Ndebele was arrested last month on allegations of distributing SW and AM radios after police raided Bulawayo based community radio station, Radio Dialogue’s Ingwe studios in Hillside suburb and confiscated 180 SW and AM radios. Then police did not take him to court saying were still investigating the case. However yesterday police summoned Ndebele to appear in court but state prosecutors at Tredigold magistrate court in Bulawayo refused to prosecute saying police charges against Ndebele were not clear.
“My client did not appear in court because the prosecutor referred the docket back to the police to clarify the charges,” said Ndebele lawyer Kucaca Phulu Last month police went on rampage ransacking several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around the country accusing them of distributing the SW and AM radios. The NGOs which were raided over these radios include Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) the country’s biggest independent elections watchdog group and Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) and National Youth Development (NYDT) searching for the same radios.
Many villagers already own the radios and have in the past been harassed by war veterans and Zanu PF militia who confiscated the gadgets in volatile areas such as Mutoko during the bloody 2008 presidential election run-off period.
Recently police spokesperson Charity Charamba announced the ban and warned that people who received the radios would also be arrested together with organizations which distribute the gadgets.
This sets the stage for a massive crackdown likely to affect rural people who rely on the radios to listen to popular short wave stations such as Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa. The short wave radio stations have become a hit in rural areas, not only because ZBC has poor transmission there but also because they have shied away from rabid propaganda broadcast on State-owned stations.
Post published in: News