Robson Chere, the Secretary General of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), pro-democracy campaigner Namatai Kwekweza, and opposition councillor Samuel Gwenzi were reportedly removed from a plane at the Robert Mugabe International Airport in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, July 31st.
Kwekweza is the leader of the WeLead Trust, while Gwenzi is the Harare City Council’s Ward 5 councillor, having won the seat during the 2023 general elections under the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party ticket.
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter) by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the three individuals had already boarded the plane when they were taken off the plane by state security agents. It said:
We are greatly concerned about the whereabouts of pro-democracy campaigner Kwekweza and two other people, who reached out to us after they were removed from a plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport.
We are trying to ascertain their whereabouts and what is happening to them.
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The Kofi Annan Foundation also weighed in, demanding to know the whereabouts of Namatai Kwekweza. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Foundation said:
We are deeply concerned about reports that Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize winner [Namatai Kwekweza] has been detained by security services in Harare.
We call on the Zimbabwean authorities to confirm her whereabouts and explain what charges are being brought against her. Without charges, Namatai should be released immediately.
In a subsequent update, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) reported that they were finally granted access to the three individuals after they had been held in incommunicado detention for at least 8 hours. It added:
Robson was visibly tortured and in severe pain. They have been advised that their charge is disorderly conduct.
The allegations are they participated in a demonstration at Rotten Row when Jameson Timba and others appeared in court.
They are spending the night at Harare Central police station. At RGM Airport, they were held incommunicado by state agents.
In a statement, the Information for Development Trust revealed that the trio intended to travel to Victoria Falls and attend the 5th African Philanthropic Conference. Reads the statement:
ZIMBABWEAN authorities on Wednesday 31 July 2024 forcibly removed four pro-democracy campaigners from a plane, which they had boarded in Harare and held them in incommunicado detention for several hours.
The four pro-democracy campaigners namely Namatai Kwekweza, the leader of WeLead Trust, Robson Chere, the Secretary-General of Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), Samuel Gwenzi, a former Councillor for Harare Ward 5 and Vusumuzi Moyo, were ejected by some unidentified people from an aircraft at Robert Mugabe International Airport, where they intended to travel to Victoria Falls and attend the 5th African Philanthropic Conference, which is an annual gathering of civil society policy influencers and other stakeholders, which is currently underway in the resort town.
Human rights lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) unsuccessfully tried to get access to Kwekweza, Chere, Gwenzi and Moyo after they requested legal assistance and were held in incommunicado detention for about eight hours before their legal practitioners eventually located them.
Chere sustained some injuries after he was tortured by the captors, who reportedly used some planks and iron roads to torture him.
The quartet, who are represented by Kelvin Kabaya, Jeremiah Bamu and Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of ZLHR, was detained overnight at Harare Central Police Station and were charged with disorderly conduct with Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers alleging that they participated in an unsanctioned demonstration held at Harare Magistrates Court in June, where they protested against the detention of Citizens Coalition for Change political party leader Jameson Timba and some of the opposition party members and demanding their release from prison.
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