In Mashonaland Central, former minister Lazarus Dokora had to flee with his life
as he attempted to campaign to unseat the current provincial chairperson,
Kazembe Kazembe, who is the current Home Affairs minister.
In Bubi, Nkenyane area, Zanu PF activists led by one Gift Moyo, have gone
around telling small scale miners that they should go and register as voters at a
local Zanu PF office or they lose their licences.
The clashes in the ruling party contributed to the 10 intra party violence cases
the ZPP recorded in September.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has topped the list of human rights
violations in the past two years, but this September, they handed over the
mantle to Zanu PF, which contributed to over 37 percent of violations compared
to the ZRP’s 31 percent.
Still, the ZRP’s contribution to human rights violations remains a cause for
concern considering that as the law enforcement agents, they are supposed to
be the torch bearers of a human rights centred approach to policing and to
public safety.
With the ruling party and the police leading as perpetrators of rights violations,
the level of public safety and confidence are undermined.
Officers of the ZRP Chivhu in Chikomba District stand accused of torturing a
woman to death during interrogation.
The woman was suspected of withholding money allegedly stolen by her
younger sister.
This conduct by the police is of great concern and the ZPP continues to demand
that police conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with their
constitutional mandate and should be able to handle arrested persons without
using unconstitutional means such as torture.
In another incident, officers of the ZRP threw teargas into a bus near Harare,
leaving a child and others hospitalised. This is not the first time this has
happened. Last year police fired teargas into a bus in Harare and the ZRP said
they had arrested the offending officers and promised to update the public
about it. Nothing has been heard about the case at the time of finalizing this
report.
Apart from the political rights violations, the ZPP this month notes with concern
the increase in prices of good and services and the further erosion of the local
currency, a situation that has left many vulnerable and unable to afford basic
commodities as the monthly basic needs of a family of six shot to ZWL40,000.
ZPP conducted a survey in the communities and discovered that the quality of
life is going down as many in the informal sector, who endured two months in
lockdown, attempted to resume operations at a time when the prices of goods
and services were going up.