Speaking during a Zoom interview with CITE director Zenzele Ndebele, Moyo described Chin’ono’s arrest as an abduction.
“From what many of us saw, it can’t be cor-rect that both cases were arrests. In one case, Hopewell’s case, it was clearly abduction, in broad daylight. The police broke into his place and the evidence is there,” he said.
“The charge, allegations that they have put are shocking. They are alleging that by engaging in a debate, disseminating information about what citizens intend to do peacefully in accordance with sections 58, 59 and 61 of our Constitution, to demonstrate and protest and petition the government, all provided for in the 2013 Constitution, that doing so is equal to inciting the pub-lic to participate in violence.”
Moyo said Mnangagwa’s government was far from being a new dispensation. He said the conduct of Mnangagwa’s administration was consist-ent with a government that uses force, violence and military force to come into power.
“They do not accept that Zimbabwe is a constitutional democracy and they have obligations in terms of that Constitution,” Moyo, who was last month accused of plotting to unseat Mnangagwa, said.
Yesterday, he said when he says “Zanu-PF must go”, he means Zanu-PF as a system.
“When we say Zanu-PF must go, we don’t mean that Zanu-PF individuals must disappear from the face of the earth. Zanu-PF means the system, the values that have brought us in this unacceptable situation even after we came up with a new Constitution.
“We need to start afresh, it is difficult to imagine those values gone when an organisation called Zanu-PF remains.”
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe director Tabani Moyo expressed concern over the arrest of journalists doing their work.
“Misa Zimbabwe remains open to constructive engagement with the government,” Moyo said in his statement to the African Commission on Hu-man and People’s Rights on the right to freedom of expression in Zimbabwe.
“We, however, urge the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to encourage the government of Zimbabwe to take all measures necessary to guarantee the safety and security of journalists.”
