had been placed yet interviews with most stakeholders in the areas
that were monitored revealed that those who had put barricades on the
road on 14 January 2019 did not even stay in the areas and most were
unknown to the local residents. To conclude that every man who
resided near where the barricades had been placed was involved in
the placing of barricades and to proceed to conduct door to door
searches and arrest men on this basis was a violation of the personal
liberty of men who had not been involved in the incident, including boys
below the age of 18 years.
9.4.2. In the case of STAMBOLIE V COMMISSIONER OF POLICE 1989 (3)
ZLR 287 (S) it was held that the onus is upon the person making the
arrest to prove that the arrest was lawfully justified. Further, it was held
in the case of MUYAMBO V NGOMAIKARIRA AND OTHERS (HC
5195/09) [2011] ZWHHC 138 (07 JULY 2011) that;
In order to establish the lawfulness of an arrest without a warrant, the onus lies upon the
[arresting authority] to show probable cause or reasonable suspicion. In exercising the
power of arrest, he must act as an ordinary honest man would act, on suspicions which
have a reasonable basis, and not merely on wild suspicion. The arrestor must act on such
circumstances as would ordinarily lead a reasonable man to form the suspicion that the
arrestee has committed an offence. It is not the function of the police to arrest at large
and to use the interrogatory process in order to determine whom to charge. The
deprivation of personal liberty is an odious interference and constitutes a serious
infraction of fundamental rights, attracting an exemplary assessment of reparation.
9.5.
Impact of the protests on businesses and property
9.5.1. The protests negatively impacted on the ordinary citizen’s life as they
became at risk of severe injury or worse. It also caused widespread
damage to property due to acts of vandalism as well as theft by rioters.
The lack of investor confidence was another negative effect on all
sectors of the economy. Those whose property was broken into, looted
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