4 Tsvangirai officials and lawyer arrested
By Lance Guma
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HARARE – Prominent Zimbabwe human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa spent the night in police custody after being arrested Sunday morning because she asked the police to produce a search warrant when they raided the home of a senior official in Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s office.
In a mounting crackdown by Mugabe’s regime, 15 plain clothes policemen raided the home of Thabani Mpofu (principal director for research) before confiscating laptops and cellphones among other items. Also arrested were senior party officials, Anna Mazvidziwa, Felix Matsinde and Warship Dumba. Also arrested was Muzvidziwa’s one year old son.
According to reports Tsvangirai’s chief advisor Dr Alex Magaisa alerted Mtetwa to the raid and the arrest. Mtetwa was then taken to Mpofu’s home to represent him.
Sources told Nehanda Radio that Mtetwa demanded a search warrant and an inventory of all the property the police had seized. This they failed to provide. The police were said to have been incensed by the fact that during the drama Mtetwa was filming her conversation with them using her mobile phone.
One of the officers identified as Mukwazhi is reported to have demanded the phone and when Mtetwa refused and placed it in her bag, a scuffle developed. The police later overpowered Mtetwa and snatched the bag from her. Mtetwa is now being charged with ‘obstructing the course of justice.’
National police spokesperson Charity Charamba said “We picked a total of five people for impersonation. We are still doing the investigations but Beatrice Mtetwa was picked for obstructing the police and insulting the police doing their work. They are all being detained at Harare Police station,” she said.
Dewa Mavhinga from the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute told Nehanda Radio the police treatment of Mtetwa “is outrageous, a disgrace and a serious indictment on the justice system. How can I celebrate a landslide vote for a new constitution – when she is locked up in police custody for doing her work?”
On Sunday MDC-T aspiring MP for Makoni South Grace Kwinjeh said “Beatrice Mtetwa on my mind as I go to sleep. Had it not been for her courageous fight for me and Senator Sekai Holland to leave Zimbabwe for treatment, in 2007 upon reflection I do not know what my fate could have been?
“As she stood up for each one of us I pray with much hope we can do so too in our own little ways! Our country is pregnant with much hope of a better future, we cannot tire at this point, we keep moving, Martin Luther King said even if you are crawling, just keep moving.
“We keep moving knowing that even if we do not like each other and do not talk the enemy will spare none of us. Our options are few we must start thinking straight like people with limited options whose backs are against the wall. Escaping into political fantasy land does not help,” Kwinjeh told us.
On Monday morning Irene Petras from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights posted an update saying:
“High Court Justice Hungwe granted an order for Beatrice’s immediate release late last night. Together with 4 other lawyers I attended Rhodesville police station at around 2.30am where police refused to comply with the court order.
“Law and Order personnel named in the application were made aware of the order too and similarly refused to cooperate around 3.30am. Efforts are continuing this morning,” Petras said.
Mtetwa’s arrest comes hardly a few days after a documentary on her brave work was launched. The film Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law opens with her saying; “People who do things under the cover of darkness are afraid of light. So, if you come at midnight I’ll be there with my headlights glaring…”
The film traces how Mtetwa has stood up to one of the “continent’s most brutal dictator’s, Robert Mugabe’ and how “in spite of beatings by police, Beatrice has courageously defended in court those jailed by the Mugabe government—peace activists, journalists, opposition candidates, farmers’ and ordinary citizens.
