{"id":1400,"date":"2018-04-03T07:29:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T07:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wozazim.org\/?p=1400"},"modified":"2018-04-03T07:32:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T07:32:29","slug":"appearances-in-court-and-1-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/?p=1400","title":{"rendered":"Appearances in Court and 1 arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

On Thursday 22 March 2012, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Leaders Jennifer Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu appeared before Magistrate Godwin Sengweni facing Kidnap and Theft charges. Defence lawyer Kossam Ncube produced a High Court order to \u2018stay all criminal proceedings\u2019 in Regional Court A and applied for the two activists to be removed off remand appearances in Court pending the outcome of the Review of the Magistrates decision to refuse to discharge Williams and Mahlangu at close of state case.<\/p>\n

As has now become a bad habit the state opposed the application and Magistrate Sengweni remanded to activist to 26 April 2012 when he will
\ngive a ruling on if they are to be removed off remand.<\/p>\n

On Friday 23 March 2012 Jennifer Williams and 9 other members arrested on 7 February 2012 in Bulawayo and charged with \u2018Criminal Nuisance\u2019 appeared in court 1. Their lawyer Lizwe Jamela, Chief Law officer of ZLHR, submitted an application to take a challenge to the Supreme Court. The Prosecutor and Magistrate will respond on 27 April 2012.<\/p>\n

This Supreme Court application is in response to the State insistence on charging the activists with peaceful protest related laws when
\nthere is a landmark ruling won by Williams and Mahlangu for their right to protest to be unhindered. This landmark ruling has been
\nsuccessfully used by scores of activists but the Williams and Mahlangu cannot seem to enjoy it as a legal precedent.<\/p>\n

On the 22nd March, Riot Police surrounded the Tredgold Magistrates court monitoring closely the movement of WOZA leaders and members.
\nSeven police officers chased anyone standing close to the activists so as to isolate them and scrutinise their movement. They even chased
\naway a mother breastfeeding her baby on the pavement outside the court.<\/p>\n

When the 2 members walked across the road to meet another member, 2 Riot police followed them and searched them. One member was found with a WOZA branded scarf \u2013 standing up for my rights \u2013 which was immediately judged to be seditious and she was surrounded by 4
\nofficers who held onto her clothing and marched her for one city block until a back up vehicle with a truck load of Riot Police arrived to
\npick her up and took her to Bulawayo Central police station. She was advised that she would be detained but two minutes later Mr. Jamela of
\nZimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) arrived the Law and Order plain clothed police officers indicated that she was not under
\narrested but was merely picked up for profiling (personal details and affiliations). She was questioned about a \u2018proposed\u2019 demonstration
\nlater that day. However WOZA was not planning a protest so she replied that she knew of no such demonstration only Court appearances. She was\u00a0 then released.<\/p>\n

WOZA wish to warn the Police that the public outcry surrounding the searching and arrest our young member should send a strong message
\nthat members of the public are getting irritated with the constant presence of Riot Police in the street conducting arbitrary searches
\nand chasing people standing in groups away from the city centre. Zimbabweans patience with the military-style policing is wearing thin.<\/p>\n

WOZA application to magistrates court to go to Supreme Court 23march2012<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t \n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday 22 March 2012, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Leaders Jennifer Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu appeared before Magistrate Godwin Sengweni facing Kidnap and Theft charges. Defence lawyer Kossam Ncube produced a High Court order to \u2018stay all criminal proceedings\u2019 in Regional Court A and applied for the two activists to be removed off … Continue reading Appearances in Court and 1 arrest<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1502,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wozazim.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}