WOZA members walk free

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* Officers threaten severe beatings *8th court victory

BULAWAYO - One hundred and fifty-two members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, (WOZA) including 30 members of Men of Zimbabwe Arise, walked free from court on Tuesday. The state, represented by rosecutor, Mr Manata, withdrew charges before plea citing lack of evidence to support the case. Magistrate Msipha presided over the case.
The members were being charged under Chapter 37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act – ‘participating in a public gathering with the intent to cause public disorder, breach of peace or bigotry’.
WOZA said the prosecutor was overheard bearing down on the state witnesses just before the trial, for writing ‘useless’ statements, which he said, were too watery and could not be used to pin down WOZA.
The frustrated Law and Order officers were later heard devising strategies to be employed to stifle future dissent by WOZA members, among which were thorough beatings to cow the members. Another officer replied saying ‘ but these do not run away, they will just sit down and wait for us to stop’.
Riot police arrested WOZA members as they were marching towards the RBZ offices where they intended to hand over an open letter to Gideon Gono. The peaceful protest started at 11am at the Post Office in Main Street. As the procession turned into Leopold Takawira St, to go to the Reserve Bank, police appeared and stopped the march, arresting the members. Over 20 members, many of them minors were subjected to different forms of torture whilst in the offices of the Law and Order Department. They were made to sit on ‘air chairs’ and beaten under their feet.
Advocate Perpetua Dube, a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, defended the women. This is the eighth court victory for WOZA members.
The organisation’s leadership declared it a victory for economic reforms. “By withdrawing charges against us, we take it that it is a confirmation that Gono has a case to answer. We marched to demand economic reforms not just a slashing of zeroes and we have been vindicated. You cannot criminalize the speaking of the truth. So we say once again to Gideon Gono – if you want to be a hero you must slash more than a zero!” they said. – Own correspondent