Police released journalist and newspaper publisher Matthew Takaona on Tuesaday evening after failing to find a charge to proffer against him following his arrest on the roadside where he and a group of citizens had been cutting grass on a deadly black spot on the Highway in Gutu.
He was arrested by a CIO-led group of 5 men calling itself Fereti.
Initially Police was directed to charge Takaona for failing to notify a local councilor, Benson Dandira (complainant) before cutting grass on a black spot next to Mushayavanhu Primary School but lawyers found the charge laughable. Ordinarily, there is no obligation to notify a councilor for a development project, said the lawyers.
Then Environmental Management Authority senior officials were roped in to try and get a charge. After a long meeting with Police officers and the CIO, they found nothing under the law to warrant action against Takaona and in an attempt to find a dignified exit out of the case, Police instructed their suspect to write a statement/report and be free but lawyers vehemently rejected the request and challenged Police to rather move ahead and charge him. It was after further consultations with their superiors that Police released Takaona.
Meanwhile CIO operatives were insisting on locking up Takaona who complained of harassment particularly by the CIO operative who led the Fereti group. Takaona was forced to leave his unguarded and unlocked car at the roadside where he was arrested.
The CIO leader then attempted to grab his phone before bundling him in a small Honda Fit squashed by two men on either side in the back seat and was guarded by three operatives almost throughout the day. One of the women slashing grass lost US$300 under her phone cover after the CIO operatives grabbed away her phone.
Takaona had three lawyers, Collen Maboke, Grace Bwanya and Martin Mureri at the Police. Takaona said after his release that he was arrested for showing care for the bad state of the country’s roads and the safety of school kids. He said he will be back on Thursday to continue cutting down grass and shrubs on the stretch of the highway.
The arrest comes hot on the heels of the release of yet another journalist Blessed Mhlanga who spend over two months in custody for interviewing a contoversial war veteran Blessed ‘Bombshell’ Geza’ who had been pointing out governement ineptitude and monumental corruption and cronysim agitating for the resignation or forced removal of President Munangagwa through an motion of impeachment in Parliament or mass agitation.
Takaona himself had been a losing candidate for political office in the last elections running under the opposition banner, the now disbandied Citizens Coalition for Change(CCC).
