Category: News Feeds

* An appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by children against the federal government to force the feds to take more steps to prevent climate change. There was a snow ball’s chance in hell this was going to succeed, but that’s kind of what the lawsuit is trying to prevent… [Washington Post]

* A jury has been selected in the Harvey Weinstein criminal trial. [USA Today]

* President Trump apparently had to persuade Alan Dershowitz’s wife to allow her husband to defend Trump in his impeachment trial. [CNN]

* The Supreme Court has agreed to review a “faithless elector” case, which could have an impact on how the president is selected in the 2020 election. [NBC News]

* The arrest warrant issued to Odell Beckham, Jr. for slapping a police officer’s butt has been rescinded. [ESPN]

* A philidelphia judge on Friday slashed a $8 Billion verdict to about $7 Million. That’s quite a haircuit… [New York Times]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Zimbabwe is in the grips of its worst food crisis in four decades with close to half of its population facing hunger in 2020.Picture: REUTERS/PHILIMON BULAWAYO

Farai Mapondera sits at a Shell filling station about 500 yards from the Beitbridge border post that separates South Africa and Zimbabwe. It’s 3 p.m. and 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit) so he’s slouched against his battered Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, waiting for the sun to set before he tackles a crossing plagued by delays, corruption and chaos.

Beitbridge is one of Africa’s busiest land border crossings. About 25,000 people and 500 heavy trucks cross every 24 hours and, in summer, the temperatures are searing. Mapondera is a runner, or malaicha, a slang term meaning “deliverer of goods.” Twice a week he transports items between South Africa’s commercial hub, Johannesburg, and Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

But delays at the border and breakdowns can reduce his trips to as few as three a month. If it’ll fit in his van or on the over-loaded trailer he tows, he’ll take it. The trailer towers over the Sprinter and it looks precariously balanced, tied down with bits of rope and netting. The 1,200 kilometer (745 miles) journey takes him about 24 hours — if he’s lucky.

“If there are delays you can spend a whole 24 hours trying to cross” the border, Mapondera said. “The roads in Zimbabwe are terrible, so punctures are common, also breakdowns, so sometimes it can take much longer.”

The malaicha exist because Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has destroyed much of the normal infrastructure of trade and foreign currency is scarce. That, and a drought, have made it even more difficult to acquire basic consumer goods.

While it’s impossible to put a value on the goods runners move across Africa because they avoid duties and taxes, they are organized and efficient. They even have a website and an app. They’re used by rich and poor to bring in goods at the lowest possible price and will deliver to your door anything from a freezer to a mobile phone — and even an envelope stuffed with cash.

Three Border Crossings

Parked next to Mapondera, Josiah Banda is underneath an old Iveco van, tying the exhaust to the chassis with wire. He’s on his way to Blantyre, Malawi’s economic capital that’s another 1,200 kilometers northeast, and he faces two more border crossings.

“It’s hard to say who are worse,” Banda says, rubbing his soot-covered hands on his trousers. “South African immigration can make you move from one queue to another for no reason. They’re very rude.”

Driving in Zimbabwe isn’t too bad, but once you hit Mozambique you’re expected to pay bribes at the border and to police along the road, he said.

“In Malawi, people complain that everything is expensive; well, this is why everything costs so much.”

Typically, runners taking goods to Zimbabwe charge between 25% and 30% of the value of the items as their fee. That’s considerably less than the import duties they’d normally have to pay, but there are ways to wiggle for profit.

The runners have arrangements with the bus drivers who cross the border and officials from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. Instead of declaring the goods themselves, they spread it between the 80 passengers on each bus and, with a $200 duty-free allowance per person, the runners end up paying very little.

A malaicha who says his name is John Madzibaba is heading for Chipinge, a small town on Zimbabwe’s frontier with Mozambique. His trailer is sagging under the weight of bags of cornmeal, plastic chairs and suitcases. He’s waiting for a shift change on the Zimbabwe side when “my customs guy will be on duty,” he said.

Madzibaba does between four and six trips a month, each turning over about 20,000 rand ($1,384). From that he must pay his loading assistant and bribes, buy fuel and maintain his vehicle, he said.

Endless Forms

Border infrastructure in South Africa and Zimbabwe was built in a time when far fewer people and less freight crossed the Limpopo River between the two nations. The South African side is mainly orderly but slow, with lines of people waiting in the sun. The Zimbabwean side is frenzied, chaotic and without any obvious order, but can often be quicker.

Both sides maintain archaic police and vehicle checks, endless forms and waiting. Sometimes fights break out when someone jumps the line and tempers become frazzled in the heat and impatience with corruption.

It’s a far cry from the vision of leaders who signed the African Continental Free-Trade Agreement, aiming to lower or eliminate cross-border tariffs on most goods and ease the movement of capital and people across the whole continent.

Back at the Shell filling station, Mapondera affirms this.

“When politicians talk about African trade, they’re talking for the sake of talking,” he said, dismissing chances of governments ever agreeing to open borders. “What we do, we runners, is how most of Africa trades.”

It is bringing together businesses, governments and international institutions to ‘showcase and promote the breadth and quality of investment opportunities across Africa’.

The British government hopes the Summit ‘will mobilise new and substantial investment to create jobs and boost mutual prosperity’ – just what Zimbabwe needs.

The leaders of Africa’s economic power houses such as South Africa’s Ramaphosa, Nigeria’s Buhari and Kenya’s Kenyatta will be there, along with Egypt’s Sisi – but President Mnangagwa has not been invited.

His spokesman George Charamba snorted: ‘Methinks the UK uses false diplomacy to steady nerves arising from Brexit’. He continued in full rhetorical mode: ‘The UK is no longer an investing global power; it long ceased to be thus’.

Apparently playing one of Shakespeare’s fools, he further declaimed that the Commonwealth was ‘not a veritable economic grouping but just an emotional get-together’, completely forgetting the last scene in this play in which Zimbabwe declared that it wanted nothing more than to rejoin this apparently moribund old boys’ club.

The UK may perhaps be only the fifth or sixth biggest economy in the world but it aims to be the biggest G7 investor in Africa by 2022. Abracadabra Charamba should come clean on why Zimbabwe was not invited. The Vigil suggests it was because Zanu PF has not met its promises on reform, on dialogue, on tackling corruption . . .(see: https://www.zimlive.com/2020/01/14/zimbabwe-plays-down-snub-at-uk-africa-summit-claims-uk-economically-diminished/).

The Chinese can confirm this: Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear on his recent visit to Harare that China would finance infrastructural projects but would not give the government any budgetary support. The message was, according to the Zimbabwe Independent, that ‘Harare needed to roll out a comprehensive economic reform agenda and tackle rampant corruption’. (See: https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2020/01/17/no-bailout-china-tells-zim-govt/.)

This message was underlined by the EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen, who said corruption and mismanagement of the agricultural sector were mainly responsible for food shortages. ‘Large areas are lying fallow’, he observed (see: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/01/corruption-fuels-zim-hunger/).

For its part, the African Development Bank complains that Zimbabwe is ‘very behind’ in clearing its $700 million arrears to the bank. The local manager in Zimbabwe said tactfully ‘maybe this is something that the government needs to improve on (see: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/africa/2020-01-12-zimbabwe-far-behind-in-repaying-debt-says-african-development-bank/)

What a good idea. But perhaps he hasn’t noticed that the government doesn’t believe in paying its bills. It has other ways of conducting business – as Vice President General Dr Chiwenga’s divorce case has revealed, unveiling a world of juju, witchcraft and spells (see: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/01/chiwenga-divorce-opens-can-of-worms/).

Watch out China. We gather you are given to this sort of thing yourselves . . .

Other points

• Despite the state of the economy the elite in Zimbabwe seem to be living in another world. A relative of Chiwenga’s wife, Genius Kadungure (also known as Ginimbi) is suing the revenue authority which seized his brand new Bentley Continental GT which he is accused of importing without paying duty.
• Thanks to those who came early to help set up the front table and put up the banners: Marvellous Chinguwa, Rosemary Maponga, Washington Mugari, Tapiwa Muskwe, Ephraim Tapa and Kevin Wheeldon. Thanks to Rosemary and Marvellous for looking after the front table, to Kevin for handing out flyers, to Mary Muteyerwa for drumming, to Kevin and Esther for photos and to Rosemary who brought hot drinks and cakes.
• Thanks to further generous activists who have contributed to ROHR’s Mtoko Irrigation Project: Rangarirai Chivaviro and Esther Munyira.
• For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimb88abwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.

FOR THE RECORD: 17 signed the register

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

• ROHR general members’ meeting. Saturday 25^th January from 11.30 am. Venue: Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX. Contact: Ephraim Tapa 07940793090, Patricia Masamba 07708116625, Esther Munyira 07492058107.
• ROHR Valentine’s fundraising dinner dance. Saturday 15^th February from 7 pm till late. Venue: to be advised.
• The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
• The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.

• Facebook pages:

  Vigil: https://www.facebook.com/zimbabwevigil
  ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of-Human-Rights-ROHR-Zimbabwe-International-370825706588551/
  ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515

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I belong to a religious community, the Society of Jesus, seared by history.  We had growing success in the early decades of our founding, but opposition soon arose.  There were times when the light grew dim and once it went out altogether, or so it seemed.  We were totally shut down by the pope and spent forty years in the desert.

Everyone looks for a light in their life – some person or idea to guide them.  Often the person will disappear or the idea will no longer inspire.  We are restless people always in search of something that will satisfy us. The Carthusians, a religious community far older than the Jesuist, have a motto; Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, the cross stands while the earth goes round. The cross is the rock in a swirling sea.

Traditional societies and religious traditions can sustain us but they can fail to satisfy after a time. So what is this mysterious ‘light of the nations’ that Isaiah promises us? Jesus came and said ‘I am the light’ and at another time he said, ‘you are the light’. Simeon in the temple spoke of it and the wise men from the east saw it as a star.

It is the gift that is offered to all people; a light in our hearts that will always show us the way – even if it seems obscure for a while.  When that gift is welcomed and finds a home in us it sustains us and shows us the way, always and unfailingly. ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light’.  It is the gift of Christmas which stays with us.

If we have some knowledge of history we will be very aware of constant change over the centuries. However grim our own times may appear to us they are a great improvement on those of our ancestors. The task before us is to use the light to see our way through the complex influences constantly coming to meet us. So much of modern culture is trying to attract us and bind us to itself. Ours is the task of equally constantly shining our light on these movements to see if they help or hinder.

19 January 2020          Sunday 2A

Isaiah 49:3-6                I Cor 1:3-6                   John 1:29-34

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The year ahead for Zimbabwe is looking grim. The vast majority of its people will continue to suffer, and its leaders will continue to blame others for their own failures. Friends of Zimbabwe in the United States had hoped that the end of the Mugabe era and the glaring unsustainability of the country’s economic governance model—which has resulted in a shrinking economy and one of the world’s highest inflation rates—would trigger meaningful reforms that could attract international support.

As 2020 begins, those hopes have been thoroughly extinguished by President Mnangagwa and his ruling ZANU-PF party, who have established a record of violently intimidating political opponents, protecting corrupt command economy schemes that benefit elites, and disregarding the country’s own constitution.

Nearly 8 million Zimbabweans, roughly half of the population, are food-insecure, as years of drought have devastated the country’s agriculture. Zimbabwe’s plight is one of many painful testaments to the consequences of climate change in a region that contributed very little to the problem. But the effects of the drought are so severe because the country is in such a vulnerable and weakened state, the result of decades of self-serving leadership.

Some suggest that the dire conditions in the country could prompt another party-managed leadership transition. But changing faces at the top of a structure that offers economic opportunity only to the well-connected few cannot bring relief to the country. Only a genuine commitment to a different kind of governance, one that prioritizes citizens’ needs and the rule of law, can lift Zimbabwe out of the painful rut in which it is mired.

Zimbabwe’s neighbors in southern Africa have shown little appetite for wading into the country’s toxic politics, but the drag that Zimbabwe’s crisis has on regional growth cannot be completely ignored. Thus former South African President Thabo Mbeki has begun talks with government and opposition leaders in a regionally-backed attempt to find a political framework for the country’s recovery. While few expect miraculous results, it is important to remember that Zimbabwe’s situation is not, and has never been, hopeless.

Many people are simply struggling for survival, but others, like participants in the Citizen’s Manifesto movement, continue organizing to articulate a way forward for the country. Brave lawyers, journalists, community organizers, and others continue to defy intimidation in exposing government corruption and incompetence and insisting on justice. Of course, a robust and expeditious international response to the country’s urgent humanitarian needs is essential. But it will be equally important to elevate the voices of Zimbabwean civil society in the difficult year ahead to stave off resignation and find a way out of the crisis.

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Human Rights WatchThis submission addresses issues related to articles 10, 11, 13, and 16 of the convention.

1. Property Rights of Widows (article 16)

In 2017, Human Rights Watch documented the vulnerabilities and human rights abuses that widows in Zimbabwe face in relation to their property rights. Widows in Zimbabwe are routinely evicted from their homes and land, and their property is stolen by in-laws when their husbands die.

Many widows who decide to pursue legal action described how they face insurmountable obstacles defending their property or taking legal steps to reclaim it. Fending off relatives while mourning their husbands and selling off productive assets, like cattle, to pay lawyer and court fees as well as transportation were just some of the challenges. Once in court, widows said they were at a disadvantage without an official record of their marriage if it was a customary union. Courts typically look to the in-laws – the very people who stand to gain – to confirm the marriage, putting widows at the mercy of their husband’s family.

In 2013, Zimbabwe adopted a new constitution that provides for equal rights for women, including for inheritance and property. In practice, however, existing laws continue to apply only to widows in officially registered marriages. Estimates are that most marriages in Zimbabwe are conducted under customary law and are not registered, so, in effect, these laws afford no protection from property-grabbing relatives.[1]

We encourage the Committee to pose the following question to the government of Zimbabwe:

• What is being done to ensure widows, particularly those in rural communities, have meaningful access to legal remedies to protect their rights to property and other related rights in cases of unlawful property or inheritance grabbing?

We encourage the Committee to make the following recommendations to the government of Zimbabwe:

• Commit to implementation of the constitution and national laws for widows’ equal inheritance rights by amending laws and regulations and repealing all laws that violate women’s property rights under domestic or international standards, including African regional standards.
• Install a system to ensure all existing and new marriages, including customary unions, are officially registered in a central registry with digital records that are accessible throughout the country as proof of marriage.
• Allow the posthumous recognition of marriages and customary unions and allow widows to choose the witnesses to confirm their marriage.
• Engage in public awareness campaigns to prevent unlawful property grabbing and inform widows of their inheritance rights.

2. Discrimination in Education against Pregnant Girls (article 10)

Over 24 percent of adolescent girls and young women ages 15-19 have given birth in Zimbabwe, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Almost 19 percent are pregnant as a result of early marriage.[2] Reports indicate that over 6,000 girls dropped out of school due to early and unintended pregnancies in 2018.[3]

Zimbabwe requires pregnant students to leave school once they are found to be pregnant but provides avenues for them be readmitted–sometimes in a different school–after giving birth, provided the girl’s parents or guardians request such readmission.[4] Practices at the school level vary especially regarding the length of time the student should be absent from school and the processes for withdrawal and re-entry. Some conditions for re-entry are difficult for students to meet.[5]

In February 2019, Zimbabwe first introduced in Parliament the Education Amendment Bill, which guarantees the equal realization of the right to education for all in Zimbabwe. The bill includes a provision that guarantees that no child shall be discriminated against because of pregnancy. However, this is the only reference, with the bill lacking more provisions that specifically protect the right to education of pregnant students and those who become parents while at school.[6] The bill has since faced extensive delays and is still at the first reading stage in Parliament.

We encourage the Committee to pose the following questions to the government of Zimbabwe:

• What legal and policy steps have you taken to ensure that pregnant students are able to return to school without barriers?

We encourage the Committee to make the following recommendations to the government of Zimbabwe:

• Provide guarantees in the Education Amendment Bill that no child shall be expelled or denied the right to education by any educational institution on account of pregnancy, and expedite the passage of the bill into law.
• Adopt a human rights-compliant continuation policy that clarifies the government’s obligation to ensure pregnant and parenting learners of school-going age continue primary and secondary school without barriers or mandatory dropout periods.
• Introduce formal flexible school programs, including evening classes and part-time classes, for learners who are not willing or able to attend full-time classes, and ensure students receive full accreditation and certificates of education upon completion.
• Include pregnant learners and parents in programs that target students at risk of dropping out of school, and ensure targeted programs include measures to provide financial assistance, counselling, and school grants to at-risk students, and the distribution of inclusive educational materials and sanitation facilities, including menstrual hygiene management kits in schools.
• Expand options for childcare and early childhood development and education centers for children of adolescent mothers so those of school-going age can attend school.
• Facilitate access to sexual and reproductive health services, including comprehensive sexuality education at school and in the community.

3. Child Marriage (article 16)

Over one-third of girls in Zimbabwe marry before the age of 18 and 5 percent of girls marry before they turn 15, according to the country’s most recent Multi Cluster Survey (MICS).[7] One in five adolescent girls ages 15 to 19 are married or in a union to a partner who is 10 or more years older.[8] Child marriage often ends a girl’s education, can expose her to domestic violence as well as potentially pose grave health risks from early childbearing and HIV.

In November 2015, Human Rights Watch interviewed women and girls affected by child marriage in six provinces of Zimbabwe. Our research found that Zimbabwe has conflicting legal provisions on the minimum age for marriage. Zimbabwe’s constitution does not expressly prohibit child marriage, and a bill to outlaw it is currently at the second reading stage in Parliament.

Some married girls and women interviewed by Human Rights Watch had experienced violence such as beatings or verbal abuse from their in-laws or other relatives. Nearly all said their husbands had abandoned them, leaving them to care for children without financial support. Several described mental distress and suicidal feelings as a result of their situation.

Many girls said they dropped out of school because their families could not afford school costs. Nearly all girls whom Human Rights Watch interviewed were not able to continue their education after marriage, either because of their financial situation, their husband would not permit it, or they had to care for a baby. In addition, many indigenous apostolic churches forbid girls to continue education after marriage. Evangelical groupings which mix Christian beliefs with traditional cultures have approximately 1.2 million followers across the country.

In most cases that Human Rights Watch documented, girls had no comprehensive sexuality education before they became pregnant or married. The government’s national school curriculum does not include a comprehensive sexuality education program.[9] Many Zimbabweans fear that providing young people with contraception contributes to promiscuity, and many indigenous apostolic churches actively discourage use of contraception.[10]

In January 2016, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court declared the practice of early marriage unconstitutional and set 18 as the minimum marriage age for girls and boys. In March 2016, it was announced that the government was developing laws to make it a criminal offense to pay lobola (bride wealth) for girls under age 18.[11] In 2017, the government published a draft bill that seeks to harmonize marriage laws in Zimbabwe. The bill is currently at the second reading stage in Parliament after receiving non-adverse reports from the Parliamentary Legal Committee. The bill provides that the minimum age of marriage is 18 years. It extends this protection to both unregistered customary law marriages and civil partnerships, which protects against attempts to bypass the law by people avoiding formal marriages. The bill also explicitly makes it an offense to marry, pledge or betroth children into an early marriage.[12] Further, in December 2018, the National Action Plan (NAP) and Communication Strategy Against Child Marriages was launched, which seeks to accelerate efforts towards ending child marriages in the country.[13]

We encourage the Committee to make the following recommendations to the government of Zimbabwe:

• Adopt the Marriage Bill, necessary legislative steps to harmonize marriage laws to make 18 the minimum marriage age, and ensure that the laws require free and full consent of both spouses, requirements for proof of age before marriage licenses are issued, and imposes penalties on anyone who intimidates, threatens, or harms anyone who refuses to marry.
• Provide regular training for police and prosecutors on their legal responsibilities to investigate and prosecute violence against women, including child marriage.
• Facilitate the provision of shelters, legal services, and other support mechanisms to protect girls from child marriage and to support those currently in child marriage and those turned away by their families.
• Develop retention strategies to help prevent child marriage and to keep married girls in school, such as providing incentives for families to keep girls in school, scholarships, expanded school feeding programs, adequate sanitation facilities, and life skills programs for married girls through targeted outreach and support programs, and evening or part-time formal schooling and vocational training opportunities.
• Empower girls and boys with information and knowledge about their sexual and reproductive rights by introducing a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.

4. Protection of Schools from Military Use (article 10)

In 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern about the reported use of some schools by militia groups as bases and for political purposes, as well as cases of harassment, expulsion and unlawful arrests and detention of teachers and students during and after Zimbabwe’s violent 2013 parliamentary and presidential elections. The Committee urged Zimbabwe to “take appropriate measures to deter the military or political use of schools and establish mechanisms to monitor and investigate allegations of attacks on education facilities.”[14]

As of September 2019, Zimbabwe is contributing 85 troops to UN peacekeeping forces, including to forces in Sudan and South Sudan, both countries where attacks against students, teachers, or schools, and the military use of schools have been documented.[15] Peacekeeping troops are required to comply with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations “UN Infantry Battalion Manual” (2012), which includes the provision that “schools shall not be used by the military in their operations.”^[16] Moreover, the 2017 Child Protection Policy of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Field Support, and Department of Political Affairs notes: “United Nations peace operations personnel shall at no time and for no amount of time use schools for military purposes.”^[17]

As recognized by this Committee in its General Recommendation No. 30, attacks on students and schools, and the use of schools for military purposes, disproportionately affect girls, who are sometimes the focus of targeted attacks and are more likely to be kept out of school due to security concerns.[18]

Zimbabwe has not endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an inter-governmental international commitment to protect education in armed conflict. As of December 2019, 101 countries have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration. The declaration includes a pledge to use the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.^[19]

We encourage the Committee to pose the following questions to the government of Zimbabwe:

• Are protections for schools from military use included in any policies, rules, or trainings for Zimbabwe’s armed forces?
• What measures has the government taken to deter the military or political use of schools and establish mechanisms to monitor and investigate allegations of attacks on education facilities, as recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child?

We encourage the Committee to make the following recommendations to the government of Zimbabwe:

• Endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, thereby committing to use the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use in Armed Conflict.

4. Hazardous Work in Tobacco Farming (article 11)

In a 2018 report, Human Rights Watch documented hazardous child labor and other serious human rights problems concerning girls and boys on tobacco farms in Zimbabwe. One of the most serious health risks in tobacco farming is acute nicotine poisoning, or Green Tobacco Sickness, caused by absorbing nicotine through the skin from tobacco plants. Many child and adult workers reported that they had experienced at least one symptom consistent with acute nicotine poisoning – nausea, vomiting, headaches, or dizziness – while handling tobacco. Yet almost no one interviewed had ever heard of acute nicotine poisoning or received information about how to protect themselves. Zimbabwean law sets 16 as the minimum age for employment and prohibits children under 18 from performing hazardous work, but does not specifically ban children from handling tobacco.

Children and adults interviewed by Human Rights Watch, including girls and women, also handled toxic pesticides, often without proper protective equipment. Others were exposed to pesticides while someone else applied them nearby. For example, Rufaro and Zendaya, both 15, worked together on a tobacco farm in Mashonaland Central. Both girls said they had vomited after entering fields that had just been sprayed.

Pesticide exposure has been associated with long-term and chronic health effects, including reproductive health problems. Prenatal exposure to pesticides can lead to serious problems in brain development, so preventing exposure among pregnant workers is particularly important.

In early 2018, there were no agriculture-specific health and safety protections in Zimbabwean law or regulations, though the government was working with trade unions and other groups to develop occupational safety and health regulations for agriculture.

Then, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare announced it would draft an action plan to address the issue of child labor in tobacco farming, but to date, it has not shared a plan publicly.[20]

We encourage the Committee to pose the following questions to the government of Zimbabwe:

• What steps have you taken to address the issue of hazardous child labor in tobacco farming?
• What steps have you taken to ensure the health and safety of all workers involved in tobacco production, particularly women and girls who may face harmful impacts from pesticide exposure?

We encourage the Committee to make the following recommendations to the government of Zimbabwe:

• Revise the list of hazardous occupations for children set out in the 2001 amendment to the Children’s Act, or enact a new law or regulation, to explicitly prohibit children from working in direct contact with tobacco in any form.

• Develop and implement an extensive public education and training program to promote awareness of the health risks of work in tobacco farming. At a minimum, ensure that the program includes information on the risks of exposure to nicotine, pesticides, and the special vulnerability of children and pregnant women; prevention and treatment of acute nicotine poisoning (Green Tobacco Sickness); the safe handling and storage of pesticides; methods to prevent occupational and take-home pesticide exposure; and the use of personal protective equipment.

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Police officers blocked roads leading to the Movement for Democratic Change party in the capital, Harare and, armed with a search warrant, forced their way in.

The raid came ahead of a “state of the nation” speech by party leader Nelson Chamisa next week. Frustration has been growing in the southern African nation as the economy collapses.

Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC deputy spokesman, said the search warrant showed that police were searching for machetes in the offices.

There was no immediate comment from the police.

Gangs, mainly of artisanal miners fighting for control of goldfields, have in recent months unleashed violence around Zimbabwe, with machetes as their weapon of choice. A policeman was recently killed at a mine while trying to disperse the gang.

But Tamborinyoka distanced his party from the machete violence, saying the raid was part of the “usual harassment” the opposition is subjected to by police.

Police have routinely banned opposition activities such as protest marches and meetings in the southern African nation.

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