A Zimbabwean court, presided over by Magistrate Rose Dube, Thursday ruled that the embittered two members of Women Of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) arrested last week for protesting, must “go on trial” while setting 23 June as the trial date, WOZA revealed in a press communiqué.
Police in Bulawayo on 5 May arrested Trust Moyo and Cynthia Ncube for taking part in a demonstration organised by WOZA, which called for an “end to the recent spate of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe.”
The two were detained and later charged with “distributing materials likely to cause a breach of the peace” by the police.
At the start of the case, the defence lawyer argued the materials displayed by the two were not ‘obscene, threatening, abusive or insulting’ and therefore the charges should “be dropped.”
The magistrate however maintained that since the accused persons did not deny carrying the materials, a trial was necessary to decide whether the messages were obscene, insulting or not.
The materials in question are a banner stating ‘we want bread and roses’ and a newsletter that ran a sentence; “we immediately call on Robert Mugabe to hand over power to the winner of the presidential election, Morgan Tsvangirai.” Panapress .
