Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Journalist and ZCTU leaders released on bail
MISA-Zimbabwe
September 15, 2006

Mike Saburi a freelance cameraperson arrested together with leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) ahead of planned nationwide demonstrations were on 15 September 2006 granted bail and remanded to 3 October 2006 for trial.

Harare magistrate Olivia Mariga granted Saburi, ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and 28 other accused persons Zimdollars 20 000 (USd 80) bail each when they appeared in court on initial remand on charges of contravening Section 37 (1) (b) Chapter 9: 23 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act) which deals with conduct likely to breach public peace.

The court heard how the police brutally assaulted the ZCTU leaders and the other accused persons some of whom wore slings and had bandaged arms when they appeared in court. ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe did not appear in court with the others as he is admitted at Parirenyatwa Hospital with multiple head injuries.

The assaults were so brutal that one of the accused, Lucia Matibenga, the vice president of the ZCTU, is feared to have shattered her eardrum during the ordeal.

The defence team led by Aleck Muchadehama, told the magistrate that some of the accused had been held at Matapi Police Station whose cells were condemned as inhuman and degrading by the Supreme Court and made to walk through raw sewage as they were brutally assaulted one by one by the police and other unknown persons.

They were also denied food and blankets during their detention in the unlit bugs-infested cells. Defence lawyers had to seek an urgent High Court order for them to get medical attention which the police were continuously denying them despite representations from their lawyers.

Magistrate Mariga ordered the police to produce and submit a report on the alleged assaults after the defence said the perpetrators of the brutal assaults should be arrested and the Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri should give a full report to the court on what transpired at the next remand hearing.
Section 37 deals with participation in a gathering with the intention of breaching public peace. The offence carries a fine of Zimdollars 2 000 (USd 8)

Meanwhile, Saburi was arrested on 13 September 2006 while filming armed riot police as they descended on the trade union leaders at the meeting point for the start of the protest marches in Harare's central business district (CBD).

Background
Armed riot police on 13 September 2006 sealed off Harare's CBD and arrested Matombo, Chibhebhe, Matibenga, senior opposition MDC official, Grace Kwinje and Raymond Majongwe, the president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), among others.

The planned marches which were slated for 12.30 pm until 2pm on 13 September 2006, had been called to demand for minimum wages and salaries commensurate with the Poverty Datum Line (PDL) which was last month pegged at Z$84 million, reduction in income tax to a maximum of 30 percent and that workers salaries below the PDL should not be taxed.

Heavily armed police patrolled the CBD and sealed off roads leading to Munhumutapa Building which houses the Offices of the President and Cabinet and Parliament Building. The security cordon follows a dire warning by President Robert Mugabe that the government would ruthlessly deal with any planned mass actions and demonstrations.

Visit the MISA-Zimbabwe 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