Back to Index

Defiance campaign against police partisan orders
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
February 28, 2007

Today the NCA marched in Zimbabwe in defiance of the police orders prohibiting demonstrations and rallies. We have successfully marched in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Masvingo and Gweru.So far police have arrested 50 NCA members in Harare and 25 in Mutare.Yesterday the police arrested 4 NCA leaders in Masvingo and they are frequenting our offices in Bulawayo looking for the NCA Chairperson for that region.

The NCA demonstrations today were meant to send a clear message to the police that we will not listen to their partisan orders. As NCA we believe that demonstrating for a new constitution is a genuine cause that can not be blocked by a corrupt police force whose mandate is merely that of protecting a failed regime.

Police have never allowed us to demonstrate and they displayed their hypocrisy and double standards when they banned demonstrations and rallies. As NCA we find it strange for police force to ban activities that they have never sanctioned in the past. We will continue to defy police orders and we will not take their work seriously as long as they continue to be partisan in support of dictatorship and misgovernance.

As NCA we are concerned with our Harare members who were bundled in police vehicles and brutal assaulted before they were taken to an unknown destination. We believe that the duty of the police is to arrest and not to harass demonstrators. Police brutality against demonstrators is a clear sign that we are living in a military state where freedom of expression and association is not respected.

We urge all Zimbabweans to resist the orders given by the police last week. The ban on demonstration by the police is a desperate move that is meant to protect dictatorship and as NCA we will continue to fight the police in the streets until we realize a new democratic constitution that is people driven.

Madock Chivasa
NCA Spokesperson

Visit the NCA fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP