Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) is a civil disobedient movement in Zimbabwe. Since it was founded four years ago, several of its members have been arrested by Robert Mugabe’s government. The most recent was the arrest in Bulawayo Tuesday, of Magodonga Mahlangu who helped found the movement. She was picked up hours before the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) united with the ruling ZANU-PF party on a proposed constitutional amendment. Jenny Williams is national coordinator of WOZA. From Harare, she spoke with Nightline’s Akwei Thompson.
“WOZA is civil disobedient movement for women to speak out on bread and butter issues and to hold this government accountable.”
“very often we are arrested just because we speak up about social justice issues” Williams said.
She said it was unclear why Magodonga Mahlangu was arrested “but when we reflected on it later we heard that the president was due to be in Bulawayo and we think this was related to the President not wanting any leader of WOZA to be at large…while he was in Bulawayo…they didn’t want any demonstrations to interfere with the so called unity in parliament “ She added.
Williams said WOZA “became part of the movement for the people-driven constitution, a constitution that had people at heart, a constitution whose lawmakers consulted people, a constitution that was written by the people and we remain committed to that. She said WOZA will not accept any peace-meal amendment.”