Fredrick Moyo
Three Movement of Democratic Change Alliance (MDC A) activists arrested on January 17 2022 for convening a meeting without notifying the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have been granted ZW $5 000 bail at Masvingo magistrate court.
Alec Tabe, Vigisai Nerupandai and Alaika Time were arrested failing to notify the authority that they were convening a meeting and violating Covid-19 regulations.
Human Rights lawyer Martin Mureri of Matutu and Mureri legal practitioners confirmed that the trio have been granted bail and have been asked not to interfere with witnesses.
“They have been granted ZW $ 5 000 bail each and they are set to appear in court again on February 24, 2022 and they are not supposed to interfere with witnesses,” said Mureri.
He also said that the charges are malicious as the arrested people were not the organisers of the meeting and they are not from the ward where they were arrested in.
“There is nothing like that. The charges do not hold water because there is no convener of the meeting between them. The arrested people do not belong to the ward they were arrested in,” said Mureri.
MDC Alliance Masvingo provincial spokesperson, Derrick Charamba said the arrest was unprofessional as people are campaigning and it is during election time.
“The conduct is very unprofessional. Once the elections dates are announced, there is no need to notify them that we are holding a meeting. They are just overzealous and we do not need them. It is election time and people are campaigning and we will continue with our ward consultations,” said Charamba.
The opposition party has on record accused law enforcement agents of being partisan in executing their duties and applying the law selectively.
