HARARE – Three MDC Alliance activists who have battled a slew of charges arising from their alleged abduction by suspected state security agents last year were arrested again Monday following a flash demonstration in Harare.
Police said Harare West lawmaker Joanna Mamombe and colleagues Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were being held for using “abusive and obscene” language on officers who had responded to disperse the protest.
Marova was later released without charge while Mamombe and Chimbiri were indicted and detained overnight for “obstructing or hindering police officers performing duty during the lockdown,” their lawyers said.
They are expected in court on Tuesday.
“The trio who were in a Toyota Fortuner without number plates following a police vehicle with officers who had attended the [protest] scene and used abusive and obscene language on the officers, thus leading to their arrest,” police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said in a statement.
But the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), representing the young opposition politicians, said Mamombe and Chimbiri were charged with “obstructing or hindering police officer performing duty during the lockdown.”
“Allegations are that they shouted at police saying do not arrest people, release them in Shona; saying police officers should not arrest people as they will infect them with Covid-19,” the lawyers’ group said in a tweet.
The three MDC Alliance female activists say they suffered horrendous sexual abuse at the hands of their abductors last year, resulting in extreme physical and emotional trauma, plus mental breakdown that required hospitalizations.
They were later arrested and charged with faking their abduction, among other charges. Their cases are pending.
A few dozen opposition activists took part in Monday’s protest outside the ministry of justice, demanding the release of party vice chairperson Job Sikhala and 23-year-old student activist Allan Moyo.
Sikhala was later granted ZW$25,000 bail by a High Court judge.
Moyo, a University of Zimbabwe student, has been wallowing in jail since December 7 last year, charged with inciting public violence by allegedly calling for an overthrow of the Zanu PF government.
He was denied bail on appeal last week.
Addressing demonstrators, political activist Makomborero Haruzivishe bemoaned what he called a captured judiciary which he said was dispensing justice selectively to clampdown on dissent.
“The ministry of justice, that’s where judicial capture is being orchestrated. Even the High Court judges confirmed that Chief Justice Malaba ‘varikusvasvanga matare emhosva muno MuZimbabwe (is destroying the justice system of our courts here in Zimbabwe),” Haruzivishe said.
“We are saying we want jobs and they arrest Sikhala because he is called Job. We want a government that has the citizens’ welfare and interests at heart.”
