l inhumanity, timed to have effects as cruel as possible, municipal police assisted by National Youth militia pounced upon our clients at midnight of 13-14 November and spent next six hours violently carting away our clients to Hopley Farm just outside Harare in blatant contravention of the court order. Showing the municipal police the court order only served to earn one individual the threat of a beating, says the statement.
To show contempt for the judiciary in the manner that the local authority and the state did is an act which goes to the very root of any democratic system structured to protect even the barest of human rights. When local government personnel and state-sanctioned actors like the National Youth service militia choose to ignore the judgement of a court of law, they negate this principle and take on the role of the judge and enforcer of their own matters.
The lawyers body has called upon the state and the City to respect court orders and allow the law to take its course. Further, we call upon these actors to respect the dignity and integrity of the human person and forthwith cease the crude use of force upon the defenceless and disadvantaged populace of Zimbabwe. The state is also called upon to desist from dumping people in peripheral areas where they suffer hunger and illness and it is well nigh impossible to make a living, said the statement.