Executive Summary
The political environment continues to be stressed with various coercion phenomena
manifesting around several sticky issues. Violations in this month’s report range from land
invasions, the denial of the right to food, the right to freedom of assembly or freedom not
to assemble as well as the all encompassing right of freedom of expression, among
others, which are all espoused in the national Constitution despite their rampant flouting in
the various corners of the country. Free political expression continues to be curtailed
across the provinces with consequences either meted out instantly or promised to occur
at election time in 2018. While members of the opposition continue to be on the receiving
end of violations from members of the ruling Zanu PF, perpetrations against “gamatox” –
those suspected of being sympathetic to ousted former vice president, Joice Mujuru continue to be on the rise.
In several cases in this report, some victims are ominously threatened with being “dealt
with” come elections 2018, in situations which clearly show that the polls are being
brandished as a “time of reckoning” for opposition and “gamatox” members thereby
generating fear amongst them.
The “support or starve” phenomena that has always been a driving mantra in a number of
violations over the past 15 years, is claiming central stage as the cropping season starts.
Across the provinces members of the opposition, as well as members of the ruling party
associated with the dismissed former vice president, Mujuru, are being denied access to
input support programmes. As the Zanu PF government has been doing every year,
agricultural inputs are sourced and distributed to the communities particularly those in the
rural and farming areas in the last quarter of the year in time for the cropping season. While
theoretically the input schemes are supposed to be national in orientation meant to
support agricultural production in the country as well as buffer the masses from hunger,
these programmes have, year after year, been hijacked by Zanu PF vanguards who have
unscrupulously used them to deprive members of the opposition as well as to manipulate
them into denouncing their parties in typical “support or starve” routines.
Registering for the input schemes, food aid programmes and other relief support has seen
only members of the ruling party being considered at the exclusion of those from other
political affiliations. Alongside these, suspected “gamatox” have also been affected.
Several levels of vanguards of the party including the youths, traditional chiefs and war
veterans, among others, have used party membership and factional bias as a determining
factor of whether or not one benefits from any assistance schemes. This has had the net
effect of supposed government or national programmes benefitting members of only the
ruling party while disenfranchising others. Yet a government should serve and make
provisions for all and any citizens regardless of political preferences.
As the 2018 elections draw nearer and political parties start to strategise and position
themselves, the “support or starve” phenomena is also gaining prominence in cases
where party membership drives are getting into gear. In a significantly large number of
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