Police arrest over 100 WOZA women at peaceful Bulawayo demonstration

By Tererai Karimakwenda
13 February 2006

Hundreds of women and students took part in a peaceful Valentine’s Day march that caught police by surprise in Bulawayo on Monday morning. Members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and students from The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) marched through central Bulawayo for eight blocks to the government offices at Mhlanhlandlela, singing and holding placards with the theme of this year- ‘bread and roses’. This symbolizes a call by the women for the need for daily survival and the right to a dignified life.

The event had been scheduled and advertised for Tuesday, which is the 14th of February and Valentine’s Day. But organizers now familiar with police tactics changed it to a day earlier, and the police were not prepared. But riot police arrived as the march ended and the women were beginning to disperse. Annie Sibanda of WOZA told us about 120 women and 2 WOZA men were arrested, along with a 14-month old baby named Yolanda.
WOZA coordinators Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were among the women arrested. Sibanda said lawyers representing the WOZA members had not been allowed access as of Monday afternoon. The police told them the women were still being processed.

There are unconfirmed reports that Jenni Williams was separated from the others, and that many of the women were left outside in the courtyard in torrential rain. It is not clear what the charges are, but Sibanda told us the women simply sang as they marched and distributed red roses, valentine cards, and the latest edition of their newsletter, Woza Moya. The public is reported to have responded positively, with many people accepting the flowers and cards, and others even joining in the march. MDC activist Swithern Chirowodza joined the women in solidarity and was also promptly picked up by police before being released on the same day. He told Newsreel how he wished he had been put in the same cell as the WOZA women. They were singing and dancing in their cells and he says he wanted to be part of that defiance.

WOZA members organize demonstrations against the high cost of living and human rights abuses several times every year. Coordinators Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu have been arrested along with many brave members and supporters on several occasions but they keep bringing their message of love back to the streets regardless. They have also never been convicted of any crime. Last year a group of WOZA women marched from Bulawayo to Harare, some with babies on their backs.

It remains to be seen what the women are being charged with, but The General Laws Amendment Act signed into law last week by vice president Mujuru increases fines for arrests under The Public Order and Security Act.