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.

When the world realizes that an equilibrium can exist and those few at the top can come crashing down with the will of the many then this world, this humanity can be saved. [James Blood, American anarchist]

Yet I figure the few at the top will surely never realise that equilibrium, which could then mean rather ominously that we are in for the long haul. Dictators, like any other foolhardy human, those adrenalin junkies, drag racers for example, who court death as a form of fun, see Gbabgo and others before him and say, that will never happen to me. We heard it from “analysts” who have said the Maghreb events cannot be supplanted in sub-Sahara Africa, but then we know the human spirit is full of surprises, and James Blood could be right after all.

Given the political posturing and harassment which seems the norm in Zimbabwe these days, it’s easy to wonder what difference any of us can make.

But two pieces of recent news have left me encouraged by the opportunities for small change, at least, and have renewed my conviction that speaking out does matter.

Firstly, Parliament has reconsidered sections of the General Laws Amendment Bill following concerns raised by the public and during the Portfolio Committee review stage. Specifically, sections that would have changed procurement regulations to reduce the power and autonomy of local authorities, and changes in copyright laws which would have restricted the ability to copy and share national legislation have come under scrutiny. As such, Parliament has agreed to rewrite the legislation to omit the problematic sections.

I was also encourage to see a recent report from the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) which demonstrated the power of their complaints mechanism.

According to VMCZ:

MISA-Zimbabwe filed a complaint with the MCC over a Redds advertisement carried in the Standard Newspaper of 06 March 2011. The advertisement showed the posteriors of four women each holding a bottle of Redds. MISA-Zimbabwe said the advertisement objectifies women. After a complaint was lodged with the MCC, Delta beverages withdrew the advertisement and apologised to MISA-Zimbabwe.

Speaking your mind, voicing your concern really can make a difference.

Subscribe to the Veritas and SAPST mailings to stay informed about events in Parliament, and use the VMCZ complaints mechanism to air your concerns about the media.

I smell. I’m tired and itchy and fed up. So I know, I’m not in the most friendly and approachable of moods.

I’m smelly and itchy and fed up because there hasn’t been any power at home since Friday night. A wind storm crossed some lines, the power went, and that was that.

I went to the ZESA offices on Saturday morning to report the problem, and the friendly and efficient customer service person there assured me that they were already fixing another problem in my suburb, and they’d get onto my problem straight away. “Your power will be restored today,” he told me with a confident smile.

On my way home late Saturday afternoon, I saw the ZESA truck driving out of my suburb – and I was sure they’d been to the house and sorted out the problem.

So you can imagine my devastation when I got home to find the power still out. I heaved a sigh, and figured no matter, I’m sure they’ll come tomorrow.

When they still hadn’t come by Sunday night, I was less equanimous in my attitude.

I phoned them on Monday morning, and was again assured that they had my report on file, and that someone would be coming to fix things that day. I held my breath and resisted the temptation to phone the house every hour, to find out whether they had come to fix things yet.

I came home on Monday to find the fridge door still swinging proudly open, a sure sign that ZESA hadn’t come yet. When there’s no power, I’ve found the refrigerator is better conceptuatlised as a cupboard. Pity about the spoilt perishable goods which were inside it.

It hasn’t helped my mood any that winter is here, and I’ve been running a lot, so a hot bath or a boiled kettle would really be most welcome. It hasn’t helped that the power’s been out so long that my freezer is also starting to defrost, soaking through the newspapers I’ve put out on the kitchen floor, and leaving me with a second new cupboard – this one filled with rotting pets food. And it doesn’t help that there also isn’t any municipal water either, so the taps are dry. I’ve been through every jug of stored water in the house just to try and wash my face, brush my teeth, and flush the toilet (once in four days).  I guess the good news is that even if there was electricity, I still couldn’t have a hot bath.

So yes. My temper is frayed.

I went back to ZESA this morning to follow up on my report. I didn’t get a reference number the first time, because the attendant was so confident I’d have my power back on Saturday, I didn’t bother. Now they’ve lost my report – never mind that I phoned again yesterday. It’s so old, it’s in a different book.

My stinking underarms were further aggravated by the customer service person there today, who appeared just as  frustrated as I am. I outlined my case in plaintive detail. I explained how I pay my bills each month and do my part to help them, but I expect better service for my monthly payments. He pointed to the person seated next to me, who works at a clinic in a high density Harare suburb. They also haven’t had any power since Friday. You can imagine what this means for their work as a clinic. He’s also been coming to find out what the story is. But, the attendant told me, the problem is transport.

“I have a book of over 50 faults that need to be fixed. I have ten artisans sitting waiting to attend to these faults. But I have no trucks. Look around my yard. There is one truck to attend to all these problems,” he told me, slapping the report book on his desk.

Basically, if I had an open truck, I could load a ladder and technicians into it, take them to my house, they’d fix the fault, and I could drive them back to the depot. But without a truck? All I can do is wait.

Had I known that Saturday drive by was the last I woud see of the ZESA truck in my suburb, I would have hijacked it and driven it back to my house.

As tetchy as I’m feeling for the lack of power, he is clearly even more embittered by his powerlessness. He’s been working for years, and likes doing his job. He wants to resolve things for people. He hates seeing ZESA employees just sitting at the depot unable to do their jobs either. But without transport to carry the ladders, equipment and technicians to the job sites, what can he do?

His irritation was palpable, and I tried to diffuse things. “How can we help you get more trucks,” I asked him.

“It’s a national problem,” he responded. “Go to any other depot in the city and you’ll find the same situation. It’s not even a secret. I don’t even mind telling you about it. Everyone knows transport is our biggest problem.”

I am stunned by the injustice of it. If you have a truck, or access to one, you can get your fault fixed within a day. If you don’t? You have to wait until the “round robin rotation,” as he put it, makes its way to your place. There is no sense of triage or prioritisation based on need or severity or duration of the fault. The high-density clinic doesn’t get any special treatment. Instead, if you already have resources (like an open truck) you’re rewarded with more resources (access to a ZESA repair team).

The employee I spoke with blames the ZESA leadership, and he mentioned the recent detention of energy minister Mangoma. As a coordinator faced with a striking lack of vehicles, he isn’t surprised by the corruption charges. If the minister weren’t corrupt, he intimated, surely ZESA would have more vehicles? He’s frustrated by what he sees as the politicisation of what should remain strictly professional – the provision of an essential service to ZESA customers.

I don’t know enough about the Mangoma case to know whether the allegations have any merit. Before his arrest, he issued a press statement outlining challenges in the energy sector, including ZESA. He described himself as “particularly allergic to corruption, greed and patronage.” He appealed for transparency and accountability for the sector, and pledged that he would fight corruption across his ministry.

Certainly, it’s difficult from the outside not to view the issue as one more based on political grievances than any substantive charges. But if this is the view of the Minister’s own employees in companies like ZESA, Mangoma’s problems will extend far beyond the courtroom.

And whilst of course I can sympathise with the frustrated ZESA employee who just wants to do his job, I also just want a bath. I’m thinking about taking my smelly clothes and rotten pets meat to Chaminuka Building, headquarters of the Ministry of Energy. But if depots across the country lack the basic resources they need to work efficiently, I have a feeling even my stinky running vest might not do the trick.

When there was this huge business moguls shindig east of the country [wise men eh?] a few weeks ago about constructing a billion-dollar economy in the next two decades, news copy was awash with glowing editorialising about these men and women pitching their blueprint for a fabulously rich Zimbabwe. If the country’s political gladiators set aside their differences surely the USD1 billion economy was not a psychedelic reverie. With the right political will and economic genius from the private sector, Zimbabwe would be the biggest economy south of the Sahara.

The Vee Pee Mujuru was hailed for speaking with the level headedness that appeared to have surprised many: this is the commitment the country needs from its political leaders, the business heavies heaved. All the contradictions that have emerged in this country about promoting investment on one had and threatening – and indeed going ahead with – company takeovers were set aside or conveniently forgotten, after all what was to be gained by raising those concerns when there was an economy to be [re]built, money to be made, jobs created, detractors shamed, etc. Yet the very issues that were identified as inimical to the creation of a billion-dollar economy have been revisited on the country with doubled resolve. Which investor wants to put his money where cops gas mourners, throws teargas into churches, deny political parties and law abiding citizens right to assemble, bans free thought rallies etc.

We already know that some major potential investors are from countries where liberal democracy rules the day and companies are only too aware that choosing countries that do not respect human rights risk a boycott of their business. So how do we have it both ways such that we liberally and violently suppress prayers for peace and at the same time lobby international investors who come from backgrounds that respect human rights to pour in their multi-millions to create jobs and build that billion-dollar economy? Obviously these are questions that are not of concern to the authorities who unleash such brute force on “peace-loving Zimbabweans,” but you sure feel sorry for those heavy weights who pitched this billion-dollar economic utopia that while they obviously mean well, the very folks to whom they pitch these grand plans throw spanners and gonyets into the works. But for what exactly? Such a pity, living in the city is like living in the time of Frank Nitty.

Never mind the MDC rallies which were blocked last month.

On Wednesday mourners were beaten at a memorial service organised by the Heal Zimbabwe Trust.

And now today, riot police stormed a prayer for peace. According to the statement below from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, they assaulted congregants who were inside and outside the church, and they used tear gas to disperse congregants.

Ironically, according to ZLHR, one objective of the service was to “commemorate the events of the 11 March 2007 Save Zimbabwe Prayer Meeting, where one activist Gift Tandare was shot dead while over 100 political and human rights activists were arrested, tortured and detained through similar heavy-handed police action.”

Read the full ZLHR statement below:

ZLHR condemns police abuses in suppressing prayer for peace

Anti-riot police on Saturday 9 April 2011 violently stormed and suppressed a church service organised to pray for peace in Glen Norah suburb of Harare.

The church service had originally been scheduled for St Peters Kubatana Centre in Highfields, but the venue was changed after police camped in Highfields overnight and sealed off the venue to block people from accessing the grounds.

A truck load of riot police carrying tear gas rifles and truncheons descended on the Nazarene Church in Glen Norah while the service was underway, stormed the church hall during prayer, and dispersed the congregation, which included many church, civic and community leaders.

The police, numbering about 20, assaulted congregants who were inside and outside the church and used tear gas to drive congregants out of the church and eventually out of the volatile suburb.

The police went on to indiscriminately fire tear gas canisters at residences and churches surrounding the venue of the church service. Even children who were within and outside the parameters of the church were affected by the tear smoke and the police clampdown.

The police arrested Pastor Mukome, the Resident Priest at the Nazarene Church, Pastor Isaya and some other congregants.

A team of lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) observed police indiscriminately arresting people walking near the environs of the Church of Nazarene even after they had suppressed the service and hounded congregants out of the suburb.

ZLHR lawyers have been deployed to attend to those who have been arrested.

The service was organised by a coalition of churches under the theme “Saving Zimbabwe . . . the unfinished journey”. The church service was aimed at presenting an opportunity to pray for peace in Zimbabwe as part of the process of finishing the journey to save the country. It was also meant to commemorate the events of the 11 March 2007 Save Zimbabwe Prayer Meeting, where one activist Gift Tandare was shot dead while over 100 political and human rights activists were arrested, tortured and detained through similar heavy-handed police action.

ZLHR unreservedly condemns the events of Saturday 9 April 2011 and the indiscriminate violence meted out by police whose responsibility is to see that fundamental freedoms such as freedom of assembly, expression and worship, are enjoyed by all Zimbabwe citizens. Such criminal behaviour makes a mockery of the SADC Troika Communique, issued in Livingstone on 31 March 2011 in which the Zimbabwe government was warned to immediately end the harassment, arbitrary arrests, intimidation and violence which is currently prevailing in the country. It also calls into question the sincerity of pleas from political players such as Oppah Muchinguri who, only the previous day, urged people to turn to prayer as a contribution to efforts towards national healing and reconciliation.

ZLHR urges restraint by the police, an immediate investigation into the unlawful conduct of the police involved in Saturday’s disruptions, and calls for an opening up of space for people to freely assemble, associate and worship rather than the criminalisation of such lawful activities.