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VOP bosses charged
MISA-Zimbabwe
Janaury 24, 2006

Six Voice of the People (VOP) Radio board members were on 24 January charged with contravening the Broadcasting Services Act when they appeared in court on initial remand.

David Masunda, VOP chairman, his deputy Arnold Tsunga, Lawrence Chibwe, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, Lawrence Chibwe and Millie Phiri, were each granted $4 million dollars bail and remanded to 10 February 2006.

They were also ordered to report to the police once a week on Fridays.

Isabella Matambanadzo, the sixth accused, was, however not subjected to the same remand conditions because she is currently residing in South Africa.

She was asked to appear in court once their trial date is fixed.

They are accused of contravening Section 7 (1) as read with paragraph 4 and 5 of the BSA Chapter 12:06 which deals with broadcasting and signal carrier licenses.

It is alleged that the accused set an office in Harare which they equipped with computers and produced programmes which were transmitted through the Internet to Radio Netherlands.

The broadcasts were then beamed into Zimbabwe through a relay station in Madagascar without an operating licence.

However, defence lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa said she would be challenging their remand on the basis that the facts of the State case do not constitute a crime as the alleged broadcasts were not beamed from within Zimbabwe, but from outside the country.

She also indicated that one of the accused, leading Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga, would give evidence at the next remand hearing pertaining to the unlawful conduct of the police prior to their appearance in court.

Mtetwa said Tsunga would tell the court how the police had unlawfully arrested and detained Anesu Kamba, a driver with the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), and his gardener Charles Nyamufukudzwa.

Kamba and Nyamufukudzwa were released on 24 January 2006 without charges after spending three nights in police custody following their arrest on 21 January 2006 on allegations of attempting to defeat the course of justice.

Tsunga is the director of ZHLR.

The police had also allegedly tampered with a picture frame and unlawfully removed it from his premises when they came looking for him over the weekend.

Police officers from the Law and Order section on 21 January 2006 descended on Tsunga’s house in Harare where they took away Kamba and Nyamufukudzwa.

Tsunga was not at home on the day in question.

Background
VOP director John Masuku who is already on bail on charges of breaching the country’s broadcasting laws, was last week remanded to appear in court on 30 March 2006.

Masuku was arrested after the police raided the VOP radio station’s offices in Harare on 15 December 2006 during which they confiscated computers, equipment and administration files.

Three VOP workers Nyasha Bhosha, Maria Nyanyiwa and Kundai Mugwanda spent four nights in police custody following the raid. The three were subsequently released without being charged.

These developments come on the backdrop of the bombing of the VOP offices some three years ago on 29 August 2002.

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