Staff Reporter| Two reasonably innocent street vendors in Gwanda were on Thursday arrested by plain cloth police for picking up a NERA demonstration flyer and giving it to other vendors to read.
The two vendors, Leonard Ndlovu and Oscar Zhou have been in police custody since Thursday morning and due to appear in court this morning.
According to human rights advocacy organisation Restoration Of Human Rights Matabeleland South Spokesperson Norman Mudadisi, the two vendors picked up a flyer which had been thrown from a moving vehicle, read the flyer before giving it to other vendors to also read.
Plain cloth police officers who were within the vicinity quickly apprehended the other vendors who were reading the flyer.
The two then intervened in the fracas telling the police officers to produce identity cards that could prove that they were indeed police officers before demanding for the release of the other vendors confessing to have given the flyer to them.
The police then arrested the two and charged them for inciting public violence by sharing the flyer and for obstructing the course of justice by “interfering with the duties of the police.”
According to Mudadisi, ROHR Matabeleland South has since been able to get the two legal assistance from Abammeli Human Rights Lawyers in Bulawayo who will appear with the two in court on Saturday morning.
The organisation castigated the police for what they termed unnecessary intimidation strategies meant to intimidate vendors out of the demonstrations by arresting the two vendors.