Two South African women who have spent nearly 10 months in a Zimbabwean jail after losing their travel documents will make a last bid for freedom on Wednesday before the country's high court.
Zakiti Mbane, the sister of Banyana Banyana player Bambanani Mbane, and Mpo Mkonza, both 28, have been detained since January and February respectively in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
Efforts by the South African embassy in Harare to secure their release have been fruitless. A source at the embassy said a colleague had gone to Chikurubi prison this week to visit the pair.
Mbane and Mkonza say they lost their travel documents in separate incidents earlier this year, handed themselves to police and were then detained by immigration officials.
According to court papers, Mbane and Mkonza are asking the high court to order that they be released immediately and issued with temporary travel documents to facilitate their return to SA. They also want a declaration that their detention was in violation of the Zimbabwe constitution.
Rights group the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights is helping the women.
Cited as respondents in the matter are the chief immigration officer, the commissioner-general for Zimbabwe prisons and correctional services, the home affairs minister, the attorney-general and the South African high commission.
Mbane, from Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, said in her affidavit her 20-month-old baby was waiting for her at home. She is studying to become a mechanical engineer.
Her father, Nathaniel Mbane, said in an affidavit that Zakiti had bipolar disorder.
She said that upon arrival her in Zimbabwe, she lost her passport and went to Harare central police station for help.
But "immigration officials arrested [me] and caused my detention at Chikurubi female prison for the past nine months. I have not been tried in any local court of law … I have no access to communication gadgets and have difficulty contacting my relatives to help facilitate my release and repatriation."
Mbane said that since her detention, she had been "labouring in mental anguish".
"The psychological torture, severe pain, and mental anguish have been intentionally inflicted on my person ..."
"I don't know what was finalised over her case, but she is in Harare. It's been a long time since I saw her," said Mbane's sister, Bambanani, yesterday.
In her affidavit, Mkonza, from Kagiso on the West Rand, said she endured "trauma, mental anguish and psychological effects" due to the incarceration.
On August 10 she attempted to escape but was foiled.
In the court papers, the women's lawyers said they had not committed any offence in Zimbabwe.
"They were denied their liberty [and] due process of the law … their continued detention is illegal, and a violation of their right to liberty," the lawyers' affidavit reads.
"The conditions they are subjected to constitute cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment and [they] therefore seek the protection of the law."..