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ZESN condemns the arrest of Harare Mayor
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
January 13, 2003

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network strongly condemns the arrest of the Mayor of Harare, Engineer Elias Mudzuri on Saturday 11 January 2003 and other ordinary residents of Mabvuku for holding a meeting without police clearance.

As ZESN we feel that this is repression of the citizens of Harare who participated legitimately and underwent an electoral process to democratically elect representative of their choice.

It is ridiculous to know that the Mayor, the ‘Father of the City’ cannot hold meetings with his residents which at any given time he wants without the police’s approval whilst he is expected to know and address the people’s problems and concerns.

As a non-partisan organisation in pursuit of transparent, good governance and people’s democratic rights in the electoral field we would want to remind the concerned authorities that the people through the ballot box democratically elected the Mayor of Harare and therefore we call upon the authorities to stop forthwith the persistent harassment of the elected Mayor of Harare.

We demand the immediate and unconditional release of the elected Mayor of the City of Harare.

The government has also suggested the appointment of governors for the cities of Harare and Bulawayo, which are being interpreted by the general public as a means of negating the mayoral powers, which is rather undesirable since mayors by virtue of having been elected have the mandate of the people unlike the appointed governors. Considering the economic hardships currently prevailing in the country, we feel that it is inappropriate for the government to think of appointing governors at this particular time.

We would also want to urge the residents of Kuwadzana and Highfield, where there will be parliamentary by-elections, not to be demoralised by the imminent appointment of governors and the unwarranted detention of the Harare Mayor.

We have also heard of some political party officials who are using food as a vote-buying weapon and as ZESN we condemn this politicisation of basic food commodities currently in short supply. People should know that it is their right to vote for any political party they wish.

ZESN therefore calls for a peaceful campaigning period and elections which are violent free in the forthcoming by-elections. We also urge voters to turn out in numbers and vote wisely.

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