POLICE yesterday raided Radio Dialogue, a Bulawayo community radio initiative and seized 180 solar-powered radio receivers enabled to get the shortwave frequency.
Report by Blondie Ndebele
Radio Dialogue’s production manager Zenzele Ndebele was also interrogated for most of the day at Hillside and Central police stations.
The organisation’s lawyer Kucaca Phulu confirmed the raid of Radio Dialogue operating at Ingwe Studios.
Phulu said Ndebele was taken to Hillside Police Station in the morning and later transferred to the Law and Order Section at the Central Police Station.
Ndebele was released last night and will appear in court on Monday.
“They want to detain him over the weekend,” Phulu said.
“They laid an alternative charge of possessing a radio without a ZBC licence against him.”
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Bulawayo police spokesperson Mandlenkosi Moyo refused to comment on the raid and arrest.
According to the search warrant, there were reasonable grounds for believing that Ndebele was in possession of “45 smuggled radio receivers”.
The warrant said the “items are suspected to be meant to be used in committing an offence”.
Phulu said the police were interrogating Ndebele on the sources of the radios.
Last week, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba announced that they were seizing the cheap radios because they were being used to spread hate speech.
Lawyers have described the seizure of the radios as illegal.
Several non-governmental organisations have also been raided by police recently on allegations that they kept subversive material at their offices.
