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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.

BULAWAYO

Makokoba

8 October 2002

• Albert Ndlovhu, the MDC winning candidate in the municipal by-election in Bulawayo, claims that he was attacked while sleeping at his home. A group of about six men, armed with clubs and iron bars, arrived in a green defender vehicle without a canopy. The victim is uncertain what uniform the men were wearing but reported that it looked to him like the ZRP uniform. The Police Law and Order Section allegedly summoned Ndlovhu to their station to identify the type of car that the armed men reportedly used.

Tshabalala

18 October 2002

• Maize meal is allegedly being stocked at the Zanu PF offices in Tshabalala, Bulawayo and is reportedly being sold only to Zanu PF cardholders.

HARARE

Chitungwiza

5 October 2002

• STG, an MDC supporter, was at a house in Unit K, Seke when a blue Nissan Sunny drove by and parked several metres away from the house. One man personally known to him, summoned him outside the gate for a chat. When he got to the gate eight ZANU PF supporters allegedly assaulted him with a fist on his right eye. They allegedly kicked him with booted feet all over his body and one of the assailants tried to stab him in the chest with a knife. He managed to block the knife, and instead his right little finger was cut. Friends and passers by then rescued him. STG claims that when he later went to Zengeza Police Station to make a police report, he saw the same Nissan Sunny already parked at the station. This deterred him from making the report.

6 October 2002

• John Matienga of St. Mary’s Constituency Development Trust claimed that when members of the police arrived at Hurudzayo Shopping Centre, the venue for an MDC meeting at around 9:30am in two defender vehicles, they used unnecessary brutality to disperse the MDC supporters. He alleged that their actions were politically motivated and illegal. He reported that the MDC supporters were simply waiting for the rally to commence when the police rounded them up and attacked them for wearing MDC t-shirts. Job Sikhala, MDC MP for Seke, claimed that police accused the MDC supporters of loitering and wearing MDC t-shirts when their meeting was supposed to be a constituency development meeting. The arrested victims were reportedly forced to pay five hundred dollars in fine each, which was then paid, by Job Sikhala. Reports in the Daily News say the MDC members were arrested for contravening Section 7(a) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Chapter 9:15, which deals with conduct that is likely to cause a breach of peace.

14 October 2002

• JM, MDC election agent in Ward 15 in the September 2002 Rural District Council elections, claims that he was assaulted by a group of about fifteen Zanu PF supporters, while he was in a night club, because he had served as a MDC election agent. They allegedly attacked him while he was outside and then pursued him when he sought refuge inside the nightclub at the shopping centre. They reportedly assaulted him with clubs and chairs, leaving him with a swollen right eye, head injuries and sixteen stitches. The victim reported the incident to the police on 17 October 2002. He managed to identify Pension and Innocent among the perpetrators.

Harare Central

October 2002

• Fletcher-Dulini Ncube, Giles Mutsekwa, Mzila Moses Ncube (MDC MPs), Dr Tichaona Mudzingwa (MDC Secretary for Security and Defense), Misheck Shoko (Chitungwiza Executive Mayor, MDC), and twenty war veterans who have defected to MDC, have filed a complaint that their ex-combatants’ pension benefits have been terminated by the government. They allege that the move is meant to warn the disaffected members of the ZNLWVA that they should not join the MDC. War veterans reportedly confirmed that the moment it was established that they had joined MDC, government hastened to terminate their monthly pensions. However, the compensation, which the war veterans get, is reportedly a social welfare payment which has nothing to do with Zanu PF as a party.

3 October 2002

• It has been reported that as the MDC officials drove away from the hearing of Solomon Chikowero and Linos Mushonga (MDC officials) at the Magistrates’ Court, their vehicle came under a hail of stones from a group of Zanu PF youths. Solomon Chikowero and Linos Mushonga were on trial for the murder of Ali Khan Manjengwa, a Zanu PF activist who was shot and killed at Nenyere flats in Mbare on 22 August 2002. The youths were reportedly about fifty meters away from the court building, waiting to attack the MDC officials. Police and prison guards armed with rifles and tear gas canisters reportedly maintained a watchful eye on the youths at strategic points around the complex as they perpetrated the violence, but they did not intervene. Four people have so far been reported arrested and remanded in custody.

24 October 2002

• Teachers went on strike in the month of October following disgruntlement over salary structures. It was reported that Regional Director of Education for Harare Region, Bossy Nhandarasigned letters of suspension and sent them to approximately 700 teachers. Part of the letter reportedly read that the teachers had committed an act of misconduct by engaging in a work stoppage, and were thus suspended from duty for a period of three months with effect from after duty on the day the teachers received the letters.

28 October 2002

• ZRP officers led by Assistant Inspector Dowa of the CID’s Law and Order Section, reportedly arrived in two Police Defender vehicles and two Mazda B1800 vehicles and clashed with MDC youths and mourners at the late Learnmore Jongwe’s home in Ridgeview. The police allegedly harassed the mourners and brandished guns at them. Jongwe’s mother reportedly threatened to throw herself into the fire, as she could not understand why the police would attack her during her time of mourning. The Independent News crew was reportedly threatened with arrest and shooting should they record anything in the press the police did not approve of. Simon Jongwe, the brother of the deceased, claimed that the police officers were not very clear on what they wanted at Jongwe’s funeral. At first they reportedly claimed that they wanted to search the house for two murder suspects from Buhera, but they did not specify which case they were investigating.

Hatfield

October 2002

• Teaboy Tsura of Murehwa went to CC’s home in the company of other Zanu PF youths and allegedly assaulted him for supporting the MDC. They looted his property including all his household articles, carpentry tools, four buckets of maize and two bags of fertiliser. The youths allegedly chased the victim from Epworth. He now resides in the bush together with his wife since he has no alternative accommodation.

Mbare East

October 2002

• Zanu PF supporters and members of the ZNLWVA in Mbare have reportedly unleashed a reign of terror as a way of avenging the death of Ali Khan Manjengwa, a Zanu PF activist who was killed in Mbare on 22 August 2002. Eyewitnesses in Mbare claimed that the Zanu PF militias started by evicting people from Nenyere Flats and allocating themselves their flats. The terror is reportedly being co-ordinated through six community halls in blocks of flats. These are said to have been turned into militia bases. Trymore Magamu, one of the eyewitnesses, claimed that the he had also been evicted from his flat and that the Matapi flats were now a no-go area for opposition supporters. The property which belongs to the evicted people is understood to have been lying in the corridors as they have no where to put it.

MANICALAND

Buhera North

October 2002

• Mathos and Gibson Madombwe, Chakanetsa and Cryson Kangana, Madombwe and Joseph Mandaza, all MDC supporters, allegedly went to Cde. Elliot Manyika’s homestead and burnt two buses. Cde Elliot Manyika is a Zanu PF member and the Minister of Youth Gender and Employment Creation. His neighbour, Mr. Katiyo, claimed that he saw the assailants fleeing the scene as the buses went up in flames. They have appeared before a Harare Magistrate on allegations of torching the buses.

Chimanimani

October 2002

• Joseph Mwale, a senior officer with the Central Intelligence Organisation, has reportedly declared Chimanimani, a plantation and farming region in the east of Zimbabwe, a no-go area for the private media. This move has forced a private company, Radar Holdings, which was planning a media tour to view its plantations, which were gutted down by a fire in the month of October, to shelve the tour by aeroplane. (MISA). According to the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), an NGO, Radar Holdings lost approximately US$168M (Z$9 billion) worth of timber in the fire. Mwale reportedly denied permission for the flight on allegations that it would bring in private reporters who would report negatively on the situation. He is also alleged to have said that proceeding with the flight would only be at the risk of the peoples’ lives. Although the High Court recommended that the Attorney General arrest Mwale, nothing has been done as yet. Mwale was implicated in the murder of two MDC activists in the run up to the June 2000 Parliamentary Elections, Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya.

9 October 2002

• MM, a personal aide of the MDC MP for Chimanimani, Roy Bennet, was driving in a truck with the Bennets when two police officers allegedly took him to Chimanimani Police Station on allegations of selling the country to the whites. CIO agents, led by Joseph Mwale, allegedly assaulted him with booted feet, fists, iron bars, gun butts and a hosepipe while other police officers watched. He claims that he was also threatened with death if he ever set foot in Chimanimani again. He was then arrested and detained for three days at Middle Sabi Police Station and then at Chipinge Police Station. He was charged under the Electoral Act for allegedly taking pictures of a polling station and was remanded to 15 October 2002.

Mutare Central

29 October 2002

• Youths from the Boarder Gezi National Youth Service Training Centre celebrating victory in the Insiza by-election reportedly went on a rampage assaulting revellers at a nightclub in Mutare City Centre. They apparently descended on the patrons, accusing them of indiscipline and of supporting the MDC. One of the victims alleged that the assailants were asking them why they had voted for MDC in the September 2002 elections. The youths have reportedly become a common sight in and around the city. One taxi driver who declined to be named alleged that the incident took place at around 10pm, and the ZRP dog section was called in to quell the disturbances. The youths were reportedly clad in the standard youth brigade green fatigues, wielding sticks and sjamboks. Edmund Maingire, ZRP spokesman for Manicaland, claimed that he had not received any report on the incident.

Mutasa

1 October 2002

• Zanu PF youths celebrating victory in the September 2002 Rural District Council elections allegedly set on fire the homes of MDC members Tobaiwa Tsadziva, Luke Dambaza and Elias Makwenjere. The case was not reported to the police, the reason reported in the local press being that police officers never do anything to Zanu PF perpetrators of political violence, but instead they arrest the MDC victims of political violence. This incident follows the September 2002 rural district and council elections, in which Zanu PF won in all the seats in the Mutasa wards.

11 October 2002

• Prosper Mutseyami, MDC Vice- chairman for Manicaland, claimed that he was dragged from the podium by a group of Zanu PF supporters while speaking at Danford Masaiti’s funeral in Samanga Village. Danford Masaiti was the husband of Evelyn Masaiti, MDC MP for Mutasa. He died on 11 October 2002. Mutseyami was allegedly booed at, confronted, grabbed by his left arm and asked to leave the funeral, but mourners came to his rescue. The youths are said to have briefly disrupted the proceedings, but the MDC supporters later intervened and managed to bury Evelyn’s husband in peace.

26 October 2002

• Evelyn Masaiti, MDC MP for Mutasa, claims that she was unceremoniously chased away from the commissioning of a water project in her constituency by Zanu PF officials. Masaiti reportedly accused Oppah Muchinguri the Zanu PF provincial governer for Manicaland who was also present at the ceremony, of instigating the violence she got at the ceremony. However, Muchinguri denied the allegations. Masaiti had been invited for the official commissioning of the Mutarazi Water Project, a $10 million dollar project to draw irrigation water from the Mutarazi Falls for the communal farmers in Honde Valley. Masaiti claimed that she was shepherded away from the venue at the time when a team from the EU office in Harare was arriving at the scene. She then drove to Ruda Police Station, about 40kms away, to formally report the incident to the police but she claimed that the officer in charge at Ruda Police station did not offer her much assistance.

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