Missing WOZA activist found
21 April 2007

Scores of WOZA activists who were arrested on Thursday for protesting at the ZESA offices were released on Friday afternoon. But several people are said to have been badly beaten including Clarah Makoni and Angeline Karuru who had taken food to the victims at one of the police stations. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams told us both girls were severely assaulted before they were released.

There had been concern for 18 year old Clarah’s safety as she had been reported missing after she returned to the police station to bring food for others in custody on Thursday. A WOZA statement on Saturday said Clarah returned home safe late Friday night.

It turns out the police told her to go away with the food because her name was not on any lists. As she left two plain-clothed men approached and identified themselves as police officers who wanted to know where Magodonga Mahlangu and Jenni Williams lived. They told her she was under arrest and allowed her to phone Mahlangu from a phone shop. She was forced into a cream Kombi waiting nearby with two other officers and taken to Fairbridge police camp, approximately 20km outside of Bulawayo. WOZA said this is a place where police officers are taken to be “disciplined”.

According to the WOZA statement, she was made to watch other people being tortured by plain-clothed officers until 8.30 at night. The police then took her into the bush nearby and interrogated her about Jenni Williams and about WOZA’s sources for funding. Clarah insisted she could not answer their questions, and as punishment, they forced to crawl under an electric fence. The statements said the activist escaped into the bush and found her way to the main road where a passer-by gave her a lift back to Bulawayo in her torn, filthy clothing.

She was immediately taken for medical treatment because she was vomiting and urinating blood. According to WOZA, Clarah had been beaten in police custody on Thursday by Sergeant George Levison Ngwenya and Detective Assistant Inspector Tshuma. This aggravated earlier injuries from beatings received in February.