Judgment No CCZ 4/14 2
Const. Application No SC 207/11
THE BACKGROUND
The applicants were arrested during the course of a demonstration, on 15 April
2010, against what they alleged to be the appalling service provision from the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), and detained at the Harare Central Police Station. The
first applicant is the Director of WOZA.
It was alleged by the first applicant that on arrival at the police station, she was
ordered by police officers at the Law and Order Section to remove her shoes, jacket and
brassiere causing her to remain with a single top and bottom. She felt violated by being
forced to remove such an intimate piece of apparel and deposit it with the police. She was
shocked to be handed a filthy bag in which to place such intimate wearing apparel as well as
her outer clothing and personal belongings and this made the whole exercise ‘all the more
dehumanising’.
She was force marched, barefoot on a dirty floor, to the holding cells where
her senses were assaulted by the choking smell of human excreta and flowing urine of
varying colours. The holding cells were ‘full to overflowing’ with human excreta and the
built-in beds were also covered with the same. The lights did not work and the entire
atmosphere was damp and dark without any fresh air. She spent the night in one of the
corridors huddled up together with second, third and fourth applicants even though urine
flowed there as well.
During the night, she discovered that the toilet was within the cell. When she
needed to relieve herself she had to wade through a pool of urine. The toilets had no running