The marchers distributed literature and carried banners bemoaning the economic crisis, denouncing violence against women and demanding a better life. They also sang songs denouncing state-sponsored violence and called on Zimbabweans to stand up and take part in peaceful resistance.
Two senior police officers, identified by their juniors as Chief Superintendent Wasara, the Officer Commanding Bulawayo Central district and a Chief Inspector Sithole, accosted the protesters at the Mhlahlandlela gate and ordered them to disperse.
Wasara informed them that they were too early to mark the 16 Days as the official government launch was scheduled for November 28, and that they should come back then. Happy to have received an invitation to return to the streets by a police officer, the group obliged.
The officers, together with members of the spy Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI), then escorted the protesters to the Basch Street bus terminus, where they were ordered to board lifts to their residential places.
WOZA said the march was to mark the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence and also the anniversary of the November 29, 2006 launch of the People’s Charter in Bulawayo, where hundreds of the organisation’s members were brutally assaulted by police.
The activist group has been at loggerheads with police since it started 2003. Many of its members, especially co-leaders, Magodonga Mahlangu and Jenni Williams, have been arrested and tortured by security agents on numerous occasions.
Earlier this month, Maria Moyo, one of the organisation’s founding members, died after she was allegedly abducted and tortured by the notorious Law and Order section in Bulawayo, while she was already suffering from pneumonia.