The United States embassy commended members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise for staging demonstrations against the government saying the courage of these ordinary women, usually quite poor, was remarkable in an atmosphere when most citizens were occupied with the day-to-day business of survival.
WOZA and the National Constitutional Assembly led by Lovemore Madhuku were at the forefront of turning out people on the streets to demonstrate against the government.
Both organisations received funding from the United States government.
Despite their demonstrations, during which the leaders of the two organisations were often arrested, the embassy said it was unlikely that civil society and the larger democratic forces would be able to capitalise on these small demonstrations to tap into the widespread public discontent and generate momentum for lawful civil resistance.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 06HARARE177, WHERE’S THE LOVE? – VALENTINE’S DAY ARRESTS
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000177
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR B. NEULING
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE
USAID/AFR/SA FOR E. LOKEN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2016
SUBJECT: WHERE’S THE LOVE? – VALENTINE’S DAY ARRESTS
REF: HARARE 113 AND PREVIOUS
Classified By: Ambassador Christopher Dell for reasons 1.5 b/d
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Summary
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¶1. (U) On February 14, approximately 300 members of women’s
activist group Women of Zimbabwe Arise! (WOZA) marched in
Harare, demanding affordable food and social justice.
Police arrested around 250 of the women along with their
lawyer, Tafadzwa Mugabe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights. The previous day, police arrested approximately
180 at WOZA’s march in Bulawayo. End summary.
——————————————-
Women March for “Bread and Roses” in Harare
——————————————-
¶2. (U) On February 14, approximately 300 members of the
women’s activist group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise! (WOZA),
participated in WOZA’s annual Valentine’s Day march in
Harare. Poloff observed the march. Soon after the
appointed hour for the march, several women who had been
milling around the downtown corner where the march was to
begin came together and begin distributing roses and
banners. The group quickly grew to about 300 and marched
down the street, unfurling banners and tossing around
copies of WOZA’s latest newsletter and cards with the theme
of this year’s march, “bread and roses.” According to the
newsletter, “bread” represents the need for affordable food
and “roses” represent social justice, modeled on the theme
of a worker’s strike in Kansas in 1912. The cards
proclaimed “We want more than day-to-day survival–we
deserve roses and the dignity they stand for.”
—————————————
Police Arrest Marchers and Their Lawyer
—————————————
¶3. (U) After marching a few blocks, some of the group
dispersed into a nearby park upon the arrival of a handful
of police officers with helmets, batons, and a single
police vehicle. The police gathered the women in front of
St. Mary’s cathedral. Many pedestrians gathered on the
corners near the cathedral and at the edge of the park to
watch the scene. The women who had moved into the park
reappeared among the crowd and began handing out more
newsletters. Many in the crowd were asking who WOZA was
and what the march was about. Police approached the crowd
several times, brandishing their batons and shouting at the
onlookers to clear the area, but there was no violence
directed at the women or the crowd. The initially small
group of police officers was using radios, and a few
minutes later, additional police arrived with a pickup
truck that began taking the women away. The first women
driven away were smiling as they were led into the truck,
and a cheer arose from the other marchers as the truck
drove away. Tafadzwa Mugabe, a lawyer from Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), was present from the time
of the detention and attempted to communicate with police,
who surrounded him and gestured at him with their batons.
¶4. (C) According to ZLHR’s Otto Saki, police arrested
Tafadzwa and refused to reveal the charges. Saki said
that, after taking the WOZA women to Harare Central Police
Station, police had begun roaming downtown, arresting other
women who looked like they might be WOZA women. Saki said
that some women passersby who had not participated in the
march handed themselves over to police in solidarity with
the WOZA women. Police arrested approximately 250 women in
all. Saki was planning to appear in the High Court that
afternoon to file an urgent application for the release of
all the women and Tafadzwa. Police released Tafadzwa later
that day, but, as of close of business on February 15,
police still held 192 women.
——————————————-
Women Arrested in Another March in Bulawayo
——————————————-
¶5. (U) According to a February 14 ZLHR press release,
police arrested 181 women and men at the end of WOZA’s
February 13 Valentine’s march in Bulawayo. Among those
detained were 14 babies who had been with their mothers
during the march and who depended on nursing for food.
Police had kept the detained in an open courtyard at
Bulawayo Central Police Station, exposed to the rain, for
several hours before being moved to cells. Initially, WOZA
leader Jenni Williams had been held separately and ZLHR
lawyers had been denied access to any of the detained.
Police later returned Williams to the group and granted
ZLHR access. Police charged the women and men with
violations of the Public Order and Security Act for
participating in an unauthorized march. According to ZLHR,
Police released all the detainees in Bulawayo on February
¶15.
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Comment
——-
¶6. (C) Although Zimbabwe’s periodic public demonstrations
are becoming heavily scripted affairs with participants,
police, and lawyers each settling into familiar roles, the
lack of violence in public masks the brutality such
activists experience from police behind closed doors. In
this instance, the initial small police presence and
scramble to obtain reinforcements suggests that the size of
the demonstration may have caught the police off-guard.
Authorities may have assumed that the arrest of nearly 200
women in Bulawayo the day before would deter participants
in the February 14 Harare march. Instead, the women came
out in similar numbers in Harare and with a great deal of
enthusiasm. The detention of ZLHR lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe,
an unusual practice, may be related to the GOZ’s ongoing
campaign of harassment against ZLHR (reftel).
¶7. (C) WOZA’s march seems to have been a PR success for the
organization, which, along with Lovemore Madhuku’s National
Constitutional Assembly, is one of the few NGOs capable of
turning at least some people out in the streets. The
courage of these ordinary women, usually quite poor, who
march several times a year knowing police will arrest many
or most of them, is remarkable in an atmosphere when most
citizens are occupied with the day-to-day business of
survival. At this point, it appears unlikely that civil
society and the larger democratic forces will be able to
capitalize on these small demonstrations to tap into the
widespread public discontent and generate momentum for
lawful civil resistance.
DELL
(208 VIEWS)
