Zimbabwe in Lockdown:
COVID-19 & Human Rights
from a community perspective
96.6%
Perpetrators are
Police
Army
Municipal Police
So, it is on this basis of government’s inability to provide
adequate healthcare, and the social vulnerability brought
about by the lockdown, as well as the shortages of mealie
meal that the human rights agenda of the month of April is
formed.
Central to this is the State’s reactive methods in dealing with
the COVID19 crisis, the shortages, and the apparent heavyhandedness of the security forces deployed to deal with the
lockdown, and the resurgence of food and other aid
discrimination.
The State’s aggressive and indiscriminate response to citizens attempting to access scarce basic
commodities, mainly mealie-meal and water can help explain why the political affiliation of 99.3
percent of the victims of harassment and assault is neither Zanu PF, MDC or any political party.
It also explains the random and the trigger-happy nature of the state security agents, as they, without
any consideration for human decency and dignity, beat up and harassed people in the name of
enforcing the lockdown.
This is further substantiated by the fact that of all the perpetrators, 96.64 percent are the combination
of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Municipal Police, and the Zimbabwe National Army, and these
are the institutions that have been on the frontline of enforcing the lockdown.
More evidence of the State security’s capacity to violate human rights is elaborated in the nature of
violations, as harassment/ intimidation and assault top the list at 130 and 86 respectively.
It took a High Court order issued on 14 April to
remind the police and the army that their mandate
was not to beat up citizens.
Following an application by Lucia Masvondo of
Karoi, represented by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR), the High Court barred the
police from beating up people and subjecting them
to inhumane treatment when enforcing lockdown
measures.
The order came at a time when there was an
upsurge in reports of military and police brutality
against civilians accused of ignoring the stay-athome order across the country.
Masvondo had been assaulted by security forces
and bitten by dogs as she cooked on an open fire
outside her house in the evening.
These cases were widespread, and even though
armed with the High Court order, citizens
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continued to be harassed, intimidated and
assaulted by State Security forces.
One example is in Mutoko, where police and army
officers assaulted and intimidated villagers whom
they accused of failing to adhere to the national
lockdown regulations.
Villagers were treated in inhuman and degrading
manner as they were forced to roll or chant
revolutionary songs when they were found at
shopping centres.
In another case that was reported in Marondera,
residents who were caught at shopping centres
were told to slap each other.
Subjecting citizens to such degrading treatment is
not consistent with state security agents’ mandate
to conduct themselves in a professional manner in
accordance with the Constitution.