The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has denied Heal Zimbabwe’s request to hold a candlelight memorial for the late academic Alex Magaisa on June 11 in Harare Gardens.
In a letter dated 9 June 2022, the Officer Commanding Harare Central District Superintendent G Moyo advised Heal Zimbabwe that he would not sanction the event saying the organisers did not comply with provisions of the Maintenance of Peace and Order.
“Your notification letter dated 9 June 2022 to hold a candle lighting commemoration of Dr Alex Magaisa on the 11th of June 2022 at Harare Gardens from 1200 hours to 1500 hours has been noted.
“I am not in a position to sanction the gathering. You did not comply with Section 7 (1) (a) of the Maintenance of Peace and Order Chapter 11:23,” reads the letter.
However, posting on his Twitter handle award winning Zimbabwean Journalist, Hopewell Chino’no castigated the police actions.
“When you can’t imagine the regime sinking any lower, it goes ahead and does just that.
“A prominent international public interrllectual has died, and the whole world is morning yet the Zimbabwesn government through it’s police force block a memorial for Dr. Magaisa,” he said.
Magaisa died on Sunday at Margate Hospital in the United Kingdom after suffering a cardiac arrest.
The former advisor to late former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai worked at the University of Warwick, the University of Nottingham and since 2007, he was based at Kent Law School, the University of Kent at the time of his death on 5 June 2022.
His main area of teaching and research was company and financial services law.