Mayor released without charge following weekend arrest

Harare's mayor Elias Mudzuri and 21 other people were released from prison without charge on Monday following their arrest over the weekend at a meeting to discuss municipal matters.

Mudzuri was taken in under the Public Order and Security Act because he had not sought police clearance for a meeting on Saturday which he said had been arranged to discuss council affairs like sewerage removal.

"He was released shortly before lunch without charges as the court decided that the facts did not disclose an offence," Mudzuri's legal representative Beatrice Mtetwa told IRIN.

The other 21 people attending the meeting were released on the same grounds, she said.

Mtetwa added that Mudzuri would not return to work immediately as he was in poor health after his detention, where he had been denied access to doctors.

"We want him to go for a medical check up," she said.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network condemned Mudzuri's arrest saying: "It is ridiculous to know that the Mayor, the 'Father of the City' cannot hold meetings with his residents which at any given time he wants without the police’s approval whilst he is expected to know and address the people's problems and concerns."

Mudzuri and his Bulawayo counterpart Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, both opposition Movement for Democratic Change members, face losing many of their powers following a government announcement last week that governors would be installed to oversee administrative matters in the newly defined boundaries of the cities of Harare and Bulawayo.