KAROI – A man here accused of insulting President Robert Mugabe was yesterday remanded to next year but not before the magistrate sternly warned him to watch what he says in public or he will “die for nothing”.

“As the country braces itself for elections, I am warning you to be cautious about what you say in public. You will die for nothing,” Karoi magistrate Onias Matare told Garikai Chimanga Sibanda who is accused of insulting Mugabe.

Sibanda, 26, who was granted bail during an earlier court appearance more than a week ago, was yesterday asked to return to court on February 4, next year.

According to the state, Sibanda sometime earlier this month 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 a 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 realising 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.

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 Zimonline