Formed in 2003, WOZA is an activist organisation that aims to provide women in Zimbabwe with a united voice. It encourages them to stand up for their rights and freedoms, and to empower female leadership in the community.
Its membership is now estimated at 70,000 men and women across the country. And many are made to pay for their campaigning activities - founding member Jenni Williams has been arrested over 40 times since the organisation began.
Punished for peaceful protests
On 12 November 2012 WOZA held a protest at council offices in Bulawayo. They were peacefully demanding access to clean drinking water when riot police arrived. They arrested 79 of the women present, including two carrying babies. WOZA leader Magodonga Mahlangu was one of those taken into custody. They were all released just a couple of hours later.
Over the past decade WOZA members have been arrested, harassed and severely beaten in police custody for exercising their right to peaceful protest. They are often denied access to food, lawyers and medical care while in detention.
Criminal charges
Of the many risks that WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu face for their work, the ones most commonly deployed are arbitrary arrests and criminal charges.
When WOZA celebrated its tenth anniversary with a peaceful demonstration in Bulawayo Jenni Williams and 13 others including four bystanders were arrested. They say that riot police assaulted demonstrators and members of the public.
Detainees were released the following day on free bail, but Jenni Williams and nine other WOZA members are facing trial on criminal nuisance charges.
Less than a year earlier, on 21 September 2011, 12 WOZA activists were illegally detained at Bulawayo Central police station. Once again, they were arrested for participating in a peaceful march – this time to commemorate International Day of Peace.
Ten of the women were released without charge, but Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were charged with “kidnapping and theft” connected to an allegation laid by a former WOZA employee who had been dismissed. They claim that these charges are fabricated.
These cases are currently working their way through the courts, but they are just the latest examples in a long history of arrests, charges and court summonses targeted at WOZA members.
Supreme Court ruling
Among many other examples, Jenni and Mogodonga were also arrested and detained after a peaceful protest in 2008. On the 26 November 2010, The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe rules that this arrest and detention was wrongful. It said that the state had failed to protect the activists from abuse.
The authorities are yet to observe this ruling.
This persecution cannot be allowed to continue. Demand an end to the harassment of WOZA members.
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