By TAFADZWA KACHIKO HUMAN rights watchdog, Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) says the country’s political environment has remained toxic with Zanu PF cited as the worst culprits.
In its latest monthly report titled ToxiZim: Everything depends on which side do you belong, ZPP also listed the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) alongside police and the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) for human rights’ violations.
“For the ruling party, it has always been about its escalating thirst for domination ahead of the 2023 elections. The party has since April launched a systematic campaign to threaten and intimidate opposition supporters in rural areas such that by the time the official campaign period begins, villagers would have lost the little that remains of their voice and chance to choose leaders of their choice,” the ZPP report read.
“We note that Zanu PF has continued to dominate the list of human rights violators at 50% followed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) which contributed to 24% (354) of all the violations ZPP recorded. CCC was responsible for 29 (4%), while ZNA accounted for 12 violations.”
Zanu PF information and communications director Tafadzwa Mugwadi dismissed the ZPP findings as hogwash.
“Our ears as a party are not open for ZPP attention seeking nonsense. We are more focused on what people expect us to deliver based on our people’s manifesto …As a result, ZPP sideshows are just whistles in a graveyard with no takers at all,” Mugwadi said.
But analysts said the ZPP findings were spot-on.
“Toxicity of our politics is not accidental but a political machination design inherited from the colonial era by Zanu PF to perpetually preside over a divided and thereby weak citizenry,” said political analyst Maxwell Saungweme.
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ZPP alleged that ZRP has continued to use archaic and selective methods of law enforcement in favour of Zanu PF citing alleged arbitrary and unlawful detentions.
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