13th February 2021
We watch in horror as ordinary people in Zimbabwe are
being thrown into prison willy-nilly for exercising their right to freedom of
speech, a basic human right, enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, The African Charter on Human and
People’s Rights (Banjul Charter) and the United Nation’s Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
In its desperation to silence dissent, the regime in
Zimbabwe is resorting to “lawfare” instead of addressing the genuine issues
being raised by citizens. There is no gainsaying that corruption is rampant in
Zimbabwe and the scale increases the higher one is in political office.
President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, his family, cronies and proxies lead
the way in terms of corruption. They engage in corruption in such a brazen
manner as to engender a sense of shock among the citizenry.
From another perspective, it is as though they are in
some kind of competition.
What is really shocking is that when citizens point out
cases of corruption the government throws them into jail instead of
investigating the cases of corruption.
The government goes to shameful lengths to protect the criminals and to
punish the innocent.
To make matters worse, the judiciary is now captured to
an extent whereby court processes and judgements are at the whims of the
President, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
New bespoke “laws”, not backed by statutes are created
daily to punish dissent. One such charge is that of “blabbering”. Invented speculative pieces of “law” have seen the likes of Hopewell
Chin’ono, Job Sikhala, Allan Moyo, Fadzai Mahere and countless others languish
in prison for lengthy periods of time.
The scale of incarcerations on trumped up charges is
frightening considering that it is only the cases of prominent activists and
opposition political figures that get into the news.
At a time when other
governments the world over are depopulating prisons in view of the
relentless Covid-19 pandemic, the Zimbabwean government is actually filling up
already overpopulated prisons with innocent citizens facing trumped up charges.
This is tantamount to passing death sentences without
trial.
One wishes the Zimbabwean situation is just a nightmare
from which we shall wake up one day, sweating but unscathed.
Cry our beloved country.
About the
author;-
Thabani
Muleya –nee-Dube is a human rights activist and a member of
Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe’s UK Chapter. She is based in the
United Kingdom and can be contacted by email on tabb2mly@yahoo.co.uk
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