Freedom March

State radio reported ad nauseum ad infinitum the whole Tuesday that police had banned the planned demonstrations, querying the opposition motives and claiming there could be tinder and an explosion of violence from inflammatory remarks attributed to senior opposition leaders, including MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai at a weekend rally attended by an estimated 10,000 people Sunday.

The Zimbabwean late Tuesday witnessed four water canons and six riot trucks with armed police personnel being deployed to the high-density suburbs amid reports the Joint Operations Command has placed all crack military and police units on high alert. Security sources said the protest was likely to be put down violently if the MDC insisted on staging the demo in defiance of the ban.

The MDC on Tuesday lodged an application for a review of the police ban in the Magistrates Court.

Harare lawyer Alec Muchadehama, who is representing the MDC said the State was not giving the case the urgency it deserves.

“We have been told the hearing has been referred to the High Court and I understand the case would be heard before a judge at 10 am on Wednesday,” Muchadehama said.

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said the ban was illegal and that the MDC’s right to hold protests was enshrined in Zimbabwe’s present supreme law which guarantees freedom of expression and association.

“We are going ahead with the planned march, which is guaranteed under section 21 of the constitution, although we know that the police will probably try to stop us,” Biti said. He said the police had sanctioned the procession in their letter to MDC deputy organizing secretary Morgan Komichi, dated January 18 and signed by Officer Commanding Harare Central District, Chief Superintendent I.M.Tayengwa..

“According to the law, the police cannot sit as a court of appeal and review their decision of January 18,” Biti said. “When they signed their letter of January 18, they were functus officio. So on this basis; we just launched an application for review in the Magistrate Court as a formality. Otherwise the law is very clear. The Freedom march is going ahead as planned.”

He said the opposition party would seek legal recourse if police tried to prevent the march from going ahead.

Biti said the reasons given by the police for the ban, including an accusation that the opposition had branded the delimitation exercise a fraud and that the group was “working outside the spirit of what we agreed” were “grossly unreasonable”.

“It is neither the duty nor responsibility of the police to advise on the appropriateness of a cause for a demonstration,” Biti said.

But chief police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said: “Anyone who participates in this event will be committing an offence and the police are empowered to arrest offenders and use the necessary force to ensure the safety and protection of life and property.”

The MDC, which is in talks with the ruling party being held under the facilitation of South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, is demanding that elections be postponed from March to June to allow for political reforms. The MDC also wants a new constitution before the election but the demands have both been rejected by Mugabe and his ruling party.  

The MDC says deeply rooted flaws in the current constitution – which critics say Mugabe has repeatedly used in the past to entrench his rule – make it impossible to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.

Biti said the march Wednesday would be against a “failed State.”