Zimbabwe police on Tuesday arrested a leader of a teachers’ union at a university in the eastern city of Mutare for allegedly addressing students without police clearance, a lawyer said.
Alec Muchadehama, the secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, was arrested at Africa University in Mutare, according to his lawyer, Raymond Majongwe.
”He was addressing students at Africa University when he was picked up,” he said.
Majongwe was trying to promote unionism among students, the lawyer said, adding that police were questioning him but had not pressed any charges yet.
Police in the Harare could not confirm the arrest.
Meanwhile, police broke up a labour meeting being addressed by the leader of the country’s largest workers representative, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in the southern city of Masvingo, 300km from Harare.
Secretary-general Wellington Chibebe said he was briefing labour leaders on the outcome of a recent International Labour Organisation meeting he attended on labour standards when police ordered him to call it off.
He said he complied ”for the safety of our officials”.
Zimbabwe’s security laws make it mandatory for most public meetings to be cleared by the police.
ZCTU says it has a high court order which exempts police permission for labour meetings. – Sapa-AFP