Paul Themba Nyathi, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s (MDC) chief spokesperson, is to spend another night in police cells after authorities decided today to change the charges under which they were holding him, his lawyer said.
Nyathi, the second top MDC official to be arrested in a week, was told on Monday he was accused of ”attempting to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means,” and was due to appear in court in Bulawayo on Tuesday to apply for bail.
The charges related to a meeting at which the MDC leadership planned the protest stayaway that shut down the country for two days last month.
MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda was arrested and spent a week in jail under the same charge.
Nyathi, an MP and member of the MDC’s national executive council, was arrested outside the Bulawayo Magistrate’s Court on Monday, immediately after Sibanda had been granted bail.
However, he spent most of Tuesday recording a statement in response to a different charge, said lawyer Nicholas Mathonsi.
”I think they realised that they could not sustain the charges. The meeting he was alleged to have attended, he actually wasn’t there,” he said.
Instead, Nyathi is now being charged with ”attempting to coerce the government.”
The new charges relate to a publicity statement bearing Nyathi’s signature in which the MDC spelt out a 15-point ultimatum to President Robert Mugabe, demanding that he restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe.
After 23 years Mugabe faces unprecedented pressure from the disintegrating economy and, in the last week, the first signs of censure from the Southern African Development Community.
MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said on Tuesday the party would continue with its plan for ”peaceful, lawful and democratic protests in the form of mass action to ensure that we regain our freedoms.”
He would not specify when the campaign would go ahead. – Sapa