For days rumours have bounced back and forth claiming Zimbabweans and the people of the Kingdom of Swaziland should follow the example of the Egyptians and Tunisians and themselves revolt against their dictatorships. Now 46 Zimbo’s have been arrested for attempting to watch some BBC and Al Jazeera videos on a projector.

Those arrested on Saturday included dozens of students, trade unionists and political activists although none appeared to have yet been formerly charged with any crime. Typical.

A spokesperson for the Zimbabwean police force, James Sabau, deemed the illegal meeting and video watching “…as a way of motivating them [the arrested] to subvert a constitutionally elected government.”

The seizure of evidence included a laptop, a couple of DVDs and the video projector. On the agenda, according the state-controlled Herald, “Revolt in Egypt and Tunisia: What lessons can be learnt by Zimbabwe and Africa?”

No surprises that we have some tyrannical knickers in a knot over that one.

Lawyers for the arrested point out that they might be charged for “…attempting to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means,” a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Last week the esteemed Zimbabwean publisher based in South Africa, Trevor Ncube, pre-empted this with these words:

Indeed, the single most important lesson from Tunisia and Egypt is that we as Zimbabweans are our own liberators.

The world will only help us when we stand up and fight for our freedom and reclaim our country from Mugabe and the arrogant clique around him.

What we do know is that once enough noise is made about something, change seems to come naturally. Madiba would point that out.

[Source: NYTimes]