guest column:Hopewell Chin’ono TODAY as you read this article, Job Sikhala would have woken up at 5:30am from the cold concrete floor that he has been sleeping on since his persecution and incarceration at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, which started four weeks ago. He is not a convicted prisoner, but through the vindictive nature of the Emmerson Mnangagwa regime, he was sent to a prison meant for convicted prisoners, where he is shackled in leg irons and handcuffs like a dangerous and convicted criminal. His only crime is calling out corruption and looting of public funds. Sikhala is a Member of Parliament in Zimbabwe and an officer of the High Court just like all registered lawyers. His only crime is calling for an end to corruption in Zimbabwe, something that is killing our fellow citizens daily because money meant for public services like hospitals has been looted. His prison cell is meant to house only 16 inmates, but like all other prison cells at Chikuribi, it is packed with 42 prisoners, and it only has one toilet with no running water. At times the prison cell can have more prisoners, I know so because I shared the same cell with Sikhala. At one point, the prison officials wanted to bring in more inmates with mental disorders so that we would end up at around 75 for that night. This is in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic which requires social distancing, but not at Chikurubi. Sikhala and the other prisoners are locked up in this prison cell for 17 hours daily. If you fall sick during those 17 hours, you won’t get any medical help at all. Many die quietly and the nation never gets to know how life evolves in these prisons because of a deliberate lack of transparency mixed with lies and silly propaganda by the State. After waking up at 5:30am, Sikhala joins the other prisoners downstairs in Section B of Chikurubi, where they get porridge without sugar in it, or anything else for breakfast. Down there, they will be around 500 prisoners in Section B, yet they only have two toilets for use, yes, two toilets for 500 prisoners from the 12 cells in section B. Each section is numbered in alphabetical order and has 12 cells. There is no running water in the downstairs area just like in the cells. Prisoners spend seven hours of their time downstairs in the courtyard where they are fed and where they exercise if they wish to. When I left Chikurubi two weeks ago, almost all prisoners had no COVID-19 masks, a direct consequence of the looting of public funds and plunder of national resources which I had reported on in June and July, leading to my arrest. At 10:30am, Sikhala and his fellow inmates are given lunch which comes in old dirty wheelie bins. It will be badly cooked sadza and boiled beans or cabbage with no cooking oil or anything else. Resembling a concentration camp, prisoners are asked to go on “foreign”, which is a lining up of prisoners before they can get their food. This is the dietary routine everyday all year round, nothing more. They get no meat although the prison dietary book says that they are me