By Nathan Guma
ZIMBABWE is continuing to record more human rights abuses in 2024, with members of the ruling Zanu PF and uniformed forces being identified as major perpetrators, amid calls for the Zimbabwe Republic Police to investigate all criminal cases, including those that include ruling party-affiliated officials.
New statistics have shown an increase in human rights abuses in April, a trend that was also high during the disputed 2023 general elections.
Human rights watchdog the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) in its monthly monitoring report for April said that it has documented 145 human right violations, which include harassment and intimidation, violations against equality and non-discrimination, abduction, arbitrary eviction, extra-judicial killing, unlawful detention, theft and assault.
Mashonaland West recorded the largest number of violations of human rights standing at 29 violations, up from 17 in March.
ZPP also documented 27 violations in Manicaland Province, 20 in Mashonaland East, 16 in Masvingo, 15 in Midlands, 14 in Harare Province and 13 in Mashonaland Central.
Bulawayo and Matabeleland South provinces each recorded four violations while Matabeleland North recorded three human rights violations.
According to the report, 69.41% of the perpetrators were affiliated with the ruling Zanu PF party, while 8.53% were traditional leaders.
The ZRP accounted for 7.94% of the perpetrators while members of the defence forces an municipal officers accounted for 5.29% and 2.94% respectively.
Members affiliated with opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) constituted 1.47% of the perpetrators while 4.41% were not affiliated with any group or institution.
On the gender divide, male victims constituted 52.11%, of which 0.17% were persons with disabilities. 47.88% of the victims were females, with 0.11% of them having a disability.
Ordinary citizens constituted the majority of victims amounting to 93.3%, while informal traders were 3.56%. Other victims were members of the opposition party, CCC, at 2.88%, artisanal miners 0.24% and Zanu PF 0.02%.
“On the 29th of April in the Gweru Central Business District, around 10 members of the Zimbabwe National Army raided and physically assaulted street money changers. Eight males were assaulted using sjamboks,” reads the report.
“The victims were later released by the armyofficers and no arrests were made. The assault, a violation of the right to personal security (Section 52), followed the Vice President of Zimbabwe, Constantino Chiwenga’s remarks threatening violence on money changers. He said ‘We would not want you (money changers) to end up being crippled after being attacked” during his address to Zanu PF supporters in Harare East ahead of the April 27 by-elections.”
The report has also identified Zanu PF traditional leaders, who were forcing people to attend Zanu PF’s Independence Day celebrations.
The event, saw low key celebrations across the country, particularly in urban areas, in comparison to previous years.
“They demanded in the form of money ranging from US$1 to US$5 per individual. In Chipinge, teachers were also forced to contribute towards and attend the celebrations in Murambinda,” reads the report.
“A letter signed by C. Salani, Chipinge's District Development Coordinator, was sent to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education requesting ‘contributions in cash from every employee’. Headmasters were instructed to collect names, ID numbers and company numbers of those donating to be recorded. Many teachers complied for fear of victimisation.”
Zanu PF members and uniformed forces were also identified as major perpetrators of organised violence and torture (OVT) ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Findings in a report titled: “A Consolidated Report on Pre and Post Organised Violence and Torture during the 2023 Harmonised Elections in Zimbabwe” by human rights watchdogs, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (The Forum), Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), Counselling Services Unit (CSU), Veritas and Heal Zimbabwe showed that main opposition members have been the main victims of targeted organised violence and torture in all stages of the electoral process.
According to the report, Zanu PF supporters had the highest frequency of perpetrating violence with 116 reports in the pre-election period, and 67 in the post-election era, while its youth wing had a tally of 74 and 12 in both periods.
There has also been a 100% fluctuation in electoral violence, with 102 cases of intimidation being recorded in pre-election period, increasing to 126 in the post-election period. In the same period, 37 cases of violence were recorded in the pre-election period, with 44 being recorded in the post-election period.
Of the recorded cases, police did not take action on 18 cases of violations in the run up to the general elections, while it did not take action on 16 cases in the post-period period.
Cases of exclusion increase in the pre-election period, with 44 being recorded, which slightly fell to the election to 39.
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