Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe director Andy Moyse was released yesterday after questioning. But according to the latest update from MMPZ, its staffers, arrested Monday, in Gwanda in connection with a public meeting, are likely to remain in custody at least until Friday.

In a further update on the case, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights reports:

MMPZ employees condemed to prison

TWO Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) employees, Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda and MMPZ member, Gilbert Mabusa will spend the next two nights in prison after Gwanda Magistrate Douglas Zvenyika on Wednesday 7 December 2011 postponed to Friday 9 December 2011, a ruling on a bail application filed by their lawyer, Kossam Ncube.

Magistrate Zvenyika postponed his ruling to Friday morning in order to consider submissions filed by Ncube, of Kossam Ncube and Partners Legal Practitioners and a board member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in support of bail and the opposition by the State prosecutor, Blessing Gundani.

In opposing bail Gundani argued that December, Chimhanda and Mabusa were likely to interfere with State witnesses because they have links to some of them.

The prosecutor claimed that the MMPZ project officers and Mabusa were facing a serious offence with prospects of imprisonment which they are likely to flee from because they are young with no links to the country.

Gundani claimed that releasing December, Chimhanda and Mabusa would be inappropriate as the police were still conducting investigations and that there are some more compact discs of a similar nature that they want to recover from Harare.

The prosecutor also indicated that the police want to recover the equipment used to produce the compact discs and verify the residential addresses that were given by December, Chimhanda and Mabusa. Gundani claimed that the compact discs contain material that is insulting to some “particular individuals” and are “very sensitive to the extent that the matter had ruffled a lot of feathers.”

December, Chimhanda and Mabusa were arrested on Monday 5 December 2011 after they attended at Gwanda Police Station. Their attendance to the police station followed requests by Gwanda police officers that they should visit Gwanda Police station for questioning relating to a workshop conducted in the area in November.

December, Chimhanda and Mabusa were charged with contravening section 25(1) (b) of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), for allegedly ‘participating in a gathering without seeking authority from the regulating authority’ and also for allegedly contravening section 37(1) (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, by ‘distributing material that is likely to provoke a breach of peace’.

On Tuesday 6 December 2011 police in Harare raided and picked up MMPZ Project Coordinator, Andrew Moyse for allegedly possessing some materials on Gukurahundi and confiscated some Digital Video Disc (DVD)’s from the organisation’s offices. They later released him after going through an interrogation session which lasted several hours.

This morning MMPZ staffers were brought before Gwanda magistrate Mr Douglas Zvenyika. Mr Kossam Ncube appeared on behalf of accused persons whilst the prosecution was represented by Blessing Gundani. After hearing arguments by both counsel judgment was reserved until Friday morning when the magistrate will deliver his ruling on the bail application. The state opposed bail on the grounds that:

• Accused persons were likely to interfere with witnesses;
• Fadzai and Moly are still of a young and impressionable age and therefore likely to flee given the publicity the matter has generated in and outside Zimbabwe and the gravity of the offense they are facing;
• The case is of a sensitive nature;
• Investigations are still ongoing and Gwanda police is yet to collect DVD exhibits and the equipment used in the production of the DVDs

In a further update on the case, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) reports:

MMPZ employees condemed to prison

Two Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) employees, Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda and MMPZ member, Gilbert Mabusa will spend the next two nights in prison after Gwanda Magistrate Douglas Zvenyika on Wednesday 7 December 2011 postponed to Friday 9 December 2011, a ruling on a bail application filed by their lawyer, Kossam Ncube.

Magistrate Zvenyika postponed his ruling to Friday morning in order to consider submissions filed by Ncube, of Kossam Ncube and Partners Legal Practitioners and a board member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in support of bail and the opposition by the State prosecutor, Blessing Gundani.

In opposing bail Gundani argued that December, Chimhanda and Mabusa were likely to interfere with State witnesses because they have links to some of them.

The prosecutor claimed that the MMPZ project officers and Mabusa were facing a serious offence with prospects of imprisonment which they are likely to flee from because they are young with no links to the country.

Gundani claimed that releasing December, Chimhanda and Mabusa would be inappropriate as the police were still conducting investigations and that there are some more compact discs of a similar nature that they want to recover from Harare.

The prosecutor also indicated that the police want to recover the equipment used to produce the compact discs and verify the residential addresses that were given by December, Chimhanda and Mabusa. Gundani claimed that the compact discs contain material that is insulting to some “particular individuals” and are “very sensitive to the extent that the matter had ruffled a lot of feathers.”

December, Chimhanda and Mabusa were arrested on Monday 5 December 2011 after they attended at Gwanda Police Station. Their attendance to the police station followed requests by Gwanda police officers that they should visit Gwanda Police station for questioning relating to a workshop conducted in the area in November.

December, Chimhanda and Mabusa were charged with contravening section 25(1) (b) of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), for allegedly ‘participating in a gathering without seeking authority from the regulating authority’ and also for allegedly contravening section 37(1) (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, by ‘distributing material that is likely to provoke a breach of peace’.

On Tuesday 6 December 2011 police in Harare raided and picked up MMPZ Project Coordinator, Andrew Moyse for allegedly possessing some materials on Gukurahundi and confiscated some Digital Video Disc (DVD)’s from the organisation’s offices. They later released him after going through an interrogation session which lasted several hours.

Okay. So everyone knows that buying day-old chicks, feeding them up, and selling them once they’re big puts money in your pocket. So clearly, that’s not the kind of chick the “Truly Zimbabwean” company Lunar Chickens is talking about here.

Rather, my inference from this recent newspaper advert is that “chicks” (read women, wives, small houses, girl friends, etc) take money from your pocket, unlike these day-old chicks.  I contacted Lunar Chickens on Monday asking them to clarify, but I have yet to hear back from them.

Okay, so I’m sensitive. And sure, I can see the humour they’re going for. But Zimbabwe has enough problems with sexism. This really isn’t the kind of advert we need doing the rounds – during 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, or any other time.

I expect better from Lunar Chickens, and from Barkers Ogilvy, the agency behind this advert.

Kubatana! Get Up. Stand Up in Harare to mark International Human Rights Day. Join Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights on Thursday 8th. Meet 12:30 at High Court. Sharp!

As fear and repression mount in Zimbabwe because of Zanu PF’s pre-election jitters, what we don’t need is individuals and organisations forwarding unverified information.

Kubatana received this email from various sources about five times:

TALKING ON A CELLPHONE WHILE DRIVING
This is a update to warn all motorists that you will no longer be fined or given community service, if you are caught talking on your cell phone whilst driving.  Replacing the fine and community service is now JAIL.  You will be arrested and taken to Court, you will then be sentenced to between 2-3 weeks in jail, that is now the sentence, you will now have a conviction and a Police Record.  Please avoid using your cellphone when driving, as there is not monetary fine it is straight to Court.

To ascertain whether this information had any validity we contacted the Legal Resources Foundation who replied:

I was just talking to the LDC (Law Development Commission) Chairperson who categorically stated that as of Friday there was no such change in the law. It could be the Police deciding that they will not fine people but take them to court as a way of deterring cell phone use while driving BUT this is not to mean the law has changed.

Hitting the forward key is much easier than taking the time to verify information but its critical.

It is a trait peculiar to politicians that evidence of abject poverty does not prick consciences in pursuit of their own happiness. The opulence flaunted by monarchs pales into insignificance when one recalls that monarchs are born blue bloods while politicians claim their wealth to election into public office ostensibly by claimed popular vote. Thus one has to think deep and taste the mood of very ordinary folks each time Zanu PF gets down to boogie in their annual shindigs. It is that time when the party that has claimed perpetual bankruptcy – both moral and financial – has its staunch loyalists lining up to make stupendous donations towards the hosting of these conferences. I have heard folks ask the moral philosophy questions such as why it has been found apt to give so generously to the party when constituencies claimed by the donor wallow in abject poverty, where that kind of wealth comes from, yet it also known how since independence, the line between party and the state has been blurred as Zanu PF used state resources as if they were their own.  And while other Zimbabweans curse, it has been baffling that other equally ordinary folks have taken these shindigs with such gusto reminiscent of the 1980 independence euphoria.

Saw some young men and women last weekend milling outside the Zanu PF offices in Bulawayo and a friend quipped: “do these people really believe in what they are doing?” But then it was a question that has been answered before: “as long sisidla” – “as long as we are we eating” – (getting something from Zanu PF). It has become one huge farce that young people thrown into the ranks of loafing by bad governance and “voodoo” economic policies can still proudly hold their heads up and claim their place within the party machinery, when at the same time they are not at it because they believe in anything it stands for but rather like vultures wanting to pounce and reap where they did not sow.

Every amoral young person who wants to be an instant money-bag and own a small mining claim knows they simply have to extol the virtues of Savior (some name huh?) Kasukuwere and they got it made. Forget hard work, forget scruples, coz these are virtues that do not apply here! What then are these young lions being bequeathed as a legacy they will one day have to pass on to other young lions? Should we start worrying then that Zimbabwe will have an unending cycle of bad people coming and going, seeing that any hopes of an MDC-T political dispensation remain but a mirage on the horizon?

Read the latest statement from the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) about the continued police harassment of their staff:

MMPZ Director Andrew Moyse taken for questioning by CID Law and Order Harare

MMPZ Project Coordinator Andrew Moyse was this morning (at about 1130hrs) picked up from the organisation’s offices by a team of five police officers from Harare’s Law and Order Section led by Detective Assistant Inspector Phiri. The officers were armed with a search warrant and proceeded to search MMPZ offices for “material which comprises of compact disks containing Gukurahundi information”. In terms of the search warrant, the police purport that they have reasonable grounds to believe that MMPZ officers may have acted in breach of section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, that is, “publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state”.

Pursuant to the search warrant, the police then took possession of 127 DVDs produced by MMPZ essentially calling upon the media to contribute to peaceful elections through fair, accurate and balanced coverage of election campaigns by Zimbabwean political parties. Whilst the police officers indicated that Andrew was not formally under arrest, MMPZ is concerned that the police may detain him to investigate a matter whose circumstances and gravity do not at all warrant pre-trial detention. MMPZ urges the police to grant Andrew Moyse all his pre-trial rights and not to harm his physical and psychological person for the entire period he is in their custody.

In the meantime, MMPZ advocacy officers Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda, and MMPZ’s Public Information Rights Committee chairman for Gwanda Mr Gilbert Mabusa remain in police custody at Gwanda police station. They are being charged under POSA for failing to give notice of a meeting and also under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for “participating in gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry”.

MMPZ vigorously denies the allegations in both cases.