Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was given permission on Wednesday to stage a protest rally against President Robert Mugabe after its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was briefly detained by police.
Police had slapped a blanket prohibition on the protest called by the Movement for Democratic (MDC) as a show of strength ahead of joint parliamentary and presidential elections due in March.
But a court in Harare ruled that while a ban on marching through the capital’s central business district could remain in place, the MDC should be allowed to gather in a football stadium where the rally was intended to culminate with an address by Tsvangirai.
”The respondents [police] are not to interfere with the gathering at Glamis Stadium until [3.15pm local time],” added Priscilla Chigumba, the presiding justice at a hearing before magistrates in Harare.
The MDC said they had received initial approval from the police to stage the protest only to be slapped with the ban on Monday.
As government and opposition lawyers argued in court, a heavy police presence prevented MDC supporters from entering the downtown area.
Tsvangirai and several of his top lieutenants were badly beaten up by members of Mugabe’s security services last March as they tried to stage another protest rally in Harare.
But in an apparent warning shot across his bows, Tsvangirai was picked up by police at his home in the early hours of the morning and questioned for about four hours.
”He was picked up by the police at about 4am [local time] on Wednesday but he has since been released,” his lawye, Alec Muchadehama, said.
National police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed that Tsvangirai had been briefly detained.
”We invited Morgan Tsvangirai, Ian Makone [the MDC’s director for elections] and Denis Murira [another top MDC official] here,” he said.
”They held discussions with the officer commanding law and order and then they went home. We wanted to establish what they intended to do following recent utterances.”
During the court hearing, Muchadehama said that the police action went against the grain of recent amendments to laws on the holding of protests, which had been agreed between the opposition and government.
”The position the police have taken is not in the spirit of what was agreed in on the constitutional amendments,” said Muchadehama.
”When we agreed to the [amended] law we did not know it could be used against us.”
Fatima Maxwell, a law officer in the Attorney General’s office, said while the authorities were prepared to negotiate with the opposition, the police had good reason to worry about the impact of the rally in the city centre.
The former British colony, led by the 83-year-old Mugabe since independence in 1980, is in economic meltdown. The official annual rate of inflation is put at 8 000%, but economists believe it to be nearer 50 000%.
Unemployment is running at about 80% while basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and sugar are now a scarce commodity in the one-time regional breadbasket.
Mugabe came in for widespread international criticism in March last year after Tsvangirai and dozens of MDC supporters were assaulted as they tried to attend an anti-government rally in Harare. The president responded by telling his critics to ”go hang”.
The prospect of the MDC looking to defy another banned rally had raised fears of a new bout of unrest, with the government warning the opposition not to resort to violence.
”The government expects Tsvangirai and his party to keep their pledge to a peaceful campaign and lawful conduct, which they made to the law-enforcement authorities only this morning [Wednesday],” Information Ministry George Charamba said. — Reuters