HARARE – MDC Youth Assembly leader Obey Sithole on Tuesday became the sixth person to be charged over a May 13 anti-government protest in Warren Park.
Sithole presented himself to a police station in Harare in the company of his lawyers, and was expected to appear in court on Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said Sithole faced charges of participating in an illegal demonstration.
Last week, authorities turned a hospital into a makeshift courtroom as three female MDC activists who took part in the protest before being abducted, tortured and sexually abused, were also charged.
Harare West MP Joana Mamombe, Netsai Marova and Cecilia Chimbiri’s ordeal began on May 13 when they were arrested at a police roadblock as they returned from the demonstration, which caught authorities by surprise.
After being taken to Harare Central police station, they say they were handed to men who covered their heads in sacks, drove them to a forest and pushed them into a pit. For two nights they were sexually assaulted, made to drink one another’s urine and sing political songs.
When they were dumped 70km from Harare in Bindura, they were barely dressed in torn clothes.
Amnesty International described the case as “a travesty… to send a chilling message to anyone who challenges the government”.
Soldiers and police on Tuesday tightened the coronavirus lockdown in the capital Harare, blocking many cars and buses from entering the central business district, but the MDC said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was trying to suppress protests over a worsening economy and to stop MDC supporters from gathering outside a court where party leader Nelson Chamisa’s lawyer Thabani Mpofu was due to appear.
Police and soldiers turned away many commuters and cars, including those with work letters, at check points leading into town except critical staff like health workers as well as state employees, witnesses said.
“Please note that it is not everyone who should be in the CBD (central business district),” the police said in a statement.
The MDC has accused the government of using curbs on movements to persecute its members and sees a political motive behind Monday intensifications of the lockdown.
“So if this is about Covid-19 why is it only happening in Harare? This appears to be more about politics than medicine or health,” senior MDC official David Coltart wrote on Twitter.
