (court clerk) was not cooperating.”
For Mugadza’s wife, it was all too hard to come to terms with. After she had been consoled by rights activists Linda Masarira, the pastor’s wife said she “leaves everything to God”.
Commenting on what will be her first words to her husband would have been, Thelma said she just to see him walking out of the prison gates.
Asked whether she would discourage her husband from activism, she said he was a grown-up man and would make the decision by himself.
Mugadza was arrested on the 17th January after he claimed that President Robert Mugabe would die on the 17th of October this year.