FOR more than 20 years, Beatrice Mtetwa has fought for freedom in President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
It is a battle that has pitted the human rights lawyer against the aging leader and his State-wide apparatus of terror and intimidation.
Like the politicians, journalists and activists she often defends, Mtetwa has been the target of intimidation, beatings and now imprisonment.
Last week, she emerged from eight days in custody after she tried to prevent police from illegally searching the offices of the MDC. The officers claimed she had shouted at them.
“(Mtetwa) has felt the physical, mental and emotional consequences of being engaged in Zimbabwe’s perverse legal system,” said Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association in London. “Her profound commitment to the rule of law in such difficult circumstances is incredibly inspiring.”
The battle for justice in Zimbabwe has become increasingly dangerous as Mugabe’s Zanu PF struggles to hang on to power.
Observers see Mtetwa’s arrest as the first shot in the party’s campaign of intimidation before general elections later this year. “Her arrest has nothing to do with any violation of the law,” said Pedzisai Ruhanya, director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute in Harare.
“It is a clear message to defenders of democratic principles that if they can arrest this icon, you could be next.” Ironically, Mtetwa was charged with obstruction of justice for demanding to see a search warrant when police ransacked the MDC offices. After her release, she said police were trying to make her an example.
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“There will be more arrests to follow as we near elections,” she said. “The police were out to get me. They wanted me to feel their might and power because I call myself a human rights lawyer and I felt it.”
Mugabe and Zanu PF have “absolutely no chance at winning a free and fair election,” Ruhanya said. So they are “stepping up their violence and threats”.
The last national elections in 2008 were marked by “horrendous violence” and vote-tampering by State agencies loyal to Mugabe. As a result, Sadc stepped in, forcing Mugabe to negotiate with Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader.
Eventually, a compromise was reached, which saw Mugabe remain president, while Morgan Tsvangirai became Prime Minster.
Predictably, it has been an uneasy and unsatisfactory partnership.
“The so-called unity government, whose partners are anything but united, consisting of the former ruling Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, has failed to hold accountable those responsible for past human rights abuses, including during the 2008 electoral violence,” said a Human Rights Watch report released in January.
“It has also failed to reform key State institutions responsible for the administration of justice, which remain highly politicised and extremely partisan towards Zanu PF.”
Mtetwa came by her sense of justice early. She was born in Swaziland, the eldest daughter of a polygamous father, who went on to sire more than 50 other children.
“Her passion for using the law to make a difference is her personal ethos,” said Lorie Conway, an American independent filmmaker who directed a new documentary, Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law. “I think it has very much been informed by where she came from and how she has always been fighting for her brothers’ and sisters’ well-being since she was a young child. She had a very stern father and she had to toe the line, and yet she stood up against him from very early on.”
Mtetwa, who studied law at the University of Botswana and Swaziland, worked as a prosecutor, first in her native Swaziland and then in Zimbabwe. But she became disillusioned by the system and in 1989 decided to open a private practice specialising in human rights law. Since, she has established an international reputation as a brilliant lawyer and a brave defender of vulnerable Zimbabweans caught up in a cruel and unfair system.
