The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) will soon start investigating the distribution of food aid along partisan lines on the grounds that such behaviour is a violation of human rights.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
ZHRC chairman Elasto Mugwadi said this on Tuesday in Harare while receiving a donation of four Toyota Hilux vehicles worth $122 000 from development partners of the Delegation of the European Union, and the Royal Danish and Norwegian governments.
Mugwadi said the ZHRC was failing to effectively investigate the food issue because of transport challenges.
“We have received reports from people working at different institutions related to unfair food distribution in rural areas where food was said to be distributed along political party lines,” he said.
“As a commission, we have not yet taken a position because most of these reports were coming from remote areas and we were immobile, but after this donation we will urgently go to attend to these complaints.”
Mugwadi said issues of maladministration and salary disputes were rampant in Harare and Bulawayo.
“Most of the issues date back as far as 2007 and they are to do with non-payment of pensions, and this includes complaints from institutions such as the army, police and prison services,” he said.
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Mugwadi said the ZHRC had all along survived through donors as they faced financial challenges.
“We have managed to do a lot as a commission and success stories have begun to be recorded. The commission is receiving an average of about 30 new complaints every month, and henceforth we will be able to undertake monitoring visits to various places of detention and attend to emergencies without delay,” he said.
The human rights commission boss said a report on Chingwizi villagers would soon be tabled before Parliament.
“We are currently in the process of finalising a report on the visit made to Tsholotsho flood victims. The report had been hampered by insufficient resources,” he said.
First secretary at the Danish Embassy Signe Skovbakke said they had observed an improvement in the human rights record of Zimbabwe in that the Constitution had a strong Bill of Rights.
She, however, said there was need for speedy realignment of laws with the Constitution and for the ZHRC to investigate human rights breaches in rural areas.
EU representative Caroline Valette said the donated vehicles should allow the commission to reach out to people in remote areas.
