WOZA women released without bail after 3 nights in crowded cells

By Tererai Karimakwenda
17 February 2006

A group of women from the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) appeared before a Harare magistrate Friday afternoon facing charges under the Miscellaneous Offences Act. 64 women remained out of a group of nearly 300 who were arrested Tuesday at a Valentines Day march near parliament. The others had been forced to pay admission of guilt fines by the police, who the women say were using dirty tactics to compel them to pay for their freedom. Lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe told us Friday that police deprived many women of food, water and toilets, creating an uncomfortable situation that gave them no choice but to pay. The 64 who were left by Friday refused to admit any guilt, and the magistrate who dealt with the case released them on free bail. They were remanded until March 3rd, and might at that time be given a trial date.

We contacted the police spokesman assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena for comment on the allegations by women who had paid fines and were released earlier this week. Bvudzijena denied all the allegations saying: “What kind of people do you think we are?” He said the women have an agenda and are willing participants who were paid to participate in the demonstrations. But lawyers from The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who were attending to the women confirmed that food and water had not reached all the women in the cells. Tafadzwa Mugabe said it was only the women closest to the reception area where the food was brought in that got to have some. Those deep in the crowded cell did not get to eat every day.

Mugabe also told us the cells were filthy, with urine and excrement on the floor. They were also so overcrowded that the women spent the nights and days standing. At one point they were left in the blistering sun in a courtyard for hours. Bvudzijena denied this as well. Challenged to explain why the women had been arrested in the first place, he said the Public Order and Security Act required them to apply for permission to march, and they had chosen not to abide by the law. But lawyer Mugabe said the police were charging the women under the Miscellaneous Offences Act, for breaching the peace. Mugabe also explained that civic organisations like WOZA are exempt from section 24 of POSA anyway, which requires police notification.

We also contacted a police official known as Mhondoro, who the women accused of assaulting them while in custody. Mhondoro answered his phone and acknowledged the name, but claimed he knew nothing of the WOZA women’s plight. Yet the number we phoned was the one Mhondoro himself gave to the women, and he hung up when confronted with accusations of assault.