HARARE -- Zimbabwe homosexual worker Ignatius Mhambi goes on trial today on charges of possessing drugs and pornographic material.

Mhambi works for the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), the only representative body for homosexual people in the mainly conservative southern African country.

He was arrested together with Ellen Chademana, an administrative assistant at GALZ last month at their Milton Park offices in Harare and charged with being in possession of obscene, indecent or prohibited articles in contravention of Section 26 (1) (b) of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act chapter 10:04.

The police also charged Chademana and Mhambi with contravening Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe although the charge was not initially raised in court.

The police allege that the GALZ employees displayed a plaque of former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr in their office in which the African-American denounces President Robert Mugabe’s homophobia against gays and lesbians.

Chademana will stand trial on Thursday a day after Mhambi. The two accused are represented by lawyers from rights group Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

Mugabe is known for his dislike for gay and lesbian people who he has described as “worse than dogs and pigs”.

The President’s supporters and government agencies have fought to keep the country's small homosexual community away from the public view most notably by barring them from advertising their way of life at public for a such as the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.

Earlier this year Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai publicly spoke out against homosexuality and said an exercise underway to write a new constitution for Zimbabwe should not be used to smuggle the rights of gay and lesbian people into the country’s fundamental law. – ZiimOnline.