ZIMBABWE - “THE SECOND REPUBLIC” IS WORSE THAN THE FIRST – By Xoliso Sithole

 27^th May 2024

"The more things change, the more they remain the same". So wrote George Orwell in his famous Animal Farm. Many writers have compared Zimbabwe to that novel, and I found myself thinking about it after reading about the arrest of nine villagers in Watsomba for booing the First Lady of Zimbabwe, Mrs Auxilia Mnangagwa. The actions of the police show how the elite connected to the President can use the country’s security forces for their own needs any time they want. It is also important to note that before she became the First Lady, Mrs Mnangagwa worked for the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and is connected to the security sector in her own right. In fact, the nine were subsequently released on the orders of the First Lady. The fact that the Presidential Spokesman, George Charamba, saw nothing wrong in telling the media that the country’s police take orders from someone who has no official position in government is telling.

The regime of Emmerson D. Mnangagwa likes to spin a narrative of a country moving away from that of his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe. “The Second Republic,” as they call it. However, there are many obvious signs that Mugabe’s 37-year-long tenure still casts a shadow over the country. All the draconian laws enacted by the Mugabe regime to repress dissenting voices are still in force. The National Treasury's subversion to meet the ruling class's expensive tastes continues. Everything they said they were correcting about Mugabe’s regime when they overthrew him in a coup in 1917, Mnangagwa and his cronies are doing.

If the truth is to be told, the Mnangagwa regime is much worse than the Mugabe regime. In what was to become the hallmark of his tenure, Mnangagwa brazenly set the army upon innocent protesters in the first week of August 2018. On this occasion, six peaceful protesters were shot dead by soldiers in the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe, in broad daylight in the full glare of international media and elections observers. This was a distinct upgrade of Mugabe’s version of tyranny.

Abductions and enforced disappearances of political and human rights activists are now commonplace under the Mnangagwa regime. The following is a catalogue of recent cases of abductions;-

1. On 27 August 2023, Councillor Nelson Mukwenha was abducted from his home at midnight and badly tortured and injected with an unknown substance.

2. On 2 September 2023, Councillor Womberaishe Nhende was abducted, badly tortured and injected with an unknown substance.

3. On 24 October 2023, MP Hon. James Chidhakwa was abducted, badly tortured and injected with an unknown substance.

4. On 1 November 2023, MP Hon. Takudzwa Ngadziore was abducted, tortured and injected with an unknown substance by armed men who were well-identified by names and occupation as state agents.

4. On 11 November 2023, activist pastor Tapfumanei Masaya was abducted, and on 12 November 2023, his brutally tortured body was found on the outskirts of Harare.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-67419968

The Mnangagwa regime would like attention drawn away from all this, of course. This is why they churn out reports of phantom economic achievements: highways being built somewhere, factories opened, and deals signed with foreign investors. It all sounds like good news, but the ordinary Zimbabwean still only knows about crumbling infrastructure, rampant inflation, repression and desperation. The ordinary Zimbabwean also knows violence from the security agents, who work not for law and order and public safety but to keep the masses in perpetual fear of their rulers. That a group of villagers in sleepy Watsomba can be rounded up for no crime at all is just the most recent sign of this that I have seen.

For this reason, I cannot sit back and get on with life. I must use my voice to keep the world's attention on Zimbabwe. We, the Zimbabwean masses, have been struggling and suffering under an oppressive regime for far too long. And we will struggle for a longer time until we have real freedom and democracy for all. But when? When all signs point to a Mnangagwa dynasty in the making, which generation will see a better Zimbabwe?

Our work is cut out for us. Although things may seem daunting, I will never give up the struggle.

About the author
Xoliso Sithole is a human rights activist based in the United Kingdom. She is the Fundraiser for the North Branch of the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe.  She can be contacted by email at xolisosithole@yahoo.com