The Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project was last week charged by the police after voluntarily reporting at the Harare Central Police Station. The police had used the state media to say she was ‘wanted’ and was on the run from the law, in a move slammed as a ‘new low’ of persecution by the police force.
She was charged with contravening the Private Voluntary Organisation Act, the Broadcasting Services Act and the Customs and Excise Act. In short, the police accused her of running a non-registered organisation and smuggling radios and cell phones, which had previously been seized during a police raid on Peace Project offices.
Mukoko denied all the charges and explained to the police that none of the organisation’s activities were in any way illegal. In her statement to the police she also questioned the irregularity of the charges against her. Mukoko was then released into the custody of her lawyers after interrogation and police said they would advise further after assessing the docket.
It has since emerged that Mukoko was in the process of starting a violence monitoring initiative, using smart-phone and internet technology to allow people to report incidents of violence. The initiative uses Ushahidi – an online mapping resource started in Kenya in 2008 to track and map political violence.
Meaning ‘witness’ or ‘testimony’ in Swahili, Ushahidi has grown over the years to become a free to use, online mapping system, used around the world to report and track issues like violence and corruption. The technology is already used in Zimbabwe to report corruption through the ‘I paid a bribe’ website. A political violence map was also started using Ushahidi in 2011 by the blog 3rdLiberation.
SW Radio Africa was unable to get confirmation from the ZPP about their reported involvement in the Ushahidi programme. Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone’s phone went unanswered on Monday, although the minister has previously said she has no power over the country’s police, despite her position. McDonald Lewanika, the Director of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said that targeting any NGO for trying to monitor violence was a clear form of persecution.
“What is wrong if people are trying set up this platform? This is citizen policing to ensure violence is monitored and prevented. What is wrong with that? That is not illegal,” Lewanika said.
Machinda Marongwe from the National Association of NGOs said attempts to criminalise the work of civil society made advocacy and lobbying “very difficult.”– SW Radio Africa
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