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My 28-hour ordeal in police detention
Ndamu Sandu
July 23, 2006

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=21&id=4155

I got wind that members of the Combined Harare Residents- Association (CHRA) were marching to Town House to protest against the collapsed service delivery in the city so I put aside what I was doing and headed for Town House where I saw a group of protesters waving placards crossing Jason Moyo from Rezende Street.

As riot police moved in, most of the demonstrators fled leaving behind their posters.

But 15 CHRA members who had been arrested were ordered to sit on the tarmac while police officers brandishing batons and armed with teargas canisters waited for a truck to ferry them to Harare Central Police Station.

I began interviewing an official from CHRA who had escaped arrest. Meanwhile police were ordering people who had gathered to disperse. I saw three baton-wielding police officers charging at onlookers. One officer in plain clothes seized me from behind and said I was under arrest.

I showed him my Press accreditation, issued by the Media and Information Commission, but he wasn-t interested. Other officers were holding onto Godwin Mangudya, a journalist from the banned Daily News. We were shoved into a Defender truck and thus I began my sojourn as President Mugabe-s guest.

When we arrived at Harare Central an officer asked for our details, which were duly taken down. We were ushered into a small room near the reception. There were already 16 people there. One officer came over, took down our names and said all the 19 people in that room - including Mangudya and myself - were being charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

At 7PM we were called to another room for our supper from well wishers. At 8.30PM we were ordered to go to the fourth floor for a roll call. The process took 30 minutes. We then went back to the reception area to surrender our belongings and shoes.

Around 9.30PM it was time to go to the cells, barefooted. I wondered what crime I had committed to deserve such degrading treatment! All the cells were full. There were 18 of us in the unlit and smelly room.

At 6AM on Thursday everyone woke up for another roll call and then our breakfast. The police had not taken statements from us. I asked one of the officers what I was being charged with.

He said I was part of the demonstration that wanted to remove the government.

When I told him that I was a journalist he said: "mupfana kwaunoshandira hakuiti (young man you work for the wrong institution)."

In the meantime, my colleagues at work were assured by acting Information Minister, Paul Mangwana, that I would be released as soon as possible. At 1PM we went to the reception for our lunch. Then we left for the Law and Order Section. That was the first time we were allowed to meet our lawyers since we were arrested. I was called to the office of the Officer-in-Charge where Detective Inspector Mavunda sat.

There was an old-fashioned typewriter in front of him, which would have proudly sat in any museum. I suspected the old machine was not working for when he interrogated me, he was writing in a diary. I sat on the other side together with my lawyers Lawrence Chibwe, and Wilbert Mandinde from the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Mavunda asked for my Press accreditation. I told him that it was in the lockers. When we returned Mavunda scrutinised the accreditation card for five minutes. He phoned The Standard to verify whether I worked for the newspaper. When he got the confirmation after masquerading as my relative, I saw Chibwe shaking his head in disbelief.

I went back to the small room where my co-accused were paying $250 000 admission of guilt fines. The charge: contravention of Section 7 (b) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act. I paid mine under protest.

We went back to the lockers and collected our belongings. At 5PM I left Harare Central after spending 28 hours there.

I imagined George Charamba, information secretary; talking about image building and wondered whether my arrest was not another own goal by our beleaguered government.

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