referendum. The highest number of recorded violations during the month of March was in 2009 just
a month after the formation of the inclusive government with 1552 cases.
February
On 4 February, police in Lupane, Matabeleland North Province, arrested two National Youth
Development Trust (NYDT) members and charged them with contravening the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly possessing voter registration receipts. The NYDT members
Brilliant Goboza (22) and Ray Ncube (19) were arrested and charged with “possession of articles
for criminal use” after they were allegedly found with a number of receipts issued at the Registrar
General’s Office when one registers as a voter. The two were later freed on Wednesday 6 February
2013 after spending two nights in police custody.
On 6 February – p police intensified the onslaught against civil society organisations after they raided
the offices of the National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) in Bulawayo in search of some “voter
registration certificates”. Four police officers, who were led by Detective Inspector Boora and who
were armed with a search warrant permitting them to conduct the search, raided NYDT offices at
LAPF House in Bulawayo, where they confiscated some workshop schedule documents including a
registration form filled in and signed by some workshop participants.
Again on 6 February, police interrogated two Habakkuk Trust leaders for allegedly inciting hatred
among employees of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) after participants who
attended a meeting convened by the organisation demanded improved service delivery in the area.
On 11 February, police intensified their crackdown on civil society organisations by raiding the offices
of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) and seized several documents and other materials. The 7 police
officers led by Detective Assistant Nyoni charged that there were reasonable grounds that ZPP was in
possession of some articles which the organisation intended to use for criminal use in contravention
of Section 40 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. According to the search warrant the
police were searching for “any subversive material, documents, gadgets or recordings, any illegal
immigrants” After the three-hour raid and search, the police seized some documents and other items
including 4 mobile phone handsets, solar powered and wind up radios that receive both short wave
and frequency modulation, files with donor information, political violence reports and DVD’s. The
mobile phones that were confiscated like all other smart phones that are used by the majority of
citizens in Zimbabwe had Geographic Positioning System (GPS). No-one was arrested on the day of
the raid but the police indicated that they were going to “study” the confiscated information.
On 13 February, police officers from Police Reaction Group (PRG) arrested and assaulted nine
members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), who staged a protest outside Parliament
building in Harare CBD before releasing them the same day. The police assaulted the WOZA
members, who included leader Jenni Williams, before being taken to the Harare Central Police
Station. The WOZA members, who sustained injures during the attack, filed a complaint for assault
against the police officers who instigated the attack.
On 15 February, the police intercepted a workshop being conducted by the Centre for Community
Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ) at the Church of Christ in Chegutu. They arrested the CCDZ
Programme Officer George Makoni and his local contact person Gift Konjani for organising an
illegal political meeting. The police detained them for three days.
On 19 February, the police raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and
confiscated several documents belonging to the country’s largest election monitoring body. Eight
police officers led by Detective Assistant Inspector J.P Mudyirwa put down a security wall at the ZESN
head office in Belgravia, where they searched the organisation’s offices for “subversive material,
documents, gadgets, recordings and illegal immigrants”. The police officers, who were armed with
a search warrant searched and confiscated several documents from the ZESN offices including the
organisation’s media strategy, a draft communication policy, a distribution plan for the Ballot Update,
its newsletter and some other materials.
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