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Cases of Political Violence

Note: The identities of victims that have not been published in the press and are not public officials are protected by the use of initials.

HARARE

Harare Central

4 December 2002

• ZCTU members who had gathered to discuss issues on protection of their rights as teachers, claim that riot police operatives assaulted them while in the midst of their meeting at Gorlon Building, on allegations that the meeting was politically motivated and illegal. Earlier in the afternoon, the police had arrested ZCTU Deputy Secretary, Colleen Gwiyo, ZCTU Secretary General, Wellington Chibhebhe, as well as five other teachers outside the Monomotapa Hotel, when Chibhebhe was directing the workers towards Gorlon Building to hold their meeting. Chibhebhe claims that they were assaulted and ordered to sing MDC slogans on the way to the police station. The victims are said to have refused to do so, as they perceived this to be a trick by the police to get them to the police station singing, availing them a chance to charge them on arrival. They were held in police custody and released after two hours when the police saw that they had no charge to hold against them.

1 December 2002

• MDC youth chairman for Harare Province, Eddison Mukwasi, claims that he was at home with Fidellis Kanyemba and his family when police officers reportedly approached them and accused them of possessing and distributing pamphlets which called for the stripping of Zimbabwe’s hosting of the cricket World cup in 2003, because of the political and economic meltdown in the country. Mukwasi alleges that the ZRP officers ordered him to 'abandon alliance with the neo- colonialists’, the MDC, ‘while it was still day’. He claims that they were arrested and taken to the police station where they were tortured and interrogated by Officer Jena and Sergeant Chikande. Despite suffering from chest pains, Mukwasi is said to have been denied the chance to seek medication. Instead, he was arrested, taken to the ZANU PF base, and is said to have been forced to sleep in a house that was teeming with insects and lice. The police refused to comment on the arrest. The ZRP officers are said to have initially charged Kanyemba and his accomplices with contravening section 15 of the Public Order and Security Act. However, on their release, the charge stated on their Admission of Guilt Forms had changed to: "committing" conduct like to cause a breach of the peace.

Chitungwiza

December 2002

• About ten youths from the Border Gezi Youth National Service Training Centre are alleged to have assaulted Lancelot Masiiwa, leaving him with bruises on his back and face and cuts on his head. Masiiwa claims that he had disembarked from a bus coming from the city centre carrying three loaves of bread when he was confronted by the youths, accusing him of selling bread at an inflated price. Masiiwa is said to have told the assailants that he was not a retailer, and that he had only bought the bread for his family. The youths allegedly took the bread from him and assaulted him with clenched fists and some objects. Masiiwa said that his brother, whom he was walking with, tried to rescue him but was also assaulted. He fled the scene in fear. Masiiwa made a report to the police at Chitungwiza Town Centre and investigations are reportedly underway. Border Gezi National Training Service Centre youths were said to be moving around Unit H identifying people who were selling bread at inflated prices and assaulting them. The government is being accused of enlisting desperate and unemployed youths into its controversial National Youth Service and brainwashing them to become violent zealots of the ruling ZANU PF party.

Highfield

5 December 2002

• Nqobani Ndlovu is said to have been severely assaulted by suspected ZANU PF youth militia at a ZANU PF base at the Gazaland Shopping Centre. He claims that the youths accused him of being an MDC supporter, and they stole $4 000 cash and a carton of matches from him.
• ZANU PF youths are said to have continued to offer food in exchange for ZANU PF cards. Chaos was reported at Machipisa Shopping Centre as thousands of people, mostly women, allegedly battled to buy maize-meal at the ZANU PF offices by proving they were card-carrying Zanu PF supporters. This is despite repeated government denials that it is not politicising the distribution of food. Residents claimed that party youths ordered people to queue according to their ZANU PF branches, while party officials, clutching lists with names of their members, collected money for the mealie-meal. Those who were not on the lists were ignored. A by-election for the constituency is due following expulsion of the MDC MP, Munyaradzi Gwisai.

Mbare West

1 December 2002

• Tobias Chamunorwa, Givemore Kanyoka and Pergety Tanhira, MDC supporters, claim that ZANU PF youths assaulted them with sticks, electric cables, small whips and other weapons, and then force-marched them to ZANU PF offices in the area. This was done to punish the victims for failing to attend a ZANU PF rally held in the area. One of the youths reportedly wanted to strike the three victims with a rake, but he was stopped by one of the party members who said that they did not want the people to die on them. The three claim that they were only released when the assailants suspected that the police were coming to their ‘offices’. Tanhira had a swollen face, while Tobias and Kanyoka had bruises and weals on their bodies. ZANU PF youths in the area were reportedly intimidating and forcing people to attend a rally at the National Sports Stadium. Trucks going to the stadium were seen to be full of people, some of whom had ZANU PF t-shirts.

MANICALAND

Chimanimani

December 2002

• Joseph Mwale, a CIO agent, and other police officers raided Charleswood Farm, which belongs to Roy Bennet, MDC MP for Chimanimani, ostensibly in search of fire arm licences. On not finding what they were looking for, the assailants allegedly rounded up everyone and ordered all the farm workers to stop work and leave the farm immediately. However, some of the workers stopped temporarily while the rest continued working, saying they would only stop if the directive came from Bennet. Bennet has allegedly vowed not to move from his farm as it falls under the Export Processing Zone.

Makoni East/ West/ North/ South

December 2002

• There is a reported increase in the number of youths from the Border Gezi National Service Training Centre who are being accused of terrorising shop owners with impunity. It has been alleged that the perpetrators of the intimidation started when the government gazetted a new list of goods with controlled prices. The residents accused the youths of physically threatening them when they queue for food aid. Most of the residents claim that they now fear the youths to the extent that they no longer protest, even when the children went without food. One of the villagers alleges that they had witnessed the youths severely assaulting people for promoting the black market. The youths have also been accused of making unspecified threats to the shop owners for overpricing their goods. An Asian shop owner in the town reported that war veterans and youths, led by Nathaniel Punish Mhiripiri, ZANU PF Chairman for the District Coordinating Committee, raided several shops in the town of sugar, mealie meal, soap, and other basic goods, and ordered the owners to stick to the controlled prices or face unspecified action. A Police report was made but no action has been taken as yet.

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