Kwekwe youth leader becomes first victim of POSA

By Tererai Karimakwenda | SW Radio Africa |

A youth leader from Kwekwe has become the first victim of Zimbabwe’s Public Order and Security Act (POSA), after a magistrate convicted him for organizing a civic education workshop last year, without “permission” from the police.

Nkosilathi Moyo, director of the Zimbabwe Organization for Youth in Politics (ZOYP), says he notified Kwekwe police in writing and was ignored. So they went ahead with the event in November, 2011.

Police disrupted the workshop and arrested Nkosilathi, along with Maureen Gombakomba and Beloved Chiweshe from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. The Crisis officials were cleared and released the same day but Moyo was detained and charged under POSA.

“Since its enactment in 2002 this legislation has not been used to convict anyone. Most cases ended up being acquitted, or the police decided to proceed by way of summons. It was a blow and very shocking to be convicted like that,” Moyo told SW Radio Africa.

The youth activist was found guilty by a Kwekwe magistrate on Tuesday and given a 12-month jail sentence. Six months were suspended with a $500 fine, on condition that he not commit the same crime again for the next five years.

Moyo dismissed the fine and conditions imposed on him, saying it was an attempt to block him from his civic duties for many years. He said: “They wanted me to go to jail that’s why they imposed such a big fine. My colleagues and sister organizations had to run around raising the money. It is a lot for a person my age.”

Moyo vowed to continue conducting civic education and developmental workshops in Kwekwe. He insisted that he does not engage in any political activity during the sessions and police were welcome to attend.

“I cannot stop organizing meetings. That’s my job. If I stop it is like depriving the community of a service that I am supposed to provide them. It is like trying to ban me,” Moyo said.

He added: “They are trying to instill fear in the people of Zimbabwe and block freedom of association and free political activity in this country. They are trying to censor everything so that people live in fear.”

The law says organizers must simply notify the police of any public events. But the police have abused this to ban rallies, meetings and demonstrations by the MDC formations and civic groups perceived to be enemies of ZANU PF.

POSA was introduced in 2002 to help the Mugabe regime crack down on the MDC, as the opposition party’s popularity increased. It gives extensive powers to the police and the chief architects of the legislation were Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Jonathan Moyo.