MDC Alliance chief whip in the National Assembly Prosper Mutseyami has slammed the arrest of Harare West Member of Parliament (MP) Joanna Mamombe, calling President Mnangagwa’s administration worse than the era of Robert Mugabe.
Speaking outside Harare Magistrate’s Court in the capital Monday, Mutseyami described Mamombe’s arrest as politically motivated.
“Today we are here [facing] trumped up charges on honourable Joanna Mamombe it is a sad day for us as a family and its a sad day for democracy.
“Bearing in mind the situation we are told we are moving into a new dispensation, but we are saying that this dispensation or rather so-called dispensation is actually a worse situation than a scenario we had under Robert Mugabe as president of this country,” he said.
Mamombe was arrested during a parliamentary workshop in Nyanga last Saturday.
She is accused of urging citizens to engage in acts of civil disobedience as a means of subverting a constitutionally-elected government, during a press conference on January 14.
The opposition chief whip said Mamombe had not been excused from her duties as a parliamentarian, when she was confronted by eight men claiming to be from the police.
Mutseyami said the arrest was unlawful as she was not made aware of the charges against her at the time.
“This is against the requirements of the constitution with regard to detention and arrest.
And when she got arrested her charges were not preferred against her [she]was only told of the charges when she had come all the way to Harare Central, maybe seven hours later after the arrest,” he said.
