HARARE - A youth leader in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC will appear in court tomorrow charged with telling a rally that President Robert Mugabe was a "limping donkey."

MDC Youth Assembly chairman Solomon Madzore has been held at Bindura Police Station since Thursday, when he surrendered himself to police after he was summoned to Harare Central Police Station’s Law and Order unit on Wednesday.

Upon his arrival at the police station on Thursday morning, he was told to report to Bindura Police Station where he was immediately detained.

He spent the weekend behind bars and will appear in court tomorrow to answer charges of insulting Mugabe, according to his lawyer Charles Kwaramba.

Madzore is said to have told a rally held at Mushumbe in Mbire — bastion of Mugabe’s support base in Mashonaland Central Province — that the 89-year-old leader “idhongi rinokamhina (is a limping donkey)”
Kwaramba said police allege he told the rally that “Mugabe idhongi rinokamhina ririkutadzisa Tsvangirai kutonga zvakanaka muGNU.”

Madzore has been charged under a law that makes it illegal to “undermine the authority of or insult the president.”

People convicted under the law in question normally receive a short jail or community service sentence, or a fine.

The fiery youth leader, who spent more than a year in remand prison, also faces murder charges in connection with the Glen View killing of police Inspector Petros Mutedza who was murdered at a pub in the working class suburb. He was out on bail on that charge, but has been hit with a further charge.

The MDC Youth Assembly said it views the arrest of Madzore “as nothing but another desperate attempt by a panicking Zanu PF to cow the people ahead of the next elections in which Zanu PF is destined for a massive defeat by the MDC.” - Gift Phiri, Political Editor