Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) members on Tuesday 4 May 2021 arrested and detained Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of opposition Transform Zimbabwe political party and the convenor of #31JulyMovement, for allegedly conducting a clean-up campaign in Harare’s Mbare suburb without first seeking police clearance.
Ngarivhume was arrested together with Thabani Ncube, also of #31JulyMovement and two unidentified drivers and detained at Matapi Police Station for close to two hours. They were arrested while on a widely publicised clean-up exercise conducted in Mbare, one of Harare’s oldest high-density suburb.
The drivers were assisting in the collection of garbage which is littered in Mbare and has not been collected by the local authority for a long time thereby posing a health hazard.
A refuse dump truck was also seized by ZRP and later released.
Ngarivhume, Ncube and the two drivers were released without any charges preferred against them as Tinomuda Shoko, Paidamoyo Saurombe and Harrison Nkomo of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights had been deployed to represent them.
Source: ZLHR
