April 2019
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Kindle Farm evictions were led by a man only identified as Maurikira. Close to 100
families were left homeless.
The abduction and detention of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Association
(ARTUZ) Robson Chere, Jess Drury, Precious Ndlovu and Munyaradzi Ndawana
occurred during a meeting convened in Grey stone Park Harare. The teachers were
taken by plain clothes state security agents who force marched them into two vehicles,
one of them a white Toyota RAV 4 registration number ADL 7066. The teachers were
interrogated for hours while Ndawana and Chere were assaulted. There was a public
outcry on social media about the abduction resulting in the abductees being handed
over to Zimbabwe Republic Police Law and Order and charged for violating section
37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, then released the next day
after the intervention of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
Politicisation of food aid is also a worrying trend this year, particularly taking into
consideration that the country received less than normal rains and that agricultural
output is paltry at best. Most people in both urban and rural areas are dependent on
government for food aid. Sadly, issuing of food has been highly politicised in most
instances. In Mberengwa West, Hardlife Zimi (34) a Zanu PF youth chairperson was
denied a 50 kg of maize allocation by Nicholas "Pupurai" Mchibwa (47) who is also a
Zanu PF supporter for having an opposition MDC supporter as a husband and she was
told she would only receive the maize when her husband defects to Zanu PF. In ward
8 of Mazowe Central at Tenhedzi village, village head Naison Tenhedzi forced
persons with disabilities to contribute $1.50 for Independence Day commemorations
in order to benefit a bag of maize from the Department of Social Welfare. In
Murehwa North at Chamapango shopping centre Ward 16, perceived opposition
MDC supporters were denied social welfare food aid by Zanu PF Ward Councillor
Milton Mhan’arai Chinake (46). The Councillor told beneficiaries that the welfare
maize grain, targeting elderly headed and other food insecure households will be
given only to Zanu PF supporters.
The exhumation of the remains of Gukurahundi victim Thembi Ngwenya (21years
at time of death in 1983) carried out by Ukuthula Trust in Tsholotsho and witnessed
by the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) comes hot on the
heels of the announcement by President Mnangagwa that Gukurahundi victims will be
assisted by the state through Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage in
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