ROHR ZIMBABWE TO LAUNCH A PETITION AGAINS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN ZIMBABWE - 20 th July 2020

17^th July 2020

17^th July 2020

#HumanRightsViolationsUnderEd Petition Launch Summary.

In the 2 and a half years since President Mnangagwa came into power human rights violations against the citizens of Zimbabwe have increased and are being perpetrated with impunity.

As at 17^th July 2020, there have been at least 50 recorded murders, 30 recorded incidents of rape sanctioned by the state and committed by state agencies. Thousands have been beaten by the security forces and there have been hundreds of arrests and imprisonment of political and human rights activists on trumped up charges.

There have been thousands of state engineered displacements through wanton distruction of homes and small scale business premises.

Intimidation by state agencies and ZANU-PF members has become the norm. Citizens are literally under siege from the state. The general atmosphere in Zimbabwe is comparable to the Nazi era in German history in terms of the fear instilled in the population.

Corruption has reached new heights with the President’s family and their cronies being the main actors. Billions of dollars are disappearing from state coffers through acts of blatant corruption. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been reduced to a mere conduit for grand theft of citizens’ hard earned savings by the political elite and their cronies whilst the average citizen wallows in poverty and lives on handouts from well wishers and the donor community.

Parliament has been stripped of its oversight role. Mnangagwa is ruling by decree and is pronouncing ad-hoc “statutes” overnight without due parliamentary process. The state has been captured and is now in the hands of a notorious cartel which features the President, his cronies and the military hierarchy.

The economy has literally collapsed due to a combination of ill informed government policies and high level corruption. The corruption has got to a level whereby billions of US dollars are siphoned from the state coffers in daylight, without approval from parliament. Bizarre as it may sound, it’s happening whilst we watch.

The health sector has collapsed and so has other essential services like water, sanitation, electricity and roads infrastructure.

The mining sector is now in the hands of the cartel and is now a haven for pillage and crime with Mnangagwa himself as the major player.

Agriculture has gone to the dogs and Zimbabwe has turned from being the bread basket of Africa to a basket case. Zimbabwe now relies on imports, mainly donations from the international community and remittances from its citizens in the diaspora.

The people of Zimbabwe are suffering with no end in sight. Elections offer no hope as the process is always manipulated in favour of ZANU-PF and the results are always rigged.

When citizens try to express their disapproval of the bad governance, through peaceful demonstrations the state resorts to violent repression. Apart from ordering the soldiers to shoot to kill, the state goes further way after demonstrations. It carries out a campaign of terror which sometimes entails the hounding of citizens through countrywide nocturnal door to door visits by state agents, soldiers and ZANU-PF youth brigade.

On the other hand, the government of Zimbabwe has the audacity to spend millions of dollars engaging international public relations firms (the likes of Mercury International UK, Ballard Partners, Avenue Strategies, and BTP Advisers) to lobby and spruce up its battered image instead of just changing its evil ways. This is a waste of our money and it’s like adding salt to injury. This is akin to applying lipstick to a pig.

If this situation is allowed to continue, we will perish. This is why we are launching a petition on the 20th of July 2020 and we are urging all Zimbabweans to sign the petition.

We shall be petitioning the SADC, the AU, the EU Parliament, UK Parliament, the US State Department and the UN Human Rights Commission to intercede with the President of Zimbabwe on behalf of Zimbabwean citizens. This is in order to stop brutal repression, bad governance, wanton human rights violations and corruption as well as to return to the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

#HumanRightsViolationsUnderEd