Police charge four with treason after state media report of regime change training

HARARE – Police have charged four pro-democracy activists over an alleged plot to topple the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

George Makoni, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Gamuchirai Mukura and Nyasha Mpahlo were led away by officers after landing at the Robert Mugabe International Airport from South Africa on Monday night.

They are expected in court on Wednesday.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who have taken up their case, said in a brief update: “Zimbabwean authorities charged the four pro-democracy campaigners with subverting a constitutional government for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Mnangagwa’s administration.”

Colleagues said the quartet were arrested after the state-run Herald newspaper last week published a story claiming they had attended a regime change workshop in the Maldives and Czech Republic.

George Makoni, 38, advocacy officer for the NGO Centre for Community Development Zimbabwe; Tatenda Mombeyarara, 37, co-ordinator for lobby group Citizens Manifesto; Gamuchirai Mukura, 31, executive director of Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD); and Nyasha Mpahlo, 35, the governance officer at Transparency International Zimbabwe face life imprisonment if convicted.

Their arrest came days after state-owned daily The Herald ran a story claiming that “a group of shady organisations with links to the (main opposition) MDC-Alliance has been hard at work laying the groundwork for civil unrest to be unleashed next month.”

The newspaper said some activists had attended a workshop on the Maldives archipelago that was conducted by a non-profit Serbian organisation, Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS).

The paper also claimed that some members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had earlier this month attended a workshop in Prague.

Several organisations mentioned by the newspaper dismissed the story as false and denied involvement in any plot against the government.

The civil society alliance Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition condemned the latest arrests.

“The police, government and state media have been colluding to criminalise the work of human rights defenders, laying unfounded allegations against civil society leaders as agents of regime change who want to topple the government,” the coalition said in a statement.