Statutory Instrument 101 A of 2016 which was gazetted on 1 September 2016 effectively banned all demonstrations in Harare for a period of two weeks.
In her ruling Justice Chigumba said that SI101 A of 2016 was void because the procedure in Section 27 of Public Order and Security Act (POSA) under which the SI had been gazetted had not been followed. She therefore suspended the operation of the SI to allow the respondents to address the defect.
Chief Superintendent Newbert Saunyama, in his capacity as the Officer Commanding ZRP Harare Central District, issued the order purportedly under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and which was gazetted on 01 September 2016 as Statutory Instrument 101A of 2016 banning protests in central Harare for a period of two weeks from Friday 02 September 2016 to Friday 16 September 2016.
This compelled the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA), the Democratic Restoration Assembly (DARE), Harare resident Stendrick Zvorwadza and the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) to file an urgent chamber application in the High Court on 2 September 2016 seeking to set aside the operation of SI101A of 2016 and to interdict the police from unlawfully interfering with the rights of citizens to exercise their right defined by Section 59 of the Constitution read together with Section 12 of (POSA) (Chapter 11:17).
They were represented by Tendai Biti and Dzimbabwe Chimbga of ZLHR who argued that SI 101A of 2016 was void because ZRP had no authority to legislate the banning of demonstrations and such actions infringed citizens’ constitutional rights as defined in Section 59, Section 58 (1), Section 61, Section 62, and Section 67 (2) of the Constitution.
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