Zanu PF led rights violations in election period

By The Standard | Apr. 10, 2022

Zanu PF spokesperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa confirmed this when he said while addressing a press conference early March, “I want to make it very clear, all over the world an incumbent party has an advantage of being in power to use the position of incumbency for campaigning.”

BY ZIMBABWE PEACE PROJECT

It was a long four weeks in March of 2022 when Zimbabwe witnessed an unprecedented increase in politically-motivated human rights violations designed to suppress campaigns by the newly formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) ahead of the by-elections held on March 26.

It was clear that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration was not prepared or willing to ensure free, fair and open political and human rights friendly environment and was prepared to do anything — hook or crook to take advantage of incumbency at election time.

Mutsvangwa added that those that felt the state broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation was not covering opposition political party rallies should form their own media houses.

This was a direct insult to the constitution and the laws of the land. Section 61 (4) of the 2013 constitution implores state-controlled media to “afford fair opportunity for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions”.

Section 160G of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13] states that public broadcasters shall afford all political parties and independent candidates contesting an election such free access to their broadcasting services.

It was, therefore, not a surprise that the ruling Zanu PF contributed to 73% of all human rights violations the (Zimbabwe Peace Project) ZPP recorded in March followed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, which contributed to nearly 16% of human rights violations

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In all this, general citizens, about 82%, were caught up as victims while about 15% are CCC supporters.

We can only conclude that the state security agents, who banned three CCC rallies and used brute methods to disperse CCC supporters who had gathered for a rally in Gokwe, and arrested dozens of CCC supporters for simply wearing their party colours, were doing so in a way meant to give an advantage to Zanu PF.

The ruling party continued to hold its political campaigns without the slightest hindrance, and with full police protection.

Those in Zanu PF who perpetrated violence against CCC supporters got away with it.

The impunity has been so shameless that suspects in the gruesome murder of the Kwekwe CCC supporter, Mboneni Ncube, are reported to be on a rampage, threatening to kill witnesses lined up to testify against them in court.

The Zanu PF activists also allegedly kidnapped Mboneni’s sister, Judith on March 31 and threatened to kill her for continuing to demand justice.

Ncube was stabbed with a spear at a CCC rally in Kwekwe in February and police in a leaked memo identified the perpetrators as Zanu PF members.

So, it was within that uneven environment that Zimbabwe went to by-elections on March 26 and ZPP has continued to record unsettling incidents where Zanu PF activists are hounding those who supported the CCC in the run-up to the by-elections.

In Dangamvura-Chikanga and Bindura North, losing Zanu PF candidates went around demanding back the mealie-meal they doled out to people during the campaign period while in Kwekwe, some vendors have been evicted from their stalls.

At Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare East, prison wardens are being victimised after Tendai Biti of the CCC got more votes than his losing rival, Mavis Gumbo.

So, as March ended, the political tensions remained high, and with CCC having won the majority of the contested National Assembly seats, Zanu PF has begun its campaign for 2023 and this is likely to keep the country on election mode, which is of great concern

On April 13, 2018, three months before the harmonised elections, Zanu PF national commissar and leader of the war veterans, Victor Matemadanda said “If (the then MDC Alliance leader and presidential election candidate) Chamisa wants a debate, maybe he can engage the Zanu PF youth league, that is his level.

“We can’t imagine the president taking time off serious bread and butter issues to respond to a goat that is scratching the walls from outside.”

Wind down to 2022 February, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, while addressing Zanu PF supporters in Kwekwe, claimed that Chamisa, now leader of the newly formed CCC, and his supporters were like ‘little Goliaths’ that needed to be crushed with a huge stone like lice until nothing remained for the flies.

It is such pronouncements from political leaders that incite citizens into political violence and as the ZPP recorded in the 2018 elections and the just-ended 2022 byelections, nothing much has changed and if at all, the political and human rights situation in Zimbabwe has gotten worse in the past four years and we illustrate this in this section.

In July 2018, a month before the national election, ZPP recorded 294 politically motivated human rights violations and in March 2022, the month when the country held by-elections in some 28 parliamentary constituencies and 108 council wards, ZPP recorded 240 human rights violations.

The fact that the numbers nearly match point to the importance of the March 26 by-election and confirm that the by-elections were a litmus test for the 2023 harmonised elections.

The political parties did not want to leave anything to chance and different from other by-elections the country has witnessed the presidents of the contesting parties led the campaigns.

The predominant human rights violations in July 2018 were intimidation and harassment and ZPP recorded 134 compared to 115 in March 2022.

While some victims of intimidation and harassment do not suffer any visible scars the invisible scars they get determine the way they will act on election day including staying away from the ballot all together.

While in the run up to the 2018 election, the then biggest opposition party, MDC Alliance held its rallies without the police banning them.

The situation was to change in 2022 when police banned five CCC rallies and at one of those, in Gokwe, they fired teargas and brutally descended on party supporters who had turned up for the rally.

Out of the five two went ahead in Masvingo and Epworth when the party approached the courts.

What was also baffling was the conditions set out for the CCC to hold rallies; they were not allowed to bus in their supporters while that condition never applied to Zanu PF where supporters were bussed in to all their rallies.

The bans on rallies marked a fresh low in Zimbabwean politics and prove that in 2018, government just intended to window dress since it was fresh from a coup.

What this also means is that in the run up to the 2023 elections, the environment is likely to be marked by more State interference into campaigns of the opposition parties, especially the CCC, which has put up a good show in the March by-elections by winning 19 out of the 28 contested.