NCA demonstrators arrested in central Harare

By Tichaona Sibanda
11 May 2006

Close to 50 National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) activists were picked up by the police in central Harare during a street protest calling for a new constitution in Zimbabwe.

Columbus Mavhunga NCA information officer told us from Harare Thursday that some of the activists were assaulted by police in riot gear near the Parliament building. He said the demonstrators who numbered close to 200 distributed fliers during their short march in central Harare. It’s alleged some were chanting anti-government songs and dancing as they went along.

‘We are not happy with the current constitution we have in this country. Also we were commemorating the first anniversary of the worst tragedy in human nature when over a million people were displaced by the government last beginning on the 19th of May,’ Mavhunga said.

He said that under a new constitution, destructive operations like Murambatsvina would become illegal in Zimbabwe.

The demonstration on Thursday clashed with a presidential motorcade near the Parliament building. Mavhunga said Mugabe’s motorcade appeared from nowhere when the protestors were already along Nelson Mandela avenue from Julius Nyerere avenue.

This forced the heavily armed police details to surround the demonstrators, most of them young men and women. They were bundled into police vehicles taken to Harare Central police station where they are awaiting charges.