Zimbabwe Peace Project

“She had lived through the wars
She didn't wanna go through it all again
She has seen injustice
She has seen corruption
She has seen racism
And any other kind of suffering
You can think about”
Lucky Dube in the song, Is this Freedom

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2020_ZPP MMR AUGUST 2020 - ZIMBABWE IS THIS FREEDOM

Monthly Monitoring Report

Executive Summary: For Zimbabwe, August 2020, has been the most complicated month. During this month, the ruling Zanu PF started off by celebrating two years after it s contested electoral victory in August 2018. Amid these celebrations, victims and families of those killed and injured when soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesting civilians on August 1, 2018, were still to get any recourse in the form of compensation, prosecution of perpetrators, or at the very least, an apology. Ironically, August 2020, similarly to August 20 18, started off on a bad note. In the same way six people were killed and injured by the army on August 1 2018, on August 1, 2020 the State had moved into full time repression modem ab d u cting, arresting and brutalising political activists and human rights defenders. The month started off with activist Tawanda Muchehiwa having been abducted and missing, only to be dumped three days later after the High Court ordered the police to release him. Several activists, including MDC Alliance spokesperson Fad zayi Mahere international award winning author Tsit si Dangarembga, human rights activist Godfrey Kurauone and dozens others started off the month in police custody and while August 1 might have appeared like a hangover moment from the July 31 planned prot ests, it turned out that for government, the party was just starting. Government faced with a nation concerned about the mounting economic crisis, the crisis in the health sector, the restive, poorly paid civil service, the allegations of high level cor ruption and misgovernance responded to these concerns with unmatched brutality marked by arb itra r y arrests, abductions, torture and intimidation. This invited international attention, and once again, Zimbabwe was on the spotlight for human rights abuses. The #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign started early in the month and several local and international politicians, artistes, human rights defenders and citizens used this to air concerns about trhe deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. Despite the overwhelming evidence of a mounting crisis, the Zimbabwean government continued to deny there being a crisis Instead of addressing the concerns, officials in government pulled the excuse that there were ‘some foreign hands’ behind the #Zimbabw eanLivesMatter campaign and all the actions calling for government to end corruption and respect human rights. As a result of this, the State security, were once again, and five months in a row, the major perpetrators of human rights abuses and this time in a bolder and less covert way. In the month of August, ZPP recorded one case of a suspected politically motivated murder of Karoi councillor Lavender Chinguwo, 51 cases of assault, 29 cases of unlawful detention, two ab d u ctions, and 117 cases of harassment and intimidation. As has become the trend, the state security agents were the chief perppetrators of human rights violations. In August, the police accounted for 42.65 percent of perpetrators, the army at 25.11 percent, unspecified state agents at 2.73 percent. In total state security agents are responsible for 70.49 percent of all violations this month. Political parties had their fair share of human rights violations, with Zanu PF leading the way at 12.92 percent, MDC Alliance at 2.52 percent a nd MDC T Khupe at 0.32 percent. MDC Alliance supporters faced the most victimisation,

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ZIMBABWE IS THIS FREEDOM ZPP MONTHLY MONITORING REPORT.pdf
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