By A Correspondent| Some election watchdog employees, who were recently exonerated by the court, have sued Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe for forcibly and illegally seizing their electronic gadgets, when they arrested them last year for allegedly contravening the Electoral Act.
The 35 Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Election Resource Centre (ERC) employees and volunteers, were arrested by ZRP officers on 23 August and charged with contravening section 66(A)(1)(a) of the Electoral Act as read with section 189 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, for allegedly purporting to announce the result of an election as the true or official results and for attempting to commit a crime.
The arrest of the election watchdog employees followed a raid on their officers at a hotel in Harare and at some offices located in the capital city, where their gadgets including mobile phone handsets and laptops, were confiscated by the law enforcements agents.
In court, prosecutors alleged that the 35 ERC and ZESN employees and volunteers attempted to announce the 2023 harmonised election outcome by consolidating the election results with the intention of announcing them to the public through the media before the official announcement by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
But on 30 May, the 35 election watchdog employees were exonerated after prosecutors withdrew charges of contravening the Electoral Act before plea, citing lack of tangible evidence to rely upon during trial.
This prompted the ZESN and ERC employees and volunteers to sue Matanga and Hon. Kazembe by filing an urgent court application at the High Court seeking an order compelling the law enforcement agents and Kazembe to release and surrender their electronic gadgets to them.
In the application, which was filed on 18 June by their lawyer Kossam Ncube of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the election watchdog employees argued that their electronic gadgets were being unlawfully held by ZRP since the charges, which were initially preferred against them had now been formally withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority.
The ERC and ZESN employees contended that they are suffering irreparable and daily inconvenience of being deprived of the usage of their gadgets for personal and business purposes owing to the ZRP’s illegal refusal to release and surrender their mobile phone handsets and laptops.
The conduct of ZRP officers in refusing to release their gadgets, the election watchdog employees said, flies in the face of clear provisions of section 58(1)(d)(i) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which obliges ZRP to forthwith release their gadgets following the withdrawal of criminal charges.
In response to the request by the ERC and ZESN employees and volunteers, the law enforcement agency argued that it is unable to release the gadgets owing to some undisclosed and pending investigations, which the ZRP was carrying out in spite of the criminal charges having been withdrawn.
On 25 June, High Court Judge Justice Neville Wamambo reserved his ruling after presiding over hearing of the urgent court application.