ZCTU & MDC leadership beaten and arrested in Harare

By Violet Gonda
13 September 2006

Those arrested Wednesday were still in police custody as we went to air. But we had managed to speak to two of them earlier in the day via mobile phone.

Speaking from custody at Harare Central police Station Grace Kwinjeh, the MDC Deputy Secretary for International Affairs, said riot police broke up the gathering before it had even started at Construction House in Harare and assaulted people.

She was in custody with Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Secretary General Raymond Majongwe and at least 11 others. Kwinjeh said; “We have been arrested. I was beaten up with Kerry Kay, Raymond Majongwe and others.” Kwinjeh said Reuters journalist Mike Sabure was also in custody with them.

She said the police rounded up the leadership as protesters were gathering and some were assaulted in front of the people to humiliate them.

Also speaking by mobile Majongwe said; “It’s not the beatings that matter it’s the commitment that we have shown in the face of such brutality and such violence.”

ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary General Wellington Chibhebhe have also been arrested and are being held at Matapi Police station in Mbare.

Armed police and soldiers have maintained a high presence in the major cities across the country and roads were barricaded, making it difficult for protesters to march.

Several protests against the government and its policies that have destroyed the country had been organised for this week as the situation in Zimbabwe worsens. Organisations planning to demonstrate said their members have been forced to take some form of action however risky to improve their lives in the face of poverty, hunger, oppression and corruption.