Cape Town - Human rights lobby group People Against Suppression, Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) has called for the Zimbabwean government to release 45 activists arrested there last week.
About 50 Passop members, with the support of the trade union federation Cosatu and the SA National Civil Organisation (Sanco), made a symbolic picket protest outside Parliament on Tuesday.
They handed over a memorandum to Parliament's chief operations officer Tango Dumile Lamani who promised to forward it to the Speaker of the National Assembly Max Sisulu.
In it the group said: "Forty-five people were arrested in Harare for watching a video on the uprising in Egypt. They were charged with treason and were tortured by government personnel. One of the detainees was pushed out of a second floor window resulting in a broken leg, some are HIV positive and in need of their life-saving medicine. It is high time the South African government takes a firm stance and be outspoken in defending the rights of fellow Africans."
They said they were protesting in solidarity with their Zimbabwean brothers and sisters and call for an end to politically-motivated violence and all repressive policies.
"We call upon the South African Parliament to condemn the many human rights violations in Zimbabwe and call for the release of the 45 activists," the group said. - BuaNews
