Police in full riot uniform disrupted a road show organised by a local community radio initiative.
(MISA/IFEX) – 2 May 2012 – Zimbabwe Police in full riot uniform disrupted a road show organised by a local community radio initiative, Radio Dialogue. The incident occurred on Saturday, 28 April 2012 during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF). The police claimed that the road show was called to an end due to lack of space.
Radio Dialogue, for the past 6 years has been successfully holding the road show in question without any hindrance and this year’s disruption is rather surprising given that the radio station had cleared with the Bulawayo City Council to use the space in question.
Radio Dialogue Production Manager, Zenzele Ndebele told the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat that when the riot police arrived on the scene, they told him that they had orders to disrupt the road show and beat people up if they did not comply with the order to disperse.
Other media reports have quoted the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) Chairman Gift Mambipiri as saying the body had observed it worrying and ironic that, “the systematic onslaught on the initiative’s activities comes after recent comments by the Governor and Resident Minister of Bulawayo province, Cain Mathema during the ZANU-PF annual conference held in Bulawayo last year.”
It has been reported that Mathema, who is ZANU-PF Deputy Secretary for Information and Publicity, labeled Radio Dialogue and a number of non-governmental organisations as seeking to reverse the gains of independence by preaching regime change.
Mambipiri is quoted as saying his organisation is convinced that the police’s action was meant to derail the community radio from its mandate of serving the community of Bulawayo, through promoting access to information and participation in governance issues.