ZIMBABWEAN authorities have intensified a crackdown against perceived dissent by arresting more people on the eve of the troubled southern African country hosting a meeting of leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional bloc.
In Harare, some unidentified people on Thursday 15 August 2024 raided the residence of Hon. Costa Machingauta, a former opposition Citizens Coalition for Change political party legislator, during the night and forcibly took him and held him incommunicado after roughing up his minor children.
Lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) later located Hon. Machingauta at Harare Central Police, where Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers charged him with public violence.
In Gokwe in Midlands province, ZRP officers arrested 12 people, whom they accused of having participated in an anti-government demonstration, where they allegedly denounced President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his administration including his assumption of the position of SADC Chairperson at a meeting of the regional bloc’s leaders scheduled to be held in Harare on Saturday 17 August.
The Gokwe villagers, who are represented by ZLHR, include Enios Siacheya, Mike Gibson, Manka Ncube, Tendai Dube, Rosemary Mangwaira, Mary Siankumbile, Queen Sianjama, Egnes Siabwela, Dickson Mbelele and Beauty Chuma.
ENDS
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Kodzero/Amalungelo House
No. 103 Sam Nujoma Street, Harare, Zimbabwe
Phone: (+263 8677005347, +263 242 764085/705370/708118
Email: info@zlhr.org
www.zlhr.org.zw
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