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Political parties wanting to organise rallies and meetings have to follow the simple rules set out in the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act, a new and generally accepted law that replaced the unwanted security laws in 2019 near the beginning of the Second Republic as part of the major reforms.
The preamble to this Act makes it clear that while the freedoms enjoyed by Zimbabweans, especially freedom of assembly and association which matter when you organise a public meeting, can be limited to maintain public peace, public order in a way acceptable in any democratic society, but that the limitations should be the minimum possible.
One important limit is that exercise of the rights should not infringe the rights of others.
The 20-page Act has around half a dozen pages devoted to public meetings and processions, and as Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi has made clear this week in his capacity as the police public relations officer, the police will be helpful, but still have to follow MOPO and want the parties to read the requirements and follow them.
The police are not showing favourites. Since the beginning of the year the police have been unable to approve in time 143 of the 1 730 notifications of public meetings by parties, with Zanu PF leading the pack with 84 of the lack of approvals, largely because it made easily the largest number of notifications.
But its local organisers now seem to be doing much better having learned the few very simple rules.
Basically MOPO needs seven days notification to police of a procession and five days notification for a meeting, but during an election period, such as Zimbabwe is now in, the meeting requirement drops to three days.
The Act exempts church services, sports events, entertainment events and the like, but applies to political meetings of more than 15 people.
The party organising the meeting has to do the work. There must be a formal convener and deputy convener from the party, who need in the notice to police to give their names, addresses phone numbers and ID particulars.
This means the police can easily contact them if necessary. The notice is handed into the nearest police station to the officer in charge, if present, or the senior police officer on duty. It is that simple.
The notice has to specify the venue, and the police these days want confirmation from the council, organisation or person in charge of the venue to state the party has permission to use it. The notice needs to indicate how many people are expected. Since many of the likely conditions that the police may impose regard traffic and parking, so that roads are not blocked, parties can perhaps pre-empt that by stating where the carpark will be and how big it is.
The police would like to hear about organisation arrangements, such as marshals and how they are identified.
Asst Comm Nyathi said the police need to be sure that those in business or living in the vicinity are not going to object, which they can although can be overruled.
Usually if the venue is a public venue used for public events, such as a stadium, there will be few if any objections since people are used to crowds there.
Most people would agree that the police do need to know in advance when a reasonable sized meeting or a major rally will be held.
For a start there may well be need to control traffic so those attending can get to the venue, while at the same time those passing the venue without wanting to attend can go about their own business without obstruction.
Most local police commanders will also be keen to know where and when meetings are being held just so they can keep a friendly eye open. For a start they have the legal duty to protect those holding and attending the meeting, as well as those who live or work nearby.
Some people can get excited during or after a meeting. We saw this in the generally exceptionally peaceful large batch of by elections postponed during Covid-19 and run when it was safe to do so.
There were a couple of minor incidents at a couple of meetings, caused by drunks, and the police were able to defuse those promptly.
The problems the CCC had with a planned rally in Bindura recently show the sort of pitfalls lack of advance organisation can generate.
The CCC wanted to hold the rally in the local municipal stadium, an ideal venue on the face of it since stadiums allow controlled access and exits, have proper toilet facilities and those who choose to live near on have already accepted that they will have times when there are crowds and noise nearby.
Unfortunately the stadium is under repair and so when the police checked they were told by the municipality that no rally could be held there.
Since Bindura municipal council has a CCC majority and a CCC mayor, the party cannot really accuse the council of bias. The police asked for an alternative venue.
The first two offerings were empty plots in a low density residential area. Here the police were wary, since the middle of a residential area is not always ideal for large and noisy political rallies.
Normally they need to ask those living nearby, but there was simply not enough time. The third suggested venue was a much larger area, a farm near the town by the look of it. But the owner of the land knew nothing about the meeting.
This seems to be a group in what is a fairly disorganised party, in the sense it has no membership lists or formal organisation, who rushed in to organise a rally. There are boxes to tick off, but not many.
The problem from the police point of view was the venue, not the organisers or the party. The police simply needed an address suitable for a large public gathering with all that entails. If the organising group had started a bit earlier they could probably have sorted something out.
The Bindura cops were not trying to be difficult. In fact, they seem to have been remarkably helpful, willing to keep open the application process so that the party could find somewhere. If a suitable open area could have been found then the police seem to have been willing to let them go ahead.
But it is not the job of any Government agency, let alone the police, to organise a rally for any party and definitely not to find the venue.
The police in particular need to be neutral in party politics, but they are required to implement the laws, sensibly and sympathetically to be sure, and to take action when people break the laws. The three day limit seems tight if there is likely to be an appeal. This is lodged with the nearest magistrate who has to attend to it urgently, before the advertised start of the meeting, but as the Act notes, if the appeal is lodged too late the magistrate cannot perform miracles.
So conveners need to get most things right if they are going to use that truncated deadline.
The police have a simple task. They see if the few boxes laid down in the simple and accepted MOPO Act are ticked, that is there is a suitable venue and the party has put in the minimum organisation required. The police do not even grant formal approval, if you hear nothing you go ahead. But if there are problems or conditions for organisers then you are contacted to see what can be sorted out.
Online Reporter