HARARE – Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Lovemore Matombo and four other unionists spent the fourth day in jail on Wednesday after police successfully applied to court for permission to keep the unionists in detention pending trial.

Matombo, Michael Kandukutu, Percy Mncijo, Dumisani Ncube and Nhawu Ndlovu were last Sunday arrested in Victoria Falls while addressing members of the labour union for allegedly convening a public meeting without clearance from the police.

They were detained overnight at Victoria Falls police station before being transferred to Hwange where they have been kept since then.

ZCTU spokesperson Khumbulani Ndlovu said yesterday that the union’s lawyers, working with the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights were preparing a High Court application for the release of the five unionists.

“Police have applied for further remand,” said Ndlovu. “So our lawyers are making an urgent application for their release,” she said.

The government’s draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA) requires Zimbabweans to notify police first before holding public meetings and demonstrations. However professional and other special interest groups such as the ZCTU are not required to notify police of meetings to discuss issues specific to their work or field.

Human rights groups accuse the police of using the POSA willy-nilly to bar meetings of any group perceived as unsympathetic to President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.

On Monday the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) wrote to Mugabe demanding the immediate release of the trade union leaders who were arrested on a tour of the country meeting ZCTU structures.

The arrest of the ZCTU officials comes barely two weeks after police arrested two top members of the national association of non-governmental organisations also in Victoria Falls where they were attending a meeting of directors of NGOs working in the country.