Two opposition MPs and 13 Citizens Coalition for Change party members are in jail for protesting against the murder of a colleague. (Photo by Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images)
Four Zimbabwean journalists stopped to record a convoy of 20 vehicles that had moved to block the road leading to a rally being held by the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change on Thursday last week.
The journalists were attacked, punched and kicked before their recordings were deleted. The attackers, according to the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, were supporters of the ruling party, Zanu-PF.
The journalists tweeted photographs of their wounds. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the journalists had suffered a “brutal assault” and that Zanu-PF’s director of information had called the claims “rubbish” — and then ignored all other correspondence.
On Friday, the judgment in a case against novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and her co-accused, Julie Barnes, was delayed by a month. The two were arrested in July 2020 for picketing on the roadside in the Harare suburb of Borrowdale, where they held up a placard that said, “We want better. Reform our institutions.” The charges included public incitement to violence and a breach of peace.
Dangarembga said: “I don’t know why or whether I am a target at all. As a law-abiding citizen, who wants the best for my country and everyone in it, I believe the law has to take its course. I am not a member of any political party, or any oppositional grouping. This makes me feel, at a personal level, quite vulnerable.
“Every citizen has the right to protest peacefully, and that is what l did.”
Barnes and Dangarembga are not alone. There are 13 opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party activists in jail after their arrest more than a month ago on charges of inciting violence. That came after their protest against the murder of their opposition colleague, Moreblessing Ali, whose mangled remains were found in a disused well in Chitungwiza, 25km from Harare.
Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole, two opposition legislators, are also in jail, arrested on charges of inciting public violence in the protests that followed the death of Ali. Repeated applications for bail have been denied in the lower courts and in the high court.
Claris Madhuku, the director of the Platform for Youth and Community Development Trust, said the state was using “law-fare” against those that disagree with it. “You would realise that the authorities have unashamedly used the same script when arresting and charging pro-democracy activists,” he said. “Most of these if not all of them have been charged with inciting public violence.”
The state is also accused of pressuring the courts to punish those it brings such charges against. A Citizens Coalition for Change activist, Elvis Mugari, said: “We know the regime has switched to forcing court officials to punish pro-democracy activists by handing down bogus court rulings.”
Three members of that opposition — Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova — are still on trial two years after they were arrested for protesting against what they saw as the Zimbabwean authorities’ failure to provide social protection during Covid-19 lockdowns.
The trio initially went missing at the Harare Central police station, where they had been ferried by police officers after their arrest. A few days later, they were re-arrested on accusations of staging their own abduction after they were found dumped and injured outside the capital.
The government either ignores claims that it is seeking to squash the opposition. Or it denies them.
The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.
This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy at mg.co.za/thecontinent/