Back to Index

WOZA members discharged - fifth court victory declared
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
October 03, 2006

Four Women Of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members walked away free after the State withdrew charges following a plea of not guilty.

The women were arrested at Matshobana Hall on June 16 2004 while conducting a meeting about Self Help Projects (jam making) and were being charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) for failing to notify regulating authorities.

Handing down the judgement, the Magistrate, Ms Duta, found the women not guilty and said there had been no need for them to seek police clearance before convening the meeting.

Making his submission to the court, the prosecutor, Mr Ndebele, said it had not been necessary for the women to seek permission from regulatory authorities as chapters 25 and 26 of the Public Order and Security Act stipulate that permission should only be sought if such a meeting has potential to cause public disorder or breach of peace, which had not been the case.

Ndebele also questioned the rationale behind turning some of the women into state witnesses when they had attended the meeting in question and should have been charged together with other WOZA members. He also went on to absolve himself by saying that police had then not prepared witness statements necessary to make a case.

It came to light after the trial that Law and Order officials interrogated and threatened with unspecified action the state witnesses (WOZA members) if they did not tell the "truth" just before the trial. This interrogation took place in a room upstairs within the Western Commonage Courts. The women insisted that they would only give evidence as to the jam making meeting and knew of no other business on the day in question.

Commenting on the evidence presented by the police, which included a survey found at the meeting venue and two responses to the survey questions, Ndebele said the survey was not in any way political and the survey questions, had they been found to be political, would not have incriminated WOZA members as the views belonged to participants and not the organisers.

Advocate Perpetua Dube, a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, defended the women.

Nine other women, arrested on 19 June 2004 during a peaceful demonstration, will be charged under the Miscellaneous Offences Act on 4 October. They will be on one of the courtrooms on the second floor at the Bulawayo Magistrates' Court.

As well as these two trials taking place this week, 107 and 153 WOZA members will also be in remand court on 5th and 10th in Harare and Bulawayo respectively. WOZA invites anybody who wishes to show solidarity with the women to attend the proceedings.

Details of the allegations and names of those on trial are available on request.

Visit the WOZA 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