WOZA women arrested after ‘yellow card’ protest in Harare today
April 15th, 2010
Update 18.00:
61 of the 65 Woza activists have now been released, the four who remain in custody are Jenni Williams, Magodonga Mahlangu, Selina Madukane and Clara Manjengwa. They are being charged with Participating in an Illegal Gathering under Section 37.1c of the Criminal Codification and Reform Act. They are hoping that the four will go to court tomorrow morning, but it seems unlikely and that the four will have to spend the weekend in the cells.
Update 16.17:
This morning the women and men of WOZA and MOZA congregated and marched on Megawatt House in Harare to present their complaints over the poor delivery of power in Zimbabwe.
At the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority headquarters they were asked to wait outside until a senior member of Zesa staff would come and address them. It appears that this was a delaying tactic to allow time for the police to come.
Once the police arrived, they were reticent to arrest the activists, however the Zesa security insisted the “ring leaders” be taken into custody.
Initially Jenny Williamns and Magodonga Mahlangu were the only ones detained and placed into the awaiting police vehicles. When the other members realised their leadership had been taken they immediately climbed into the police vans.
Once the detained activists arrived at Harare Central Police Station, even more of the Woza members forced their arrests in solidarity with their fellow activists.
They are yet to be charged, and the lawyers are currently working on the case.
Please phone Harare police station and voice your concern on Harare +263 4 777777
Original post: Approximately five hundred WOZA members embarked on a peaceful action to deliver yellow cards to ZESA in Harare today. This follows their march in Bulawayo on the 12th, blogged here. We’ve just been advised that at least thirty of the members have been arrested, including Jennie Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu. They are being held at Harare Central police station. This is all the information we have on today’s arrests at this moment.
Two members of WOZA, Million and Mavis Sibanda, were arrested yesterday in Bulawayo when WOZA attended a public hearing on ZESA:
As the delegation were due to answer questions, two members, Million and Mavis Sibanda, took the opportunity to go to the toilets, which are in the reception foyer. As soon as they entered the foyer, they were grabbed by two plain clothed police officers who searched their bags. The police officers then insisted the two members accompany them to Central Police Station.
[...]
At the police station, Million and Mavis were being interrogated as to their objective in the meeting and a bunch of ‘yellow cards’ found on Million were confiscated. They were mwade to narrate their life history which was noted down on a profile form. Some other police officers then apparently came to their rescue asking why they had been arrested. Upon hearing the explanation, they said they are also suffering from high electricity bills and long cuts and that WOZA should be allowed to protest on this issue. They then insisted the two WOZA members should be released. Upon confirmation of their release, the rest of the WOZA members went back into the meeting.
Read the full details on the WOZA website.
