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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
Crisis Report - Issue 220
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
September 12, 2013
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ZLHR:
Police left with egg on face as Judge quashes ban of ZCTU march
Zimbabwean police
have been left with egg on their faces after High Court Judge Justice
Nicholas Mathonsi overturned a ban imposed by the police on a procession
organised by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) scheduled for Saturday 14 September
2013.
The ZCTU had
notified the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) of their planned procession
and even had the courtesy to request police escort for the commemoration
aimed at celebrating trade union rights to organize and the worker’s
struggle for emancipation and recognition. The labour federation
also intended to hold a cleanup campaign at Copacabana commuter
omnibus terminus in Harare and thereafter stage a lunchtime march.
But the ZRP
which on Tuesday 20 August 2013, had granted the ZCTU authority
to hold the procession later withdrew the permission on the basis
that the political situation obtaining in the country was not conducive
to hold the commemoration. The ZRP through Chief Superintendent
Saunyama charged that some unscrupulous elements might take advantage
of and hijack the whole programme and insisted that according to
the intelligence they had gathered there were some unidentified
people who were waiting to hijack the march.
The police ban
prompted lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) acting
on behalf of the ZCTU to file an urgent chamber application in the
High Court seeking to overturn the police ban and declare it illegal
and void at law. ZLHR lawyers argued that the ZCTU as a registered
trade union is exempt from the limitations and qualification imposed
on processions. In the urgent chamber application, ZLHR lawyers
Jeremiah Bamu, Tawanda Zhuwarara and Bellinda Chinowawa argued that
the ZRP’s refusal for the ZCTU to hold its procession in commemoration
of workers’ rights is beyond what is prescribed by the ob-noxious
Public
Order and Security Act as it is a violation of the labour federation’s
right to freedom of assembly and association as enshrined in the
Constitution
of Zimbabwe.
On Thursday
12 September 2013, Justice Mathonsi who heard the urgent chamber
application quashed the police ban of the ZCTU’s procession.
Justice Mathonsi interdicted the police from disturbing or interfering
in any way with the ZCTU’s procession. The Judge directed
the ZRP to provide police escort for the procession.
- Source
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
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