Mr Gofa said Mr Sikhala will spend six months in jail if he fails to pay the fine. Another six-month jail term was wholly suspended.
Prosecutors said by blaming Zanu-PF for the activist’s death, he was interfering with police investigations.
Mr Sikhala has unsuccessfully applied for bail 15 times since his arrest in June 2022.
A Zimbabwean court has fined a popular opposition legislator for obstruction of justice in a move that bars him from contesting the forthcoming elections.
Job Sikhala, deputy chairperson of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) and long serving opposition legislator, was found guilty by a Harare magistrate after spending 300 days behind bars in a high-profile case and fined $600.
Mr Sikhala, 50, who is a lawyer, was arrested over a video in which he was demanding justice for a murdered CCC activist. A ruling Zanu-PF party member was arrested for the murder of the activist whose mutilated body was found in a well.
CCC spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba told journalists outside the court that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using the justice system to cripple the opposition ahead of the elections.
“This is a clear travesty of justice. Most of our leaders are in and out of the courts for different concocted political charges,” Mr Siziba said.
Last week, a Harare magistrate jailed Jacob Ngarivhume, a leader of a small opposition party, for four years for inciting public violence after he organised protests against corruption in July 2020.
Another CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere was last month fined $500 for publishing falsehoods after she tweeted a video of police officers beating a woman with a child strapped on her back.
President Mnangagwa, who is seeking a second term in office after rising to power following a 2017 coup against long-time ruler Robert Mugabe, said he will announce the election dates later this month.