KAROI – A man here who is facing charges of insulting President Robert Mugabe was yesterday freed on US$50 bail and ordered to return to court in about two weeks time.

Garikai Chimanga Sibanda, 26, was arrested on Monday and appeared before magistrate Onias Matare yesterday who ordered him to return for trial on November 23.

The state charges that Sibanda over the weekend had an altercation with another man only identified as Zijena, who is said to work for the President’s office as a messenger.

During the altercation Sibanda is said to have uttered derogatory and obscene words -- that we cannot repeat on family website – against Mugabe.

It is an offence under Zimbabwe’s tough security laws to undermine or insult Mugabe, the only ruler Zimbabweans have ever known since the country’s independence from Britain 30 years ago.

However after apparently realizing that he had overstepped the mark, Sibanda went to the local offices of the government’s spy Central Intelligence Organisation where he confessed to insulting Mugabe and begged for forgiveness.

He was asked to write a report before he was handed over for prosecution.

Prosecutor Benjamin Negato told the court yesterday that Sibanda had breached the law by demeaning the Head of State.

Sibanda was not asked to plead to the charge.

A number of Zimbabweans have been arrested over the past few years for insulting Mugabe whom they blame for ruining what was once one of Africa’s success stories.

By Staff reporter and agencies