Nigel Mutemagau

I have just left Zimbabwe and returned to my home in the United Kingdom and so much lingers in my mind. I was greeted at home by my loving parents, siblings and all the comforts one could ask for. As I pottered about the house I caught sight of ‘The Zimbabwean’ newspaper out of the corner of my eye. Right on the front page of the 2 – 8 September issue was the headline ‘Tortured child sues for $ 1. 6 million.’ Curiosity got the better of me and I reached for and read the article under this phenomenal headline.

It tells me of a child called Nigel who was two years old. He was incarcerated in prison where he suffered beatings from the state in 2008 in an attempt to force confessions from his ‘political activist parents’. This information can’t help but make me think of the basic rights of a child. I ask myself how a man can bring himself to torture an innocent defenceless boy? Why is it that some sections of the human race can ignore the overwhelming principle to protect the young, no matter what? A child is by its very nature extremely fragile and in my humble opinion demands respect.

I am sitting beside a lake at my local bird sanctuary mulling over life’s cruelties. My attention is captured by a little girl of around five years old who is sitting in front of me feeding the greedy geese. The Zimbabwean boy Nigel is now around this age and when I look at the girl I allow myself to imagine if the treatment he suffered had been inflicted upon this girl. (more…)

ZLHR Press Release – 22 September: Chrispen Mandizvidza, a Mbare resident aged 32, died today after he was assaulted by ZANU PF youths during last weekend’s chaotic constitution-making process, which resulted in the aborting of outreach meetings aimed at soliciting people’s views to the drafting of a proposed new constitution.

Mandizvidza, who was employed as a security guard, died on Wednesday 22 September 2010 at around mid-day at a hospital in Harare, where he had been admitted after he was assaulted by some ZANU PF youths in Kawadza Street on Sunday 19 September 2010.

His medical report indicated that he died as a result of complications from the ruptured bowel he sustained after being assaulted on the abdomen with blunt weapons. He underwent emergency surgery on the night of Monday 20 September 2010, but the injury was too severe, resulting in his passing on. (more…)

News update from WOZA – 1.30pm – Wednesday 22nd

83 members released on free bail – Jenni Williams arrested outside Harare Magistrate’s Court

Update: Jennie Williams was eventually released without charges, after being detained for over two hours

The 83 members arrested on Monday for a peaceful protest about community safety appeared in Harare Magistrate’s Court this morning charged under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 46, as read with Section 2(v) of the Third Schedule to the Criminal Code – ‘criminal nuisance’. It transpires that police decided to go with these charges instead of obstructing traffic. They were granted free bail and remanded out of custody to 6 October.

The state had tried to get bail set at US $ 50 each and for each of the 83 to report to Harare Central Police Station every Friday but the magistrate refused these conditions, saying that they were too severe for the nature of the charges.

Having been dismissed from court, WOZA leaders were speaking to the group across the road from court, trying to ascertain which of the recently released members needed medical attention when police officers insisted that Jenni Williams, WOZA’s National Coordinator, accompany them to the police post inside Harare Magistrate’s Court for addressing the group. They accused her of ‘addressing a gathering’ and tried to get her to sign a caution admitting that she had addressed a gathering at court. When she attempted to explain that she was merely attempting to provide assistance to those that had been recently released, police insisted that she be taken to Law and Order at Harare Central. She is currently being held at Harare Magistrate’s Court until police can provide transport to Harare Central.

WOZA condemns this harassment of its members by police.

Groups in Bulawayo marked International Peace Day on Tuesday (yesterday) with a peaceful march starting at the Bulawayo City Hall. The march went ahead peacefully after police clearance was granted.  Zimrights, Habbakuk Trust and the Zimbabwe Victims of Organised Violence (ZIVOV) were among those that marched. (more…)

At noon today, 600 members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe marched to Parliament in Harare to mark International Peace Day. 25 members were arrested at Parliament (most of them handing themselves in) and taken to Harare Central Police Station. 59 more handed themselves in in solidarity with their arrested comrades after marching from Parliament to Harare Central. The total arrested is believed to be 84.

The aim of the peaceful protest was to highlight community safety issues and police behavior in communities. When the peaceful group arrived at Parliament, they handed over a list of demands for members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Police Commissioner and the co-Ministers of Home Affairs to police officers stationed outside Parliament. The full list of demands can also be found below.

Two members addressed the peaceful group outside Parliament explaining that tomorrow (21st September) is International Peace Day and using the example of the violence at COPAC consultations over the weekend to illustrate how Zimbabweans have little experience of peace. They called on the Zimbabwe Republic Police to allow Zimbabweans to be able to give their views of what they want in a new Constitution without violence and called on police to arrest those that threatened others or used violence.

Bystanders were overheard supporting the protestors – commenting on the violence shown by police officers in recent weeks and how police officers should be ashamed of themselves for not being the ones to keep the peace.

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Twenty three months have now elapsed since the signing of the Zimbabwean Global Political Agreement (GPA) but there is little real progress to show for the effort, the resources and the livelihoods that have been consumed in the ongoing political stalemate in Zimbabwe.

Once again we have looked to find the origins of the chaos by analysis of the facts to hand. Over the month of August, seventy-six news articles from the internet media were captured and catalogued through the month of August. Each article is a unique record of a breach of the terms of the GPA. Categorising these articles according to the nature of breach, allows basic statistics to be drawn from them.

The results clearly show the cause of Zimbabwe’s governmental malaise. This month saw the Constitutional Outreach program in full swing. Consequentially, a huge rise in the number of attempts to derail the national exercise has made this the top breach in our media monitoring exercise with 19 articles (25% of the total). A worrying trend that emerged here is the fact that, of all breaches recorded against the outreach exercise, 68.42% of them involved violence, intimidation, hate speech or abductions. (It should be noted that ZZZICOMP independent monitors have been cataloguing problematic constitution outreach issues specifically, providing far more detail than the ZIG Watch project can hope to achieve). Cases of deliberate non-cooperation with the terms or the spirit of the GPA ranked second in August, with 15 articles (19.7% of the total), while cases of violence, intimidation, hate speech and abductions came in third with 12 articles (15.8% of total). (more…)

Owen Maseko

This article is the first in a series that will look at forms of freedom of expression in Zimbabwe. Politics has so infiltrated our lives that the personal, social and cultural are all political, and as always with Zimbabwe, it is impossible to talk about one without referencing the other.  What we hope to do is to encourage people to think beyond the minutiae detail of political immediacies, and to debate who we are as people in this maelstrom, how do we define ourselves, where do we want to be going, how can we get there, and is there space for this richness of identity to be defined and celebrated in Zimbabwe today?

We start by looking at the way ‘freedom of expression’ is dealt with in the Global Political Agreement. We then turn to a discussion of how ‘freedom of expression’ in Zimbabwe is sharply curtailed by Zanu PF’s ‘Patriotic History’ programme. This has serious implications for artists in Zimbabwe, and Owen Maseko’s case is used to outline what happens to artists and their art when their work dares to challenge Zanu PF’s Patriotic History. Maseko’s recent exhibition – now banned from being shown in Zimbabwe – focused on the Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe; so we also discuss how the truth of the Gukurahundi has been suppressed for decades and, if Zanu PF get their way, will continue to be suppressed for the forseeable future. We ask whether ‘now is the time’ to discuss our past. Finally, we consider the future implications for art in Zimbabwe in the light of the Owen Maseko case. (more…)

ZLHR Press Release – 14 September: Lawyers representing tormented Gukurahundi visual artist Owen Maseko on Monday 13 September 2010 secured victory when the State was forced to drop charges against the artist when he appeared in court.

Maseko’s lawyers Lizwe Jamela, Nosimilo Chanaiwa and Jeremiah Bamu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) successfully challenged an attempt by State prosecutor Tawanda Zvekare to introduce a new charge against the visual artist.

Zvekare, who travelled all the away from Harare to prosecute in Maseko’s case at Tredgold Magistrates Court in Bulawayo sought to put a new charge to Maseko, which is different from the one in respect of which he was placed on remand.

Maseko was placed on remand on charges of undermining the authority of or insulting the President and causing offence to persons of a particular race or religion. (more…)