A press release date 26th August 2019, by the minister of Information, Civic Education and Communications Technology, has emphasized that Government decided not to grant permission for demonstrations planned by the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) which were aimed to take place from Wednesday, 28th August 2019.

As such, Government would like to warn all citizens to ignore any notice of demonstrations and not take part in the same. Government has taken this decision considering that all recent demonstrations have turned out to be riotous despite assurances by the organisers that they would be peaceful.

“Government is convinced that conveners of these demonstrations deliberately abuse the right to demonstrate to achieve other ulterior agendas.” reads part of the statement, as it stresses that no permission will be granted for further demonstrations, until such a time when it is possible for the conveners to organize peaceful demonstrations.

The statement sternly warns that any person who defies the warning not to proceed with the planned demonstrations and/or not to participate in them will be stopped with necessary force by law enforcers.