WOZA update on police use of violence against women and children

WOZA Update
Press Release: 10.40 am Monday 4th

Sokwanele Note: Images were published last week in our post entitled ‘Zimbabwe police viciously attack women and children’

40 members released on Friday into the custody of their lawyer for the weekend have reported back to Bulawayo Central this morning. It is still not clear at this stage when police will take them to court, if at all.

The two members rushed to hospital on Friday afternoon finally received treatment late on Friday evening once they had been transferred from the government facility to which they had been taken to a private clinic. Magodonga Mahlangu was referred to a specialist on Saturday due to the fact that she had fallen to the ground and blacked out after being beaten with a baton stick. She was further kicked whilst lying passed out on the ground. Both are feeling considerably better having received medical treatment and neither’s condition is serious.

The woman with the broken ankle continues to receive specialist treatment and her condition remains serious. The specialist admitted that, given the severity of the break and her age, many other doctors would have simply amputated. He is continuing to attempt to save her leg but the next two weeks remain critical. The woman, in her sixties, admitted that she was beaten by police whilst lying on the ground. They were telling her to get up and run. When she tried to do so, “she could not find her foot to stand up”.

Further stories of horror have emerged over the weekend. The woman who was kicked in the breast and collapsed outside the police station was actually going to the rescue of her sister who was being beaten on the back of the neck by a baton stick and kicked in the stomach. When her sister begged them to stop, the same officer kicked her in the breast. This attack later caused her to collapse. Both sisters received medical treatment and are recovering from their brutal attack.

One of the young girls taken to the start of the demonstration and assaulted whilst being made to pick up flyers testified: “We were ordered to pick up all the flyers that we had strewn on the roads for passers-by. We were also ordered to pick up litter besides the flyers and this included picking up dirty material, even from stagnant water. They also forced us to pick up litter from beneath parked cars, which required us to lie prostrate on the ground, at which time they would beat us with baton sticks and kick us.

We were most pained when workers at Express Mart (the shop outside where we had kicked off our demonstration), joined hands with the police in insulting and even cheering on the police, who they ordered to force us to sing in the same way we had had been singing as we were distributing the flyers.”

You can contact Express Mart on +263 9 889997 to ask them why they find such delight and pleasure at the sight of policemen assaulting young girls with impunity in broad daylight.

More details will be given when they become available.

Technorati Tags: WOZA, Zimbabwe, gender, women, violence against women, gender violence, police brutality, ZRP, Zimbabwe Republic Police, human rights, protest, activism, activist

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