A recent update from the MDC shares the news of Shakespeare Mukoyi‘s release, after four nights in police custody and following his assault by police. Mukoyi was arrested with fellow congregants at a prayer for peace gathering on Saturday. The others were released on Monday:

Shakespeare Mukoyi, the MDC Harare Youth Assembly vice chairperson who was arrested and beaten by police at a peace prayer church service on Saturday was released on free bail on Wednesday. He was arrested with 12 other people who were released on Monday. Mukoyi who appeared in court with a neck brace after he was seriously assaulted by the police will appear in court on 18 May. He is facing allegations of assaulting a police officer on the day he was arrested.

Rumours of a revolution in Zimbabwe have been greatly exaggerated. Filled with hope but little practical knowledge, several unidentified groups took to Facebook in an attempt to replicate the Egyptian revolution here. These attempts have failed because as Ghandi says ‘Revolution has had no blueprint, and all the blueprints that were written before a revolution never proved true.’

In my recent interview with Professor John Makumbe, this is what he had to say about the failed Facebook attempt:

It failed because everybody knew it was organised from the Diaspora, and the Diaspora has no business organising people in Zimbabwe. It is when people organise through cyberspace in Zimbabwe so that the cyberspace communication is reinforced by clandestine on the ground assurance that things will happen. People are very keen to do it, but they will not do it without knowing someone who is going to be part of it, or someone who is organising it, or someone to whom they will cry if things don’t go well. And it must be someone local. Not someone toying with cyberspace in the Diaspora from the comfort of one bedroom with a large screen television in the hope that they can mobilise the poor people to hit the streets. From there no!

Eddson Chakuma is a Trade Unionist who was arrested with Munyaradzi Gwisai for attending a meeting to discuss the political events in Egypt. Following his release on bail, Eddson Chakuma was suspended from his job at the United Food & Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe due to the time he missed from work when he was imprisoned. He now has no way to sustain himself.

Please narrate the events leading up to your suspension?
The three of us who had presented (at the meeting) myself another student representative and another lecturer were beaten so that we would testify that we were planning to subvert a Constitutional government. After that we were taken to court and placed on remand. On the 17th of March we were placed on two thousand dollars bail. I returned to work after my release and worked for almost a week. I was told to write a report about my continuous absence from work. I wrote it, explaining how I was arrested for attending an educational programme at Zimbabwe Labour Centre. Two days after submitting my report I was informed that I was to attend a hearing concerning my misconduct. Up to now I’m waiting for the verdict of the hearing.

What was your presentation about?
My presentation was about the problems of the workers. I talked about the how dollarization has adversely affected pension schemes. Workers who have worked for almost 30 years were given small amounts of pension. Pension houses were saying that their savings had been eroded by inflation. Another problem is casualisation, which is rampant in industry, as well as subcontracting.

In your opinion was any of what happened in that meeting an attempt to subvert a constitutional government?
There was nothing like that. We had been talking about the problems of the workers, the lessons which we learnt from the revolutions happening in Egypt and Tunisia vis-a-vis capitalism, socialism and imperialism. There was no plan to subvert the government. It wasn’t about the government, but about capitalism, imperialism and socialism, which have to go if Zimbabwe or even Africa is to come out of capitalism.

Then how do you feel about your detention?
It pained me. I was subjected to torture. Even when I told them what I had presented they kept on torturing me, they wanted me to say something that we didn’t plan or do.

Are you angry?
Sure I’m angry! If you face a situation where your colleagues don’t visit you in prison, they don’t support you financially. After coming out of prison where I’m facing a treason charge, which has a penalty of death or life imprisonment and somebody cuts your salary, suspends you and makes you write a report…it’s devastating. That person wants you to suffer more than what you have already suffered.

How has your detention affected your family?
When we were arrested it was toward the end of the month. My wife had to run around to look for money for utility bills, transport to visit me in prison… this was a big problem.

Judging from the hearing you had last week, do you feel hopeful that your suspension will be reversed?
I think there’s a 50-50 chance. The panel that was there was questionable. I’ve worked with some of the guys on the panel before and find it unfair that they put a panel of guys whom I’ve worked with and have at times had clashes with in terms of being voted into some posts. For me to become a unionist I had to battle it out with some of the guys who were on that panel.

The Youth Forum in a recent statement remind Zimbabwe’s authoritarian government that people power might well be coming to get them.

The capture and demise of Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivorian despot who refused to cede power after losing an election in November 2010 is testimony to the fact that dictators will not always have their way especially when the people have had their say as the people of Ivory Coast did in November 2010. While such news will obviously attract scorn and spite from like-minded dictators and sympathizers of despotic regimes, it is indeed sweet news for the people of Ivory Coast and other pro-democracy voices across the continent and the world.

As young people in Zimbabwe, we feel very inspired by the struggle of the people of Ivory Coast and take heart to the fact that even in the face of repression of the highest order, the forces of good always triumph against evil. We also feel encouraged that Gbagbo even after having sent his envoy to Harare to get a few notes on how to stay in power after losing an election, eventually could not have it his way. His capture while holed up in his fortified bunker reminds us of the same demise of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraq strongman.

As the Youth Forum, we take this opportunity to urge our politicians in Zimbabwe to be always mindful of the fact that real power lies with the people and it is the people who always have the final say. As the country gears for elections which shall signal the end of the current inclusive government, we urge all the political players in the country to genuinely work towards ensuring that the next elections are convened in an environment that allows the people to have the final say. We also urge SADC as the guarantors of the GPA to continue tightening the screws on our political players to ensure that the next election will not be fraudulent or is not again stolen by the loser. We again urge SADC to heed the winds of change that are sweeping across the African continent, long considered as the last den of dictators. The days of African ‘dictatorship’ disguised as African ‘brotherhood’ are long gone and the world as we know it has become less tolerant of dictators.

The other day I went to Surveyor General’s office to get a 1:50 000 scale map. Like I have been doing since 1971. Same thing, walk in front door, into maps on the left, ground floor. Find index, find map sheet reference. Take it to staff, they send off to the storeroom, and along comes the map. Check it, it is the one I want, pay for it, get receipt, exit to Samora Machel. Fast, efficient, courteous, fine service.

But not this time! Service is good, as always (although there was a shortage of maps at one stage), but they won’t take my money. I have to go to the tenth floor to pay, bring back receipt. I do this. And on the way up, (the lift works, but it is slow getting there, and there are still ten floors to be lifted through), I am thinking. This is life in a dictatorship.

It is all central. Power, and authority, derive from the centre. It all must go to, and come from, the middle. Gone are the days when you could pay the clerk, check your receipt, walk out the door. ‘Authority’ no longer comes from the people. From basic morals. Common sense. Logic. ‘Authority’ only comes from the centre (from where POWER also comes). Reminds me of High School (and that is a while back) learning definitions to spice up essays with. ‘Realpolitik’ the concept that decisions are divorced from moral considerations – dictated by the necessities of power and judged only by success.

So, since the power and authority derive from the middle (where decisions are made), and not from the people (who have the needs, the wants, the common sense, the simple decency, the basic morals), or even from the rule books (constitution, legislation, codes of conduct), it follows that ‘activity’ (especially financial) must also be done in the centre. After all, we have leadership by example.

The people on the ground floor cannot handle money.

This statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights shares the latest on the congregants who were arrested at a prayer for peace on Saturday.

Police maliciously incarcerate Mukoyi as they release 12 others on summons

Police on Monday 11 April 2011 kept in custody Shakespeare Mukoyi, one of the congregants who was arrested on Saturday 9 April 2011, when police suppressed a church service and released 12 pastors and congregants, who were arrested while attending the prayer meeting in Glen Norah suburb of Harare.

The police released the 12 congregants, who include Pastors Pastor Mukome, the Resident Priest at the Nazarene Church, Pastor Isaya on Monday evening after charging them with contravening Section 36 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and indicated that they would proceed by way of summons if need be.

After the release of the other congregants police detained Mukoyi overnight in grubby police cells at Harare Central Police Station and pressed another charge of assault against him. The police, who recorded a warned and cautioned statement from Mukoyi on Tuesday 12 April 2011 in the presence of his lawyer Marufu Mandevere of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni Legal Practitioners, who is a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights charged him with contravening Section 89 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

By lunchtime on Tuesday, the police had not yet taken Mukoyi to court as they were reportedly waiting to be furnished with medical affidavits detailing the injuries sustained by the police officer who was allegedly assaulted by Mukoyi.

Mukoyi and 13 other congregants were arrested by anti-riot police on Saturday 9 April 2011 during a church service organised to pray for peace in Glen Norah. But one juvenile was released after the arrest on Saturday before the police freed 12 congregants on Monday night on summons.