Executive Summary
December is usually an off peak month for human rights violations as soon as the annual
Zanu PF meetings end the festive mood sets in. It is also during this month when most urban
based citizens make their way to rural areas to take part in the planting season and some
just to visit family.This year Zimbabwe had numerous challenges that affect the farming
season: according to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee Report of 2016,
the last quarter of the 2016/17 consumption year was projected to have a total of 4.1 million
people without adequate means to meet their annual food requirements. To compound the
situation, there was no cash for most subsistence farmers to buy farming inputs, due to
unavailability of cash most people did not go to rural areas meaning manual labour was low.
The El Nino induced drought felt across the country meant there was not enough seed left
over from the previous farming season. These factors indicate how most Zimbabweans were
reliant on government for food aid and farming inputs.
Towards the end of the year the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare rolled
out a scheme where rice and maize were to be issued to vulnerable community members.
The government also implemented the Presidential Input Scheme and Command Agriculture
through the Agriculture, Mechanisation, and Irrigation Development Ministry. This is inline
with the state’s mandate, as stipulated in the constitution, to take reasonable legislative and
other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive
realisation of the right to food.
Unfortunately in areas like Norton, Chimanimani West and Bikita West the distribution of
food aid and farming inputs coincided with by-elections and the resources were ultimately
used for vote buying. In other areas like Matabeleland South, Manicaland, Mashonaland
West and Mashonaland East headmen, councillors and Zanu PF chairpersons distributed
the much-needed resources on partisan lines benefiting mainly Zanu PF supporters.
Due to unfair distribution of food aid and farming inputs the right to food is the most
breached right during the month of December. There are 40 cases where the right to food is
reported to have been infringed. The reportage of these cases is closely linked to the
violation of people’s freedom of association and their political rights which points to the
interrelated nature of socio economic and political rights in the context of Zimbabwe. This
month’s report reflects that citizens were denied their right to food largely because of the
political party they choose to be associated with. For instance, in Manicaland Chipo
Chin’ono, Zanu PF district chairperson, is alleged to have told *Misheck Karimazondo and
other MDC-T supporters to get the farming inputs from their party. The victims were later
summoned and threatened with eviction by headman Hacknos Gumai of Dorowa village in
Buhera South.
Cases of infringement of the right to food have continued to increase since September when
the government started implementing the Command Agriculture scheme. In September only
25 cases were reported, the number increased to 40 in October, 38 in November and in
December it hiked again to 40. The freedom of association breaches increased from 11 in
November to 26 in December. Unlike the previous months whose political conflicts revolved
around demonstrations, the freedom of expression was the most violated, in the month
under review the most violated was the freedom of association. In November violations to
freedom of expression were reported in nine cases and only four cases in December.
A highlight of December was the Zanu PF people’s conference in Masvingo which was
allegedly characterised by cases of forced donations and the use of food as a political tool.
5