NEWLY-formed political party, Transform Zimbabwe has challenged President Robert Mugabe to uphold the country’s Constitution and ensure that people and political parties enjoy the fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in the supreme law of the land.
EVERSON MUSHAVA
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, TZ president Jacob Chengedzeni Satiya Ngarivhume said Mugabe should allow peaceful political activities without hindrance, harassment, threats of persecution or the abuse of power by state security agencies.
Ngarivhume said police, at the behest of the political leadership, have been using the Public Order and Security Act with impunity to suppress people’s freedoms.
“At whose behest are the police behaving unconstitutionally and beyond their powers? If it is the President and the ruling party, then we must remind the President of his first and foremost responsibility,” Ngarivhume said.
“It is to uphold, defend, obey and respect this Constitution and all the other laws are faithfully observed.
“It is the President’s constitutional duty to ensure the protection of the fundamental human rights and freedoms and the rule of law.”
Ngarivhume was last week arrested under Posa together with 12 members from his party for allegedly holding illegal meetings in Harare and Gweru. They were released after being detained for four days.
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He said Posa, with its roots in Rhodesia’s Law and Order Maintenance Act, should not be allowed to exist in a democratic society like Zimbabwe.
“We therefore make this promise to the nation that when we form a government following a democratic election, we will repeal all unjust laws, such as Posa, that prevent Zimbabweans from exercising their full human and democratic rights,” Ngarivhume said.
He claimed his party, with a Christian background, already has a membership of over 100 000 in its first six months after its formation in December 2013.
TZ, Ngarivhume said, would not be deterred by brutal police actions, but such hardness by the law enforcement agencies would only strengthen their resolve to fight for democracy.
On the his party’s plan for resuscitating the country’s dying economy, Ngarivhume said his party was working on an economic rescue plan that would inform the party’s policy direction, adding that the country was in this deplorable state because of bad leadership which his party would address.
He said his party would be different from any other political party, and the persecution they were receiving from the police showed that the ruling party had already discovered the threat TZ will pose to their run to retain power.
