The activists marched from the Rotten Row magistrates’ courts to Harvest house, their party headquarters in central Harare. But a High court Judge on Thursday denied Madzore’s urgent bail application to be released from custody. He is being detained at Chikurubi maximum security prison.
The youth leader and 28 other activists are facing charges of murdering a police inspector back in May. All deny the charge. Clifford Hlatswayo, the youth assembly spokesman, told SW Radio Africa the arrest and detention of their colleagues is illegal.
‘This is why we took to the streets today (Thursday) in solidarity with our colleagues who were unlawfully arrested and detained. These people are not guilty of anything, what we are seeing is a political party desperate to cling on to power.
‘ZANU PF is desperate. This is why they are using the uniformed forces to fight in their corner. We will not keep quiet about this, it’s only the start to a campaign to remind Zimbabweans of these illegal detentions and harassment,’ Hlatswayo said.
The march was closely monitored by a heavily armed police response team, which kept a distance from the protesters. Hlatswayo told us the reason the march remained peaceful was the manner in which their members conducted themselves.
‘We were very peaceful and we noticed at times that the police tried to provoke us but we kept calm. Our peaceful procession deterred the police to interfere and disrupt the march,’ he said.
Meanwhile the MDC-T reported that Rebecca Musarurwa, one of the eight MDC members still in remand prison, collapsed in court on Thursday and was rushed to hospital.
Her condition is unknown but the party said when she was arrested in May, she was seriously assaulted by the police while in custody at Harare Central Police Station. Musarurwa has been in remand prison for over five months now.
Post published in: Politics