CHIEF Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni who was is serving 18 months imprisonment following his conviction with his 23 subjects for destroying a villager’s property in Ntabazinduna, was today released by the High Court on $500 bail coincidentally on the day that the City of Bulawayo remembers gallant freedom fighter Sydeny Malunga who died on the same day in 1994.

During the Gukurahundi genocide years, Sidney Malunga was imprisoned, tortured and put on trial for treason. He was finally acquitted, in time to see his party absorbed by the ‘new’ ZANU-PF.

He could have walked away, but instead he walked into a hostile parliament and took his seat. He knew that the honourable members to the left and to the right of him had sanctioned breathtaking acts of barbarism on his people.

Many rubbed it in his face – he often spoke of “a man” that regularly spoke of ‘the cockroaches’ when he approached – a reference to the systematic dehumanisation of the Ndebele people before and during the genocide. That man was current President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

But Sidney did not surrender his dignity, in spite of the clear and present danger. The smell of cordite and blood was still fresh on both sides, victor and vanquished.

Even after the ‘ceasefire’, Mugabe’s minions had found an ingenious way to quietly terminate high ranking former members of the defunct PF-ZAPU. Their cars would be involved in high speed head-on collisions with armoured vehicles or freight trucks; the number of such ‘unfortunate accidents’ was mounting. Sidney’s profile fit the bill for such an end, and he had received less than veiled threats and tip-offs of an imminent attempt on his life.

Sidney was loved by his people. He never backed down, and continued to ask hard questions in and out of parliament. No-one could or would accuse him of being a ‘sell-out’. When Sidney walked through the streets, he stopped for anyone, any colour, gender, age, social standing; you would watched him commiserate with an elderly white woman who had just lost her husband, and equally engage with a dusty street child. He always had a ready smile and easy manner, never in so much of a hurry that he wouldn’t stop and listen.

“Be true to yourself first, and you cannot but be true to others. If you witness a wrong, never avert your eyes. Remember what you have seen and keep it vivid in your mind. Refuse to be silenced. Refuse, until there is some justice, or until you are dead.”

Sidney and his driver died in mysterious circumstances in 1994 – Jacob, reportedly swerved for ‘a black dog’ and slammed into a lamp post. ‘Black dog’ was to become a euphemism for ‘army truck’.

Ndiweni (54) and 23 other villagers were recently convicted by Bulawayo magistrate, Ms Gladmore Mushove for malicious damage to property belonging to Mr Fetti Mbele’s property.

Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Thompson Mabhikwa ruled that Chief Ndiweni’s appeal against both conviction and sentence had prospects of success and dismissed the State’s assertion that if granted bail, the applicant was likely to abscond.

The judge ordered Chief Ndiweni to report once a week at ZRP Ntabazinduna and to reside at his given address until the matter is finalised as part of the bail conditions.