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19 May, 2008
Today is Day 12 in Harare Central Remand Prison for the two top leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The two, President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary-General Secretary Wellington Chibebe, were denied bail on 12 May, and they await a further hearing on 23 May.
And at that bail hearing last week, a leader of one of the two teachers’ unions in Zimbabwe was detained. Raymond Majongwe, Secretary-General of the Progressive Teachers’ Union, was seized at the Harare High Court.
Education International (EI) is calling for protest action. For more, click here.
It is believed that Majongwe is being held for chronicling the number of teachers in his union who have been victims of political violence for failing to contribute to the ruling ZANU-PF’s party vote total in March’s parliamentary and presidential elections.
ZCTU's Wellington Chibebe
Comrades Matombo and Chibebe were arrested on 8 May and charged with “communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the state and inciting public violence.” Those allegations came from speeches they made on International Workers’ Day, 1 May, before 1,500 Zimbabweans inside Harare’s Dzivaresekwa Stadium.
The two presented themselves to police on Thursday, 8 May, after armed police turned up at their homes searching for them. Both had been severely beaten when they were last in police custody, in September 2006.
The arrests of the trade union leaders are part of a wider crackdown on civil society defenders inside Zimbabwe in the wake of the 29 March elections. The ruling ZANU party of Robert Mugabe lost those elections, but results showed that Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgan Tsvangirai did not win the necessary 50% plus one for the presidency, so a run-off election is now required. The Mugabe government has not yet set the date for that election.