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Police
step up blitz against CSOs
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 06, 2013
Zimbabwean police
on Wednesday 6 February 2013 intensified the onslaught against civil
society organisations after they raided the offices of the National
Youth Development Trust (NYDT) in Bulawayo in search of some
"voter registration certificates".
Four police
officers, who were led by Detective Inspector Boora and who were
armed with a search warrant permitting them to conduct the search,
pounced on the NYDT offices at LAPF House in Bulawayo, where they
confiscated some workshop schedule documents including a registration
form filled in and signed by some workshop participants.
According to
the search warrant which was commissioned by one Mhandu, the Officer
Commanding CID Law and Order in Bulawayo, the police were supposed
to search the offices and residence of Alfred Ncube, the NYDT Programmes
Officer, who was not present when the raid was conducted.
The search warrant
permitted the police to "look for voter registration certificates
and material or information which negatively affect the State".
Lison Ncube
of James, Moyo-Majwabu and Nyoni Legal Practitioners, who is a member
of Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights attended during the raid.
In Plumtree,
police on Wednesday 6 February 2013 interrogated two Habakkuk
Trust leaders for allegedly inciting hatred among employees
of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) after participants
who attended a meeting convened by the organisation demanded improved
service delivery in the area.
Police quizzed
Dumisani Nkomo, the Chief Executive Officer of Habakkuk Trust and
Khumbulani Maphosa over statements related to removing some water
pumps that were supplying residents with unhygienic water.
However, Nkomo
and Maphosa who were represented by ZLHR member Godfrey Nyoni of
Moyo and Nyoni Legal Practitioners denied the charges. Moyo will
on Thursday 7 February accompany her client Bellinda Gumbo of Habakkuk
Trust to Plumtree Police Station, where the police are keen to quiz
her over the same allegations faced by Nkomo and Maphosa.
Meanwhile, two
NYDT members, who were arrested
on Monday 4 February 2013 and charged with contravening Section
40 of the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) for allegedly
possessing voter registration receipts were freed on Wednesday 6
February 2013 after spending two nights in police custody.
The NYDT members
Brilliant Goboza (22) and Ashton Ncube (19) were freed at Lupane
Magistrate Court before they appeared in court after their lawyer
Charles Moyo of Moyo and Nyoni Legal Practitioners, who is a ZLHR
member, challenged and convinced the prosecutor handling the matter
that Goboza and Ncube had not committed any offence. On Monday 4
February 2013, Moyo had been denied access to his clients and even
into the police station when he travelled to represent his clients.
He was only allowed access to his clients on Tuesday 5 February
2013.
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