Victim/ Concerned Party

Violation/ Event/issue

Date

Status of matter

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications

The Committee grilled the Acting Minister on Transport and Communications Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana on what steps where being taken to allow the easy entry of private players into the broadcasting sector.

11 September 2006

Mangwana told the Committee there would be no policy shift concerning the issue of foreign ownership in the broadcasting sector despite recommendations submitted by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe.

Mike Saburi, freelance cameraperson, and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders

Armed riot police sealed off Harare’s central business district and arrested Saburi and ZCTU leaders ahead of a planned demonstration against the worsening economic hardships.

13 September 2006

ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo, Vice President Lucia Matibenga, secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe, Raymond Majongwe, the president of the Progressive Teachers Union, Grace Kwinje, a senior official with the opposition MDC, and 20 others were among those arrested and detained in Harare.

ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe.

Detained and brutally assaulted by police following their arrest on 13 September 2006. Chibhebhe was hospitalised following the brutal attacks.

14 September 2006

Police recorded their warned and cautioned statements and indicated that they planned to charge them for contravening Section 37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act) which deals with violations of public peace or bigotry.

Mike Saburi, a freelance cameraperson and ZCTU leaders.

Saburi arrested together with the ZCTU leaders ahead of the planned demonstration on 13 September 2006 were released on bail after being charged with contravening Section 37 (1) (b) Chapter 9:23 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The section deals with conduct likely to breach public peace.

15 September 2006

Remanded to 3 October 2006 on Zimdollars 20 000 (USd 80) bail each.

President Robert Mugabe

President Mugabe defends the brutal police attacks against leaders of the ZCTU despite international condemnation and increasing demands for full investigations into the assaults which led to the hospitalisation of secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe.

25 September 2006

President Mugabe said the ZCTU leaders got the treatment they deserved.

National Constitutional Assembly (NCA).

Ten members of the NCA were injured, five of them seriously, when police disrupted a planned demonstration in Harare to press for a new democratic constitution.

25 September 2006

The assault came a few days after President Robert Mugabe defended the brutal police attacks against leaders of the ZCTU.

SW Radio Africa (SWRA).

SWRA said it continued to experience jamming problems which affect its signal in some parts of the country especially in Harare.

28 September 2006

Gerry Jackson of SWRA told MISA-Zimbabwe that once a signal is jammed there is not much that can be done to overcome the problem.

MISA-Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe

The three media bodies which constitute the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) were branded "regime change activists" by the state-controlled Media and Information Commission. The MIC statement was issued on the eve of a two-day parliamentary lobbying conference organised by MAZ to push for the repeal of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Public Order and Security Act and Broadcasting Services Act.

29 September 2006.

MISA-Zimbabwe dismissed the MIC statement as not warranting any serious attention saying the Commission’s chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso will go to any lengths to protect his job which comes by way of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act which created the statutory MIC.