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A short diary of events on the day of Morgan Tsvangirai-s acquittal on charges of treason
Michael Laban (former City of Harare Councillor)
October 18, 2004

Well, I almost made it into the Daily Mirror on Saturday - there on page 2 in the article headed "Mirror Staffers Arrested". The last sentence says, "Angus Shaw, a freelance photographer, was also arrested." I know the next sentence was going to say "former-Councillor Laban was also illegally detained for the day, along with about 12 old women who were holding a prayer vigil." Apparently it is against the law to take pictures, or to pray. Perhaps some background is needed.

I went down town on Friday. Like thousands of others, and it would appear hundreds of thousands of police. I was stopped at the intersection of Second Street and Samora Machel and told I could not go up Samora Machel to the High Court, nor could I even continue to walk along that side of the street. After some discussion a man in civilian clothes came up and asked what I wanted. I told him the same story, and he said I could not go up. I asked who he was, and if he was a policeman. He said he was not, so I said, since we were both civilians, I would just stand and chat with him. He then turned to the riot policewoman beside him and said, "Put cuffs on him". I decided that he really did not want to have a conversation, and also that he was a liar when he said he was not a policeman, and I crossed the street where I found a friend to talk with (from the MDC District Executive) as we walked along.

I met many more people in my strolling after that. Former Councillors L. P. Mushonga, K. Nemachena, N. Bangajena, and then Ian Makoni and Eddie Cross. Eddie Cross told me that the police had taken him around the corner and "given him some whacks", and he limped a bit. I enjoyed the fly past and looked at the police horses, but the police to a man (or person) did not know why they were there. They all just knew it as "an event", and I had to explain to all of them that it was Morgan Tsvangirai's treason trial result.

Finally, I met Dale Dore. I took a picture of him (my second picture, the first was of the National Gallery) and we sat down to discuss Council, and specific issues around it. Then the police came along and said, "Come with us". There were four of them. I asked why, and was told that, "I would be told", and "don't make me use my baton on you". I asked if I was under arrest, and again told, "you will be told". So I walked across Kwame Nkruma to a police Land Rover, and everyone started issuing orders. "Get in the back", "just wait for instructions", "show us what is in your bag", "do you have a camera?" So I opened my bag and showed them everything, including an apple. Now the one yells, "Are you trying to make us look stupid, I said camera and you show me an apple!" "No", I respond truthfully, (they do not need help being made to look stupid) "I was told to show you what is in the bag, and here it is, an apple". After a bit more of this, I get into the back, still asking if I am under arrest, and not being told.

At Harare Central my ID particulars are taken by the riot police in the Land Rover. In the car park, my ID particulars are again taken, and again I ask if I am under arrest, and what charges and if I am detained. Again, "You will be told."

An officer from Police Intelligence branch in a brightly coloured tie takes me to his office, and seems unconcerned that I am talking on my cell phone while we go upstairs. He takes my ID particulars, and will not tell me if I am under arrest. He asks for my story. I explain the City Council and show him my picture on his wall (Mayor and Councillors are up almost as often as President Mugabe). He asks about the camera, and I finally discover the reason for being taken in - "suspected journalist". Well, I am not a reporter, I do theatre lights, but that does not seem to matter.

I am then taken across to Law and Order. All this time I have still been talking on my phone, and sending and receiving text messages, and Dale has rung up to say the result is out, Tsvangirai has been acquitted. So I tell everyone.

At Law and Order I am taken to one room with lots of people sitting on the floor (Angus Shaw, the women, etc.) and my ID particulars are taken again. I show the camera again and it is given back to me again. I ask if I am under arrest and I am told, "you will be told". I am then taken to another office where a man behind the desk is talking on two telephones and listening to the police radio. And my phone rings again. He gets very agitated, and screams at me to turn my phone off, so I do. He asks who I am, looks at my ID, his phones ring some more, and I am ushered out, never to see him again!

Back in the room with all the people I am told to sit. Not on the benches - they are for officers - but on the floor. I say I am not going to sit on the floor. I am not under arrest; I am not accused of any crime that I know of, so why should I sit on the floor. So I stand. Several police officers tell me to sit. The people on the floor tell me to sit, because I will not win. I explain that we will win (meaning the longer struggle), and that I am not compelled to follow orders from people who are acting unlawfully. After a short while, I am told by one place officer to take the chair from that wall, but I must sit at the other wall. So I do it.

After some hours (around 1400), a more senior officer comes in and reviews everyone by the notes written on pieces of paper. Most of it is in Shona, so I pick up only bits of it. Everyone remains sitting on the floor, and passes their IDs without standing up - sliding across the floor on bottoms if necessary.

When he gets to me, I stand up, walk across the room, give him my ID, and return to my chair. He tells me to sit down - unnerved by the whole thing. He asks me why I am here. I ask him to tell me, and ask if I am under arrest, and for what reason I am being detained. I explain that I have been asking since being picked up if I am under arrest, and that unless I am being charged with something I am being kept illegally, and I will sue for false arrest. He now has to think a bit, then declares that I am being held for "participating in an unlawful demonstration," and that threats to sue him will not intimidate him from doing his job, and I will be told how they will proceed at the end of the day. That is the end of my interview.

While he is dealing with Angus Shaw, there is a great deal of commotion outside. Someone is shouting for Angus Shaw, the door is slammed shut, she is yelling "Is Angus Shaw in there?" the police are yelling "NO". I am yelling, "Yes, he's in here," while the police are cautioning Shaw that he is not to say anything or make a sound. I am saying that it is only polite - someone calls for your name, you should answer him or her. There is a lot more rushing about, doors slamming, people going back and forth, and then the woman, who I now know is Beatrice Mtetwa, is standing outside the closed door, dictating in a loud, clear and precise voice, the details of an urgent court application for Shaw's release, "unlawful and unjustified detention." A real performance from a fighter.

After this, the two Daily Mirror reporters are led in, and Tichaona Chifambe just takes a chair and sits beside me on the "non-police officer" side of the room. We chat a bit. I read the Economist and give my apple to one of the old women. People go in and out to the toilet. It is all very boring. The big threat is that it will be very boring for the whole weekend since it is Friday.

Finally, at about 1600, I am taken out and put into a senior officers office. I stand around for a bit, and am then told to wait in another office with two others. For much of the time we are left alone in the office, looking out the window at the bus terminus outside (through the panes of glass that are still there, and not the broken ones that are covered by bits of cardboard) and free, if I felt like being a snoop (or a good journalist), to read the notices on the walls, look in the officers diaries and address books and all the papers left on the desks. It all seems a strange way to conduct business to me.

Then I am taken back in to the first office and meet the senior officer
(another one). He tells me to take the film out of the camera, leave it here and go home with the camera and that I cannot have the film. It is against the law to take pictures of police officers. I have to explain, again, what a disposable camera is and that there is no separate film. I cannot take it out. He is perplexed like all the other officers before him (I did not think disposable cameras were so rare!) and eventually we agree to leave the camera there, and I can come back on Monday.

Now I am left standing in the hallway waiting for an officer to escort me out, while everyone delegates the job to someone below him or her. The officer I threatened to sue goes back into the senior officers room to check that I am really being let go, and finally a junior leads me away to the front door. It is pouring with rain but a friend, who takes me and my bicycle home, rescues me and life continues.

To me, it is very evident that the police are seriously over-stretched, and under funded. They have no lights and no windowpanes. They lack paper. But most of all they lack legitimacy, and any pretence of law and order. They only manage to do the poor job they do by intimidation and threats. They constantly maintain that your rights have been forfeit when you get into a police station. And faced with someone like me who maintains that you cannot take a Zimbabweans rights away, they are at a serious disadvantage. However I must say that I found their threats to be very intimidating. I did not want to stay in for the weekend. I did not want to be there for even another hour. I fully understand why the two Daily Mirror staff signed admissions of guilt - even though they had press cards.

So what is to be done? The police have taken it upon themselves to be investigators, judges, and executioners.

• They picked me up unlawfully - I was not charged, nor informed of the reasons even for my "investigation").
• I was not tried, not even by a police kangaroo court. I never met my accusers - "I was seen taking pictures", no evidence was presented - the pictures are still undeveloped, and I never put my case forward because I was never really told what law I had violated.
• The police punished me. I was deprived of my liberty for most of a day. There are many more who have suffered corporal punishment at the hands of the police, such as Eddie Cross the same day. Worse punishments have been given, if any of the stories are to be believed.

A big part of me would like to sue for false arrest (or whatever it is). If the police are not brought to task, nothing will change, and they will continue to give unsatisfactory service to the people of Zimbabwe. Service that we are paying for directly, with taxes, and indirectly, with the loss of investment, flight of skills, rise of corruption and other crime, and all the counter-development aspects that come with a break down of law and order. And the downward spiral will continue. As long as the police are allowed to use unlawful means, they will lose the respect that should be theirs as the legitimate enforcers of law and order. And when they lose that respect, they will have to resort to further unlawful means. Hence the downward spiral.

However, I lack the resources to sue the police. No lawyer, nor funds to pay for one. In addition, there is the part of me that is afraid to do what I know is right. I'm also advised that by the time it gets to court, it will be to late. But will it ever be to late? When there is a new regime, will that not be too late already? Just as Zanu PF kept the Rhodesian Front's Law and Order Maintenance Act, will there not be a temptation to keep "things that work" along into a new order? Should we not start building democracy at the grass roots now, or afterwards? Is the struggle for democracy, or for a new order?

The other most annoying advice from almost everyone is to stay low and mind my own business. Try other means. I even had one man in the Reps bar ask why those women were praying in public? He prays for change, but does so in private. Basically those women are silly for annoying the current regime. What he was saying, to put it another way, is that we must censor ourselves, and keep one step ahead of the regime in suppressing ourselves. And even before praying in public is made illegal we should ban ourselves from doing it. This is the same as the graffiti advice "Help the police. Stay home and beat yourself up".

Anyways, I was out for the weekend. I did lights for the Bulawayo show "Dance Spectacular", which was very good, and on Sunday helped move in for "Jesus Christ Superstar" which opens on Wednesday at Reps. And I know I am going to enjoy every performance of it.

Zvakanaka
Michael - mlaban@mango.zw

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