Cases of torture in Zimbabwe: Six years after the Torture Docket case – The Zimbabwean

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It is true that in the African continent, ethnicity is a dreaded term because of the continent’s experience with ethnicity- or tribe-based inter-group animosities and conflicts that, in some countries, morphed into genocides. (Zinyange Auntony/AFP)

Torture, one of the most horrendous violations of a person’s human rights, appears to have become a sad reality of life in Zimbabwe. Over the past week there has been international coverage of the abduction and gruesome torture of three opposition party youth leaders. The International Court of Justice considers the prohibition of torture as a “peremptory norm”, a norm of international that is binding on any country in the world without requiring a state’s consent or enactment as domestic law. Nevertheless, torture remains a common practice in many parts of the world.

Looking at this from a South African perspective, the May 2020 incident in Zimbabwe  reminds us of the groundbreaking 2014 Constitutional Court decision in National Police Commissioner of the South African Police Service v Southern African Human Rights Litigation Centre Trust (The Torture Docket case) where the court held that the South African authorities — the South African Police Service (SAPS) and National Prosecution Authority (NPA) — had a duty to investigate and prosecute international crimes allegedly committed in Zimbabwe. The judgment by the Constitutional Court specifically referred to crimes against humanity of torture. As torture appears to be a growing issue in Zimbabwe, we have to reflect and ask: What is the current status of those investigations, six years after the Constitutional Court judgment?

How can South African authorities prosecute alleged crimes committed in Zimbabwe?

The short answer is that they can use the principle of universal jurisdiction which allows states to prosecute certain international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity or torture without having a link of territoriality or nationality to the country where the alleged crime occurred.

States have interpreted this principle in different ways. While South African legislation adopted an approach which requires accused persons to be in the country, other countries such as Germany have adopted a broad interpretation of this principle without any pre-conditions.

On this basis, the German trial against two former Syrian Security Members for crimes against humanity committed against Syrians in Syria commenced at the end of April in Koblenz, Germany. The principle of universal jurisdiction is a key element in order to bring these kinds of cases before domestic courts outside the state where the alleged crime occurred. However, even if domestic law allows the initiation of such processes, cases from the past show that there is an intrinsic inertia of state authorities to act.

Investigating Zimbabweans for crimes committed against Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe

In the Torture Docket case, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) challenged a decision by the SAPS and the NPA not to investigate crimes against humanity of torture that had allegedly been committed in Zimbabwe. Under the International Criminal Court Act, South African authorities may prosecute individuals for crimes committed outside South Africa if the accused person is present in the territory.

Yet from a legal perspective, the stage of prosecution and investigation differ substantially. This raises a major question, relating to the Torture Docket case, of how to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction in the stage of investigation.

In a landmark decision, the Constitutional Court held that the SAPS and NPA have a duty to investigate torture as a crime against humanity based on the principle of universal jurisdiction. The court, however, set up pre-conditions that must be met in such a case: (i) that the country where the alleged crimes occurred is unable or unwilling to prosecute; and (ii) that there must be an “anticipated presence” of the suspect in South Africa.

Where do we stand after six years of investigations?

While cases such as the Torture Docket case constitute significant steps in the fight against impunity, the obvious question is: What progress has been made after six years? Today, SAPS are still investigating the alleged cases of torture in Zimbabwe from 2007, even though the Constitutional Court emphasised the importance of time in its judgment:

“There has already been an inordinate delay in this matter, in large parts due to the tardiness on the part of the NPA and the SAPS in processing the request (…) An expedited investigation is of paramount importance as the unearthing of evidence may become more difficult with time. Constitutional obligations must in any event be performed diligently and with undue delay.”

Acknowledging that the prosecution of international crimes might take longer than ordinary cases due to the massive amounts of evidence, six years of investigations hardly constitutes an “expedited investigation”. The lethargy which SAPS has displayed in this investigation is disappointing.

The tardiness of the NPA should, however, also not surprise us. Twenty years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission submitted more than 300 cases of alleged apartheid-era crimes for further investigation to the NPA. Even though some of these cases may qualify as torture or crimes against humanity, victims, relatives and friends are still waiting for prosecutions to be initiated. The apartheid-era cases demonstrate that disappearing evidence constitutes a serious threat to any prosecution and search for justice.

Although the national director of public prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, stated in November 2019 that the NPA would consider how to “utilise the legal framework to be more creative in even perhaps charging apartheid as crime against humanity”, it remains to be seen whether the NPA is serious about prosecuting international crimes such as the Torture Docket or apartheid-era crimes. There is no question that the Constitutional Court judgment was a good starting point, but the reality six years later suggests that we are still at the same point.

Leading to places where traditional state authorities would otherwise not go

Cases such as the Torture Docket case or the recent trial in Germany for alleged crimes against humanity in Syria underline the importance of civil society and survivors in the process of building those cases.

As SALC pushed for an investigation of crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe in the Torture Docket case, the commencement of the trial in Germany can be attributed, to a large extent, to the research and analysis of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights. These cases highlight that the principle of universal jurisdiction has become a useful tool to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account.

In the interest of seeking truth and justice, these types of cases send the clear message that there is no safe haven for perpetrators of international crimes. When such atrocities occur, they do not only shake the consciousness of the people of Syria or Zimbabwe, but the consciousness of humanity.

On this basis, there can be no exclusive jurisdiction by one state to prosecute, but a universal jurisdiction of any willing state.

Atilla Kisla is a senior researcher for the Southern Africa Litigation Centre’s International Criminal Justice Programme

Zimbabwe: Church leaders condemn abduction of politicians – The Zimbabwean

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The women: Joana Mamombe (MP for Harare West), Cecilia Chimbiri (MDC Alliance Youth Assembly Vice-Chair) and Netsai Marova (Deputy Organising Secretary of the Youth wing) had taken part in a peaceful protest against the government’s Covid-19 lockdown which was put in place without support for the poor.

In a strongly-worded statement released this week, the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) to which the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) is a part, denounced the abductions. They also drew attention to the brutal assault of two Zimbabwean women in the country’s second-largest city, Bulawayo, on 16 April at the hands of six police officers.

“Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) has received with shock and disbelief the news of yet another abduction and inhuman treatment of three young women including a Member of Parliament. This comes only some few days after the barbaric physical assault of two women, Ntombizodwa and Nokuthula Mpofu, of Cowdray Park, Bulawayo by six police officers. It should be stated that the reports suggesting that Harare West Legislator, Joana Mamombe and her colleagues Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were taken from police custody, and were tortured and sexually assaulted and inhumanely treated by yet to be known agents point to something that is against the heart of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the various International Conventions to which Zimbabwe is a signatory and, above all, to our cultural norms and our fundamental Christian beliefs regarding the sanctity and dignity of life,” said Zimbabwe’s Church leaders.

“First, it is deeply disturbing that the country has seen so many cases of abductions in the last few months, most of which have not been conclusively investigated. What is further disturbing are the insinuations, from some state agents, that all these abductions arc either stage-managed or carried out by an unrecognisable ‘third force’ without substantiating such claims with credible and irrefutable evidence. This constitutes the denigration of responsibility of the highest order on the part of government,” said the Church leaders.

ZHOCD has called for a full investigation. They condemn the ill-treatment of women as a whole, particularly, “in 2020 when the whole world is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, which was a global high point in recognition of the dignity of women after centuries of patriarchal domination and treatment of women as second class citizens of the world.”

Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa, condemned the abduction of the three MDC female politicians. She said: “Zimbabwe has a history of enforced disappearances, with some activists having gone missing for years now. Many activists have been tortured in police custody, despite denials by police.”

Since 2019, more than 50 social and political activists have been abducted and tortured by unknown persons. In September 2019, Dr Peter Magombeyi, President of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, who was campaigning for better working conditions, was abducted, beaten, tortured and later dumped by the roadside. He survived the ordeal. (At the beginning of this year, hospital doctors in Zimbabwe earned justunder $200 a month.)

Zimbabwe’s Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe has ordered the Commissioner-General of Police to institute a full-scale investigation into the abduction of the three female MDC leaders. He said the Commissioner-General should “establish what transpired, who did what, and the motive behind the actions.”

Zimbabwe’s Church leaders under the ZHOCD have pledged to continue offering pastoral support, comfort and protection to all victims of abductions and brutality.

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Zimbabwe Welcomes Removal of Its Banks from US Sanctions List – The Zimbabwean

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However, the ruling ZANU-PF party is calling for more from the U.S. and other Western countries that imposed the sanctions in 2002.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gave Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe a clean bill of health. Mthuli Ncube, the country’s finance and economic development minister, could not hide his joy over the news to reporters in Harare.

“Of course, any removal of any institution, especially a financial one, is very positive indeed,” he said. “This will help the bank access credit lines and remove any restrictions that pertain to KYC — know-your-customer — challenges, which is really what happens when a bank is on the spotlight, the way they were. Now that they [sanctions] have been lifted, the banks will find it easier to do business going forward. So this is a very welcome development indeed.”

Tafadzwa Mugwadi, the director of information in the ruling ZANU-PF party, said the party is not satisfied, though President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s efforts to reengage the West are bearing fruit.

“We are not happy as long as part of these sanctions, the major parts of these sanctions are still in place,” Mugwadi said. “Our position as ZANU-PF is that the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe from the United States of America have no place in this civilized world, so that the people of Zimbabwe can fully realize their full potential without any hinderances, so that the government can be measured on the basis of its capacity without these hinderances, without sanctions in place.”

The U.S. and several Western countries and institutions, like the European Union, imposed sanctions on some state institutions and some senior party officials in 2002 following reports of election rigging and human rights abuses. Harare blames the sanctions for the country’s moribund economy, while critics blame bad government policies for causing the economy to catch a cold.

People queue for cash at an ATM which dispensed the new Zimbabwean ten-dollar notes, in Harare, May 20, 2020. The higher denomination bank note was introduced to help ease perennial shortages of cash in the country.

Rejoice Ngwenya, an independent political commentator, said the U.S. may have lifted sanctions on the two banks to help the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic but ruled out giving in to ZANU-PF demands.

“The present government has not shown any appetite for reforms. Given their response to the abductions of the [opposition] MDC Alliance youth leaders, it would be really unlikely that the local American embassy recommend removal of any political leaders, unless those political leaders are targets of possible liberal reform,” Ngwenya said.

The U.S. Embassy in Harare was not immediately available for a comment.

Earlier this month, three members of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party were allegedly abducted and tortured after taking part in a protest demanding that the government pay those affected by the ongoing coronavirus lockdown. The government has said it is investigating the matter.

Zimbabwe Detains 2 Journalists for Breaking COVID Lockdown Rules – The Zimbabwean

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Paidamoyo Saurombe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who is representing journalists Frank Chikowore and Samuel Takawira, said Saturday the magistrate court would hold the men until it makes a bail ruling Tuesday.

Paidamoyo Saurombe, of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told reporters in Harare, May 23, 2020, that it was disturbing that journalists were being arrested for doing their job. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)

“It is disturbing. These are journalists who were in the course of what they should do when they were arrested. So, it is quite surprising.  Why would you arrest someone who is going to work? You never know. It becomes scary that if you are arrested while going to work, what else will happen?” Saurombe asked.

According to court papers, the two journalists broke COVID-19 regulations when they entered a hospital to interview three members of the political opposition who were being treated for injuries sustained after being abducted and tortured by suspected security agents.

Dewa Mavhinga, the southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said Harare must drop the charges against the journalists.

“Failure to do so severely undermines any image of Zimbabwe as under a new dispensation and reaffirms the sense that Zimbabwe is now a pariah or rogue state that is not respectful of the rights of journalists, of the constitutional rights to the freedom of the media. There is need to ensure that journalists, in the course of [the performance of] their duties are free to do their work without fear that the police will arrest them without cause,” Mavhinga said.

Zimbabwe’s minister of information, Monica Mutsvangwa, told VOA that she would only comment on the matter after the courts have completed the case.

Tabani Moyo, who the Media Institute in Southern Africa in Zimbabwe, called it an assault on the country’s press.

“Journalism is in the line of fire. There is a daily threat when you are a journalist in Zimbabwe. For us to defeat this pandemic – we have said it again and again – all hands should be on the deck, focusing on the pandemic rather than pointing in a misplaced manner at what is presumed to be the weaker targets; that is the media,” Moyo said.

Rights groups say they have recorded 14 cases of harassment of journalists and nearly 300 cases of citizen assaults by Zimbabwe authorities since late March when the government imposed a lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Zimbabweans stuck in SA because of pandemic slapped with five-year ban – The Zimbabwean

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 People heading to Zimbabwe queue at Beitbridge border post in Musina, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Sandile Ndlovu)

Zimbabweans who overstayed their temporary permits due to South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown have been banned from re-entering, despite promises of exemptions.

Some of the Zimbabweans who made use of specially arranged buses over the weekend to return home were shocked when they were told by officials at the Beitbridge border post that they could not return to South Africa for five years. This seems to be contrary to a special arrangement that was announced in March and published on April 14 on the Department of Home Affairs’ website.

One woman, who returned home on Saturday 16 May and who sent a picture of her documents to Daily Maverick, was given a paper stating that the reason for her five-year ban is that she has “overstayed by 37 days, at a time”. She was declared an “undesirable person”. This is despite a statement by the government saying holders of visas “which expired from mid-February 2020” and who did not renew their visas before the lockdown, “will not be declared illegal or prohibited persons”.

The woman was among 200 Zimbabweans who made use of buses sponsored by South Africa-based Zimbabwean businessman Justice Maphosa to facilitate those who wanted to return to Zimbabwe but who were out of pocket. She said when they got to the Beitbridge border post, those with expired papers got an unpleasant surprise.

“They said, those who have got a valid passport, make your own line. Those who have overstayed because of lockdown, make your own line. When the immigration stamped the passport, those who had the passport who expired during the lockdown, they were given the stamp for five years.”

She said she had been in South Africa to visit relatives and “got stuck” because of the lockdown. The woman is currently undergoing 21-day quarantine with a group of fellow travellers at the Masvingo Polytechnic, a government-owned college.

Asked whether she would have stayed in South Africa if she had known about this ban, she said: “Because of the situation down there [in South Africa], I think people will sacrifice and they will say they have no passports, and cross the border as border jumpers without passport,” she said.

Like many South Africans, Zimbabweans living here have been without an income for over a month now due to the lockdown, but many of them are not entitled to the relief measures announced by the South African government. There is anecdotal evidence that, outside of the lockdown period, this kind of border jumping has been the standard procedure for Zimbabweans who have overstayed their permits in South Africa.

The woman said the same ban was issued to some of her compatriots who paid R600 each to return on chartered buses last week, and the week before there were similar reports in the local media when 141 Zimbabweans returned home. There were also claims on social media of delays at the South African border of up to 16 hours, and of longer delays for vehicles transporting goods.

A Zanu-PF MP from the Beitbridge East constituency, Albert Nguluvhe, was quoted as saying these bans might have been an “overreaction” by South African immigration officials because some of those among the early returnees were shoppers caught up when the lockdown commenced. An official government spokesperson was less sympathetic. Permanent Secretary in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana, tweeted on May 10:

“Some are asking whether every Zimbabwean returning home from South Africa is having a five-year ban stamped in their passport. Only those who broke South African immigration laws such as overstaying are subject to some measures endorsed in their passports.”

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said the department would not penalise people who were in the country legally and whose permits expired during the lockdown period.

“Such people are allowed to leave without being barred from returning to the country,” he said. He was also in the process of making inquiries about what had happened in the case of the woman mentioned earlier. Qoza added that travellers can appeal the ban within 30 days, making use of the email address on the document they were given.

Zimbabwean leaders earlier said there are about 3,000 nationals in South Africa who indicated that they wanted to return. It is thought that there are over a million – and as many as three million – Zimbabweans in South Africa at any given time. Two weeks ago the department sent home 570 Zimbabweans who were held at Lindela repatriation centre in Krugersdorp following a riot there. Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told SABC that he summoned the Zimbabwean mission to take care of the deportation.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabweans who returned over the weekend said they are being treated well at the quarantine facilities.

“We got food and we got blankets,” a grandmother said by phone, but she expressed concern about coping once she gets back home. “Here in Zimbabwe, there is hunger here. What type of food parcels are they going to give us?” she said.

The Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa, David Hamadziripi, said his country did not have the resources to help everybody, but the most destitute were able to apply for help.

Maphosa this week pledged to help those in quarantine with 400 food parcels once they are released home. He has also given another 700 parcels, including 25kg mealie meal, rice, sugar and cooking oil, to the elderly and orphans in Gwanda in Matabeleland South province where he was born.

“As I remember people struggling, I remember my own community as well where I grew up,” he said. Maphosa said he bought the food with the money he put aside last year after cancelling the annual fireworks display at a gospel festival in Gwanda, sponsored by him.

“Last year we did not do fireworks. I felt it in my spirit that we cannot display such opulence in fireworks. The reason why we did fireworks is if this God is so angry with us that he has moved far away from us that we cannot access him we need to illuminate ourselves, that when he sits in heaven he will say, ‘What is happening down there, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, let’s go!’ and he will find us worshipping him.

“But then last year we realised there was a lot of pain in Zimbabwe, a lot of unemployment, a shortage of petrol, long queues, people unable to access money from the bank, and we were saying, you cannot go to such a community as a normal person and go and have a party, praising God.” He said instead, he put away the money so that it could help people later.

A blind pensioner from Gwanda, Bellinah Malunga, whose identity document indicates that she is 94 years old, said she was “in shock” after receiving the food parcel.

“I was barely surviving [before]. My children would assist here and there, but lockdown has restricted my children from working and things have been difficult for us,” she said. “I didn’t know who to call upon for help. All I could do was pray, and this is an answer to my prayers.”

Maphosa became well known when, at the end of 2017, he helped Emmerson Mnangagwa escape from Zimbabwe ahead of replacing former president Robert Mugabe, who was forced to resign from office. A few months later the Mail & Guardian reported that Maphosa’s ICT business was being investigated by the Hawks in connection with a multimillion-rand tender from a North West municipality.

He was also convicted in the criminal crimes court in Pretoria of defrauding the South African Revenue Service by submitting fake tax invoices for his companies, Big Time Strategic Consultants and Computer Ink and Media Solutions. DM

Coronavirus: Fears of rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s indefinite lockdown – The Zimbabwean

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International rights groups have expressed concern that the Zimbabwean government’s decision to extend a nationwide coronavirus lockdown indefinitely could be used to suppress human rights.

Last Saturday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the restrictions, which were introduced on March 30th in response to the global pandemic, would remain in place “for an indefinite period” because the country needed to ease strategically and gradually out of its lockdown.

The measures, which include a ban on public gatherings and movement restrictions, have worked so far, according to Mr Mnangagwa, who said the country’s low number of Covid-19 cases and deaths was proof of their effectiveness.

As of May 20th, Zimbabwe had recorded 48 cases of Covid-19 from the 32,862 tests it had conducted. There have been four confirmed Covid-19 related deaths.

Although governments globally have introduced similar lockdowns to Zimbabwe’s to tackle Covid-19, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has said that Mr Mnangagwa has “opened an avenue to arbitrary rule”.

In a Twitter post, the main opposition party leader wrote: “Whereas measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic are a necessity, we disagree with entrenching arbitrary rule under the guise of fighting the pandemic … The indefinite extension changes the situation in a fundamental way.”

Brutal attacks on women in Zimbabwe evoke memories of Gukurahundi tactics – The Zimbabwean

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 Police and soldiers patrol the streets during a nationwide lockdown to help curb the spread of Covid-19) in Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 April 2020. (Photo supplied)  Less

In an interview for a book I am writing on Gukurahundi (the 1980s genocide in Matabeleland) I got frustrated with my key informant because whenever the time came to talk about what happened to him, he would go round and round in circles or his story would be rife with inconsistencies. By contrast, whenever he was narrating what happened to his co-victims, he would be articulate, to the point and quite detailed. I ended up having to tell him we might have to bin the project or hold it until he was ready. He looked me straight in the eye for the first time and said: ‘But Mamo, how do I tell you we were raped. That they made us lick menstrual blood off the female detainees?’

On Wednesday night (13 May 2020) I woke up to find several missed calls and messages from fellow Human Rights Defenders telling me that Zimbabwe’s youngest MP, Joanna Mamombe, 27,  and her Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) colleagues Netsai Marova, 25, and Cecilia Chimbiri, 33, were missing after a demonstration they had held earlier that day protesting lockdown-induced starvation among other things.

I was told that after the protest, they had all gone their separate ways but a while later, Joanna called a colleague and told him the three women had been stopped at a roadblock by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), arrested and taken to Harare Central Police station. The colleague notified some lawyers who went to the station only for police to deny they had ever arrested the three.

Gallery

Three of the abducted women, Cecilia, left, Joanna, middle, and Netsai, right. (Photos supplied)

MDC youths and their lawyers spent the whole night moving from police station to police station searching for the three young women to no avail. The Daily News ran a story by their reporter Vascoh Chaya, in which he stated that he had spoken to Police Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi who had confirmed that they had indeed arrested the protesters. The Herald, a state-run newspaper also ran a story by their reporter Victor Maphosa who also claimed to have spoken to Paul Nyathi who had confirmed that indeed the three young women had been arrested the day before.

Where then had the police taken the three?

Gallery

Nokuthula and Ntombizodwa Mpofu. (Photo supplied)

From these denials, it quickly became clear that they were being “disappeared.” This was alarming, during Gukurahundi thousands of innocent civilians were ‘disappeared’, never to be seen again.

Some rights activists including myself took to social media to demand an official statement from the police as all Harare police stations claimed to not have seen the women. ZRP issued a statement on their twitter page simply saying they did not have Joanna, Cecilia and Netsai in their custody. It became clear that the young women had been enforcedly disappeared and that their lives were in grave danger.

Zimbabwean political activists and human rights defenders proceeded to give the police and government until 13:00 hours on Thursday to produce the three but that never happened. We then resolved to take to the streets to protest until the government produced the missing women.

In the early hours of Friday morning, before the planned protests demanding their release commenced, we heard the young women had been found at Muchapondwa (which ironically means you will be beaten/murdered in Shona), Musina in Bindura South, about 87km from Harare. Their lawyers and some MDC members accompanied by police officers, went to get them.

They were horrified by the state they found the girls in. They were all distraught, the youngest, Netsai was crying inconsolably, and could not speak. They were filthy, their clothes torn and in different states of undress. Joanna and Cecilia were unable to walk. When I spoke to comrades who managed to see them and talk to them, and saw the pictures they shared with me, I also broke down in tears and posted these tweets:

“I have been unfortunate enough to lay my eyes on pictures of the 3 ladies soon after they were rescued & I cannot stop crying, My life will never be the same again, Never have I witnessed so closely, Such an uncurbed degree of cruelty, An effort to break a people. #ZanuPFMustGo”

“It is shocking, Unacceptable from all angles, That after a demonstration by men & women, Police targeted 3 women for enforced disappearance & torture. It betrays the terroristic nature of the perpetrators, The animalistic nature of those at the helm of #MyZimbabwe. #ZanuPFMustGo”

“The strategy to target women is commensurate in Zimbabwe only with Gukurahundi. When police brutalized 2 women in Bulawayo it was a shocking but isolated incident, Could have been explained as crimes by individuals. Taking the MDC3 shows it’s a pattern, A strategy. #ZanuPFMustGo”

The Zimbabwean government seems to be at war with women

The abduction, torture and sexual assault of the MDC political activists came barely a month after another horrendous and brutal ethnicised attack on 16 April, on sisters Nokuthula (37) and Ntombizodwa (30) Mpofu by six ZRP officers in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, under the guise of enforcing the Covid-19 lockdown.

The sisters were wrongfully arrested whilst shopping at a local supermarket for allegedly breaking lockdown laws. They were forced to march through bushes to the police station and tortured and severely assaulted on the way and verbally taunted about their Ndebele ethnicity.

A video of the women circulated on social media where they explained how the police had beaten them up and refused to let them go home even after offering to pay the stipulated fine for flouting lockdown regulations. In the video, Nokuthula and Ntombizodwa told gruesome stories of torture and how the police kept hurling tribal slurs at them telling them they were troublesome Ndebele women. They explained how they had been abused over a long period and detained overnight despite having the means to pay the fine and be released.

It was clear that from the brutalisation of the women and the ethnic slurs that accompanied that the attack on them was gender and ethnically motivated.

This left many people from southern Zimbabwe angry and many said the incident reminded them of the Gukurahundi genocide when women and children were assaulted, raped and killed by Zimbabwe’s 5th Brigade army for which perpetrators, including then Minister of State Security, now President Mnangagwa, and then Gukurahundi Commander, Colonel Perence Shiri, now Minister of Agriculture, have not been held accountable almost 40 years later.

Similarly, when the MDC women were found, they also told gruesome stories of how they were beaten, sexually assaulted and forced to eat and drink each other’s excreta. They said they had been taken from Harare central police station in a black car and had their heads covered with sacks and taken to a forest and placed in a pit where the torture occurred.

ZRP insists it never arrested the three women. The police spokesman (Paul Nyathi) who confirmed their arrest has since retracted his statement claiming he was misquoted or misunderstood by both newspapers.

The Police Commissioner-General, Goodwill Matanga, was asked at a press conference where Joanna Mamombe’s car was and he claimed police were not in possession of the car. The next morning independent daily newspaper, Newsday, splashed on its front page, a picture of Joanna Mamombe’s car, parked at Harare Central Police Station, clearly confirming that she had been there before being taken away by state agents. The Minister of Home Affairs, Kazembe Kazembe, read a statement to the nation that police would investigate the “alleged abduction”.

There is everything fundamentally wrong with ZRP investigating these cases. How can they investigate themselves?

For justice to be served, there must be an independent inquiry and investigation into these matters. As we speak police officers are standing guard over the victims at the hospital subjecting them to even more trauma. The ZRP forensics team has been accused of leaking pictures of naked women and claiming it was the MDC activists in a bid to prove they are lying about having been tortured.

Hearing Nokuthula, Ntombizodwa, Joana, Cecilia, Netsai and Moreblessing’s accounts about their ordeals is like reading a page from a Gukurahundi victim’s diary.

In Bulawayo, six police officers have been arrested and charged before the courts for the abuse of the Cowdray Park sisters. Reports indicate that one of the alleged perpetrators has been assigned the task of investigating the torture of Nokuthula and Ntombizodwa. There are serious concerns about a whitewash. The station commander in charge of the police station where the two women were detained is also hardly an independent party.

What the government of Zimbabwe disingenuously tries to get people to ignore is that the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment does not limit torture to beatings and other physical assaults that leave visible scars. The ZRP and Zimbabwe National Army are notorious for using torture that leaves no visible scars. Anyone who has been arrested and beaten by police will tell you they beat them under their feet. A tactic police have mastered over the years to coerce confessions out of arrestees without leaving obvious evidence of torture.

As if that was not enough, on Monday, 19 May, Moreblessing Nyambara, a Mathematics teacher and senior member of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), who herself was abducted in September 2018, reported how on 16 May 2020, in Domboshava, she too had been severely beaten by six men, one of them in army uniform, for posting a video calling on Zimbabwean women to protest the abductions, torture and sexual abuse of Joanna, Netsai and Cecilia. She sustained serious injuries including a broken arm. Her assailants accused her of inciting women to turn against the government and wanting the country to be led by women.

What is most disturbing though, yet unsurprising, about these attacks is the similarity with the methods used by 5th Brigade soldiers in the Gukurahundi massacres. The scale notwithstanding, both these attacks bear the hallmarks, strategies and tactics of Gukurahundi. As explained by my informant, they (5th Brigade) too would rape their victims and force them to ingest human excreta, from menstrual blood to urine and faeces.

Hearing Nokuthula, Ntombizodwa, Joana, Cecilia, Netsai and Moreblessing’s accounts about their ordeals is like reading a page from a Gukurahundi victim’s diary.

Unfortunately, the similarity is not a coincidence. One of the surviving perpetrators of the Gukurahundi massacres is a man called Emmerson Mnangagwa. He is today, the president of Zimbabwe and the commander in chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and intelligence organization, today accused of torturing women for the same reasons Gukurahundi was unleashed, opposing Zanu-PF.

Only a democratic people power revolution can free Zimbabwe. DM/MC

Zimbabwe COVID-19 Lockdown Monitoring Report: 21 May 2020 – Day 53 – The Zimbabwean

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Excerpts from reports generated by Community Radio Harare have also been incorporated in this report.

3.0       Emerging issues 
               3.1       General updates
In the Glen Norah suburb of Harare, it was reported that bottle stores were open at Chitubu Shopping centre. Reports claimed that most of the bottle stores are attracting crowds of patrons since most of the informal traders, and touts are redundant. It was further reported that bottle store owners are paying bribes to police officers to avoid getting arrested for defying the lockdown.

The Chipinge Town Council circulated a schedule for demolitions of vending stalls and illegal structures to be conducted on 22 May 2020. The circular highlighted that tuckshops, kiosks, canteens and outside toilet shacks are some of the structures that will be destroyed.

                  3.2       Right to food
In Gwanda North, it was reported that a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Africare, distributed food aid to vulnerable groups including childheaded families and the elderly. It was reported that Gwanda community members indicated that they had not received food aid from the government as part of the COVID-19 relief food aid program. Community members observed social distance and most of them wore homemade masks and scarfs.

In Tsholotsho, it was reported that Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare was conducting food distributions under Headman Matupula. However, it was reported that beneficiaries were requested to pay ZWL30 to the headman as processing fee for them to receive food aid from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare. The food aid consisted of maize.

It was reported that ZANU PF distributed food hampers sourced by the Muduvuri Rehabilitation and Empowerment Foundation (MREF) and Global Brothers Wholesalers in Manicaland. The initiative was part of an ongoing exercise to cushion people with disabilities from the effects of COVID-19. The ceremony was officiated by ZANU PF national chair Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri.

Chitungwiza Municipality instructed a good Samaritan, Samantha Murozoki, to shut down a soup kitchen which she was running to assist the less privileged. According to Samantha Murozoki, on day 35 of her soup kitchen, 516 children were served porridge, 1610 people were served supper. According to the instruction by the Chitungwiza municipality’s directive, Samantha Murozoki’s soup kitchen is not registered with the council in accordance with the Chitungwiza Urban Council by-laws 1981 part 2 section 6 and she did not have a municipal license for the operations that she was conducting.  The closure was followed by a public outcry with members of the public arguing that given the current food challenges relating to the COVID-19 national lockdown the Municipality should help her regularise her activities whilst she continues to assist the less privileged. Acting Chitungwiza town clerk, Dr Tonderai Kasu issued a statement justifying the closure of the kitchen. Council appreciated Ms Muzoroki for her love.  The town clerk, however, justified the order for Ms Muzoroki to cease operations on the basis of some genuine and legitimate concerns with respect to public health and public safety.  Council undertook to assist Ms Muzoroki to comply.

                   3.3       Mandatory testing and quarantine
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Nick Mangwana indicated that 2 quarantine centres were opened in at Mount Selinda High School and Chipinge Junior School. Cumulatively, Chipinge now has 4 isolation centres namely, Chipinge District Hospital, Mt Selinda Hospital, Tongogara Clinic and St Peters Clinic.

In Mashonaland Central, at Madziwa Teachers College quarantine centre, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has approved the release of the first 20 returnees admitted into the facility. Meanwhile, authorities in Kwekwe have resorted for an alternative isolation centre after foreign students at Kwekwe Polytechnic College petitioned their embassies over the use of the institution as an isolation centre. Students from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Equatorial Guinea who failed to travel to their respective countries following the outbreak of COVID-19 are still residing at Kwekwe Polytechnic College. The students, through their embassies, argued that they could be potential victims if they were allowed to mix with returnees quarantined at Kwekwe Polytechnic College.

It was reported that two Malawian border jumpers who tested positive to COVID-19 during profiling and screening at the Beitbridge quarantine and isolation centre located at the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) Hotel escaped on 21 May. One of the escapees was intercepted by security agents as he sought transport to Malawi at the closed Dulivadzimu long-distance bus terminus. His accomplice remains unaccounted for. To date, 29 people have escaped from the Beitbridge quarantine and isolation centre

            3.4       The Right to Education Update
Some teachers unions have raised concern over the planned re-opening of schools as advised by the Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education Mrs Thumisang Thabela on 20 May. According to Mrs Thabela, the mid-year Zimsec examinations are expected to be written between June 29 and July 22. However, teachers’ unions indicated that the time period of the reopening of schools is too early and it is likely that proper safety measures might not be ready in time. According to teachers unions, learners might not be in the right psychological space to write examinations as they are fearing for their lives, so are the teachers. Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president, Mr Obert Masaraure, said the June examinations should be written when conditions are right.

                  3.5       Lockdown enforcement
Law enforcement officers scaled-up efforts to enforce the national lockdown nationally. With the increase in deployment and enforcement of the lockdown, issues such as abuse by police officers and corruption have also been on the rise. In Uzumba, at Katiyo Business Centre it was reported that patrols by police officers and soldiers were on the increase. In Chegutu, it was reported that law enforcement officers were reportedly soliciting for bribes from community members caught defying the lockdown.

In Glenview, it was reported that ZRP officers were chasing vendors at Churu shopping centre. It was also reported that most beerhalls at Glenview complex were paying bribes to police officers. It was also reported that the heavy presence of police officers and soldiers had also increased in Glenview.

It was reported that unidentified people in civilian clothing who were claiming to be police officers in Sunningdale were spotted raiding vendors at flea markets. It was reported that the people also confiscated goods and wares of vendors.

In Chitungwiza at Chigovanyika Shopping Centre, a woman was injured whilst trying to flee from armed soldiers who were chasing away vendors and informal traders. It was reported that the woman sustained a broken right leg.

4.0       Arrests
In Gweru, five (5) people were arrested for defying the lockdown by loitering without face masks. It was reported that the arrested persons were taken to Mkoba 6 Police Station where they were later released after paying an admission of guilt fine of ZWL200 each.

5.0       Summary of violations
The table below summarises human rights violations documented by the Forum Secretariat and Forum Members from 30 March to 21 May 2020.

6.0       Court Update
Five (5) victims of police brutality during the COVID-19 lockdown have instructed the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum to sue the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Commissioner General of Police, Minister of Defence, Security and War Veterans and Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) for damages, shock, pain and suffering. One of the victims is also suing for loss of property after she lost her cellphone, a Samsung J4 smartphone to Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officers in Chitungwiza.Ms. Dorothy Kambara, an eight (8) months pregnant woman was assaulted by Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers at OK supermarket in Kuwadza 5 Shopping Centre, Harare on the 27th of April 2020.  She was in a queue to purchase mealie meal when four (4) ZRP Police officers in ZRP uniform disembarked from a truck and assaulted people in the queue with baton sticks randomly without warning. Kambara sustained injuries on her back and on the side of her pregnant belly as a result of the assault.  She is suing the Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of Police for the pain and embarrassment she suffered as a result of this assault.

Also suing the police is Mr Levison Bangoma who was assaulted by ZRP officers at Karoi Police Station.  On 13 April 2020, at about 9:00 am, Bangoma was going about his business in Chikangwe neighbourhood in Karoi when two police officers who were in police uniform approached him. They questioned him on his business in the area. The ZRP officers took him to Karoi Police Station where he was assaulted with baton sticks. He is suing the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage and the Commissioner-General of Police for pain he suffered and the embarrassment caused by the assault.
Highfields resident Mr Magutu Tsungisai who was assaulted by ZRP officers and Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officers at his home in Highfields, Harare also joins the list of those suing.  On 10 April 2020, at or about 10:00am, Tsungisai was indoors at his home in Highfields when two ZRP Officers in ZRP uniform and one ZNA officer in ZNA uniform unlawfully entered his home. One of the ZRP Police officers proceeded to assault him with a baton stick on his head and back without warning. He sustained injuries as a result of this assault. He is suing the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Commissioner of Police, Minister of Defence, Security and War Veterans Affairs and the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces for the pain, shock and suffering he endured and damages for embarrassment.

Mr Zivanai Timire is suing the Minister of Defence, Security and War Veterans Affairs and the Commander Zimbabwe Defense Forces for the pain, shock and suffering he endured after he was assaulted by ZNA officers at Unit L, Seke Chitungwiza.  On 30 April 2020, at 11:00am, Timire had visited a house which is near  Unit L shopping centre to buy some chickens to cook for food. Suddenly a ZNA truck arrived with ZNA officers in uniforms. The said ZNA officers disembarked that vehicle and began to randomly assault everyone who was nearby. He was assaulted with a baton stick on his right leg in the process. He was injured and sought medical attention at Chitungwiza General Hospital.

Ms Tariro Machaya is suing both the Ministers of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage and that of Defence, War Veterans Affairs as well as the Commissioner-General of Police, together with the Commander Zimbabwe Defence Forces for loss of property. Machaya was going about her business on 13 April 2020 when she saw a truck which had both ZRP and ZNA officers who were uniformed and armed with baton sticks. They disembarked out of that vehicle and proceeded to unlawfully take a Samsung J4 cell phone from her with force and never returned it.

7.0       Conclusion
The Forum is concerned by the increasing number of returnees who are absconding isolation centres. Returnees absconding isolation centres have become a risk factor for the spread of COVID-19 given that the majority of COVID-19 confirmed cases are returnees. The Forum, therefore, calls on the government to strengthen security at COVID-19 isolation centres. The Forum further calls on the government to increase food aid distribution to assist vulnerable groups. The Forum reiterates that the government should institute investigations pertaining to alleged corruption by security personnel.

Maybe We Should Try To Learn Something From All This… No, Wait, That Was Too Much To Ask For — See Also

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Flatten the Research Curve

Flatten the Research Curve

Navigate the latest changes to federal and state laws, regulations, and executive orders; ranging from Banking & Finance to Tax, Securities, Labor & Employment / HR & Benefits, and more.

Navigate the latest changes to federal and state laws, regulations, and executive orders; ranging from Banking & Finance to Tax, Securities, Labor & Employment / HR & Benefits, and more.

Local Hedge Fund Manager Demands Economy Reopen, But Definitely Not For Selfish Reasons

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