6 place or to arrest or disperse those attending the meetings. Although the police have claimed that they are authorized to do this under the draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA) 8 this is not the case9. Although POSA is an extremely repressive piece of legislation, it does not in fact provide the powers that are often claimed by the police. While the police frequently declare that an opposition meeting has been “banned”, they do not have the power to do this unless certain conditions have been met and procedures followed10. Furthermore, even if the meeting has been lawfully proscribed by the police, it is only the convener of the meeting who commits an offence, not those attending the meeting. The frequent arrests of such latter persons is therefore unlawful and an abuse of police power. This abuse has resulted in numerous persons being arrested, detained in custody and then subsequently released after the Attorney-General’s Office has been unable to formulate a legitimate charge against them. After some months of harassing opposition groupings in this manner, the police changed tactic (presumably on account of the drain on resources and the strain the numerous arrests placed on the criminal justice system). In 2006, the police opted to mete out “instant justice”. Instead of arresting and detaining demonstrators, in many instances the police forced the demonstrators to sit or lie on the ground, after which they would be beaten as a group with police batons and then told to disperse with warnings not to participate in future demonstrations11. The events of March 11th are an extreme example of this policy of deterrence. These events are also a further example of the police claiming more powers than are in fact provided under POSA12. On 20th February, 2007 the police announced a three month ban of “rallies and demonstrations” in Harare South, purporting to act under section 27 of POSA. The ban, claiming to cover “rallies” was interpreted to include any political gathering. The ban was unlawful on several grounds. Among other things, section 27 of POSA only allows a ban of demonstrations, not public meetings which are differently defined. The ban on demonstrations is only permitted for one month and not three13. The unlawful ban was subsequently extended to other areas in and around Harare. The inclusion in the ZRP reports of public meetings by opposition groups and civics in the list of “criminal activities” is an admission that the police regard such democratic activity as unlawful and are prepared to use their resources to advance the repressive agenda of the government in this regard. Statements made at these meetings in which speakers denounced 8 Chapter 11:17. D. Matyszak: Democratic Space and State Security – Zimbabwe’s Public Order and Security Act available at www.kubatana.com 10 Sections 24 and 25 of POSA. See generally Democratic Space and State Security fn 7 above. 11 In this regard see Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum 2006: Gender Based Violence and Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe. 12 This phenomenon appears to have become common practice in Zimbabwe. 13 The error of the ZRP in this regard was probably from the result of an error in the electronic version of the legislation. 9