Some Harare residents are totally against the involvement of the military in quelling civilian protests in the future.<\/p>\n
This came out during a public hearing on the proposed Maintenance of Peace and Order (MOPO) Bill which, if passed into law, will replace the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).<\/p>\n
The hearing was conducted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice in conjunction with the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on Peace and Security on Friday last at the Harare City Sports Centre.<\/p>\n
However, some citizens, especially ZANU PF activists demanded that police should be allowed to use maximum force to stop demonstrations.<\/p>\n
This follows the violent fuel riots which rocked the country earlier this year with a number of police stations being attacked by angry malcontents.<\/p>\n
A Harare lawyer, who is also a senator, Douglas Mwonzora of the MDC Alliance said:<\/p>\n
What is very clear is that the right to demonstration is being supported than the right not to demonstrate.<\/p>\n
There is a disparity regarding the use of the army to quell demonstrations. Obviously, people are drawing from past experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some Harare residents are totally against the involvement of the military in quelling civilian protests in the future. This came out during a public hearing on the proposed Maintenance of Peace and Order (MOPO) Bill which, if passed into law, will replace the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). The hearing was conducted by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[91,88,379,352],"class_list":{"0":"post-9930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-harare","10":"tag-mdc","11":"tag-mwonzora","12":"tag-residents"},"yoast_head":"\n