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Police order artists to stop human rights satire
Tafirei Shumba, ZimOnline
May 30, 2008

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=3239

Police on Thursday stormed a theatre house in central Harare ordering artists performing a human rights satire to stop the play and the audience to disperse immediately.

The police said the play could only be staged with their approval - an order that is unprocedural and against artistic freedom and expression, according to the artists.

The play entitled Sahwira (friendship) is set in an unnamed country and depicts political leaders intolerant of divergent political views while it also questioned dictatorship and explains how bad governance ruined or curtailed fundamental human liberties.

Sahwira also pays tribute to human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe for fighting for justice and equal rights in the increasingly repressive southern African nation, where the main political opposition says at least 50 of its members have been murdered in political violence as the country prepares to hold a run-off presidential election next month.

The run-off election is being held because opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in a March 29 presidential election but failed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote required under Zimbabwe's electoral laws for him to takeover the presidency.

State security forces and ruling ZANU PF party militants have in recent weeks tightened a crackdown against the political opposition, the media and all voices of dissension.

Theatre buffs were arriving for the lunch time run of the production, at Theatre-In-The-Park in the city centre, and were greeted by the police who ordered them back and the artists to pack their costumes and leave.

The producer of the play, Silvanos Mudzvova, said: "They (police) ordered the cast to stop forthwith saying the play had to be authorized first by the police yet there is no standing law to that effect as far as artistic work is concerned."

A police spokesman, who identified himself over the phone only as assistant inspector Mhondoro, confirmed to ZimOnline ordering the play stopped: "They (artists) can't just wake up and decide to perform like that without our approval."

Mhondoro did not cite the law under which he acted.

The government's draconian Public Order and Security Act requires Zimbabweans to seek permission from the police before holding public political gatherings or marches. It does not cover artistic performances.

Only the state Censorship Board - and not the police - has authority to ban or permit productions but the police have in the past years interfered in artistic areas, banning several plays and arresting artists.

By late afternoon yesterday the play producers were frantically trying to appeal at Harare Central police station to have the production resumed.

The play premiered without trouble on Wednesday evening before about 100 invited fans. Yesterday's performance was open to the public.

Artists said the police action came somewhat as a surprise considering that the force had appeared in recent months to be softening up on critical theatrical satires that clearly put Zimbabwe's rulers against the wall.

Said one theatre fan, Cuthbert Shonhiwa, after being turned away from the venue: "We have always been suspicious of the police tolerance of hard-hitting plays of late but we now realise their tolerance was simply to hoodwink the world that Zimbabwe enjoyed freedom of expression because of the elections that we were having here."

At least a dozen plays were banned by the police last year alone with even more plays being stopped in 2006 and several artists arrested and detained without being charged some of them tortured and beaten up in police cells.

Only two artists have been charged and brought before the courts. The trial of the artists - the first known case since independence in 1980 that artists have been tried for performing without state approval - was set to open at the Harare magistrates courts yesterday.

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