A MOMMENT IN HISTORY

Clergymen arrested, quizzed over 'new party' Standard (Zimb)Date posted:Sun 6-Aug-2006. Date published:Sun 6-Aug-2006, By Foter Dongozi
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Wakatama said police accused them of working on plans to form a new political party, a charge he dismissed outrightly as false.

The government on Friday arrested and detained Methodist Church in Zimbabwe’s Bishop Levee Kadenge and two other pastors in the Christian Alliance as repression escalates in the country. Kadenge was the convenor of the Save Zimbabwe Convention held last Saturday during which leaders of opposition parties pledged to form a broad alliance to fight Zanu PF. Pastors who were arrested include a blind Reverend Ancelimo Magaya and his wife, Daphne, who also acts as his assistant and Reverend Brian Mugwidi also of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. Also arrested was newspaper columnist, Pius Wakatama, who is a member of the Christian Alliance’s publicity section. They were arrested at a road-block mounted just outside Harare while they were coming from Bulawayo. Wakatama said they were detained for two hours on Friday at the notorious Law and Order section at Harare Central Police Station. They were ordered to return yesterday and were grilled for three hours. Wakatama said police accused them of working on plans to form a new political party, a charge he dismissed outrightly as false. "We were arrested while coming from Bulawayo where all the bishops from Matabeleland wanted us to brief them on the operations of Christian Alliance. In the end, the police said they were not going to charge us but ordered us to work closely with some bishops who are supportive of the government’s policies," Wakatama said.