MDC women call for immediate release of WOZA leaders

By Alex Bell
29 September 2011

The MDC Women’s Assembly has called for the immediate release of the leaders of pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), who have been jailed for more than a week.

Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu are still being held in custody at Mlondolozi prison after their arrest last Wednesday. The pair was arrested along with 10 other WOZA members during a peaceful march, which was violently disrupted by riot police.

The 10 other women were released last Thursday after ‘criminal nuisance’ charges against them were dropped.

But Williams and Mahlangu have been charged with ‘kidnapping’ and ‘theft’, which WOZA have called ‘malicious’ and ‘spurious’ allegations.

This sentiment has been echoed by the MDC’s Women’s Assembly, which said in a statement on Thursday that it “stands firmly behind our sisters from WOZA and support their principled and peaceful methods of exposing the vicious dictatorship that the people of Zimbabwe are living under.”

“As the Women’s Assembly we dare ask what harm can these poor women cause by marching for peace? The same women have been arrested in the past for dishing out red roses on Valentine’s Day! This would have been funny if it was not tragic,” the Women’s Assembly said.

Williams and Mahlangu have been denied bail and have been remanded in custody until next month.