BULAWAYO – Four Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) activists who on Wednesday refused to pay admission of guilt fines following their arrest during a peaceful march last Saturday will appear in court today facing charges of disturbing public peace, their lawyer said yesterday.

"Police said they will take them to court tomorrow (Thursday) morning to face charges of disturbing public peace," said Kossam Ncube who is representing the WOZA activists.

Bulawayo police on Saturday arrested 12 WOZA activists for taking part in a peaceful march to mark Valentine’s Day and “spread the word of love during the country's political crisis".

Ncube said police have since Monday failed to take the activists to court because they had no solid case against them, prompting the police to beg the activists to pay admission of guilt fines.

"Police failed to lay a clear solid charge against the WOZA activists and on Tuesday and Wednesday begged them to pay admission of guilt fines so that they can be released,” said Ncube 

"Eight of the activists paid the ZW$20 guilt fine for disturbing public peace and were released but four others refused because they saw no reason why they should pay it since they had not committed a crime."

The WOZA activists who were marching, distributing fliers and leaflets were arrested a day after President Robert Mugabe swore in a power sharing Cabinet that is faced with the tough task of reversing the country's decade-long economic crisis.

Their arrest followed the arrest of Roy Bennett, a top official of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party who is set to assume the post of deputy agriculture minister, in what the party said is a covert move by hardliners in Mugabe's ZANU PF party and military chiefs to derail the new unity government.

Meanwhile On Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the African Union and the United Nations to send monitors to investigate human rights violations committed by Zimbabwe's security forces during the current transitional period. 

"A number of events that have taken place since the swearing in of a new government in Zimbabwe suggest that there is a force within the Zimbabwean security forces, that continues ordering violations of human rights as a method of dealing with people they do not like," Amnesty International's Zimbabwe Researcher, Simeon Mawanza said.

The country's security chiefs last week boycotted the swearing in of Tsvangirai whom they have said they will never salute. – ZimOnline