Fredrick Moyo
Citizens Coalitions for Change (CCC) in Masvingo have given Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers a 24-hour grace period to release impounded vehicles belonging to party members.
The ultimatum followed the impounding of three vehicles belonging to CCC party members and that of former Masvingo Mayor Hubert Fidze during a political campaign trail in ward 3 on March 12, 2022.
CCC district chairperson and human rights lawyer Advocate Martin Mureri of Matutu and Mureri legal practitioners said they are giving police officers 24 hours to release the vehicles since the owners have already been fined and released.
“We are giving them a 24-hour ultimatum to release the vehicles tomorrow (March 17) because when they made those arrests, they arrested people not cars and that is the reason why we paid ZW $ 2 000 fine for each person. So the moment people were released, vehicles should also have been released.
“If they do no release those cars, we will write a 24-hour ultimatum letter to release those cars and if the period lapses, we will approach the court and sue individuals in the force who are refusing to release the cars because this is now political persecution,” said Mureri.
He also said the crackdown on his party’s members is just victimisation by some ‘overzealous’ members of the force and what they are doing is unconstitutional.
“The moment the President proclaimed a by-elections date that meant candidates or political parties can have or hold their campaigns. Even the charge they are using to arrest is biased, they ended up charging us with criminal nuisance but can we say we have a way that we should follow when campaigning.
“At the same time of the arrests, ZANU PF activists were also doing the same thing but they were not even arrested because they are aligned to the ruling party. To us, it is just victimisation and it is an issue of making us lose hope because the previous week they had arrested some of our members and we paid ZW $ 36 000 last week and ZW $ 26 000 this week,” said Mureri.
CCC members have been arrested and frequented the courts facing different allegations and the opposition party has accused law enforcement agents of being partisan in executing their duties and applying the law selectively.
