-as technicians fined US$30 each
SHANNISE DZOBO
MASVINGO – Renowned Masvingo lawyer and former Mayor, Collen Maboke has castigated the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) for wrongfully charging a group of mourning cell phone technicians whom they accused of disrupting their daily routine activities.
The team of cell phone technicians did a funeral procession of one of their late colleague, Field Zipipe who used to operate from Room 14 at Guni House Complex where there is Chicken Inn. Zipipe died last Saturday night after a short illness. Tinashe Muparangi a colleague confirmed to The Midweek Watch the fines.
The seven were fined $US30 each.
Muparangi told this publication that the seven were fined US$30 each before adding that they were just doing like any other funeral procession that happens in the city. However, after the procession, they were called by the police to pay the fines for disrupting the services of Masvingo Police Headquarters and the President’s Office aka CIO.
“We were just doing a funeral procession of a friend and colleague and we passed through Masvingo Central Police with a convoy of 7 vehicles including the parlour vehicle from Vineyard and the Police called us in to pay fines for disturbing peace,” said Muparangi.
However, Maboke did not mince his words and made it clear that the police were wrong to act in that manner. He said the crew was charged wrongly because they were celebrating and mourning their deceased friend which is allowed under the country’s laws.
“This charge is very unconstitutional because it’s removing the right to association and right of movement and it needs to be challenged and address the issue in court because it’s just the same like fining people that are going to their wedding venue who make all sorts of noise with cars and public address systems,” said Maboke.
