#4YEARSON
The Croc’s 4th year
The human rights situation during
the fourth year of President
Emmerson Mnangagwa, known as
the Crocodile by his supporters
At his swearing in ceremony in
November 2017, President
Mnangagwa pledged; “My
Government will work towards
ensuring that the pillars of the
State assuring democracy in our
land are strengthened and
respected.”
“My goal is to preside over a polity
and run an administration that
recognises strength in our
diversity as a people, hoping that
this position and well-meant
stance will be reciprocated and
radiated to cover all our groups,
organisations and communities…”
On reflection, it is now clear these
promises were not sincere because
four years later, there is sustained
intolerance for dissent, opposition
political activity and human rights
work as evidenced by the cases
documented by the Zimbabwe
Peace Project not just this
November, but throughout the
year. Between November 2017 and
this November, ZPP has recorded
9,345 human rights violations, and
in all this, State security agents,
and officials or members of the
ruling Zanu PF have been the
major perpetrators.
The violations include killings,
abductions, torture, arbitrary
arrests, unlawful detentions, and
harassment and intimidation,
among others and these have
largely targeted opposition
activists, government critics, and
human rights activists.
Over the past four years, there has
been a systematic and gradual and
deliberate erosion of democratic
principles and between November
2020 and November 2021, there
was an acceleration of the pace,
and this is most likely because
election year is drawing closer and
the ruling party, whose officials
have proclaimed they will not
accept an election defeat, are
ringfencing themselves through
various strategies. We focus on the
key areas, and that is, state
security agents, agriculture and
aid, legislation and the economy
LEGISLATION
The highlights of the fourth year
of President Mnangagwa’s reign
was the fast tracking of the
amendment of the Constitution to
give the President more power
and to undermine the role of the
judiciary and the legislature.
Through the amendment,
President Mnangagwa now has the
powers to appoint judges without
them having to go through a public
interview process. Armed with
Constitutional Amendment
Number 2, President Mnangagwa
now wields more power, and the
role of the two other arms of
government has been diminished.
Parliament had already been
weakened by the 2020 recalls of
legislators and throughout the
entire 2021, by-elections remained
banned and Parliament and local
authorities had to operate without
28 MPs and 105 councillors.
The other highlight was the
reappointment of Chief Justice
Luke Malaba as the Chief Justice
despite him having reached the age
of retirement. With a weak
judiciary, Malaba won against the
court challenges mounted by the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO
Forum, of which the ZPP is a
member. Currently, there is a
fervent push to enact the PVO
Amendment Bill, which if passed,
will suppress, strictly regulate and
choke the valuable work of civil
society organisations.
This is in direct contradiction to
Mnangagwa’s pledge that his
government was going to work
towards ensuring that the pillars
of the State assuring democracy in
our land are strengthened and
respected.
The reality is that President
Mnangagwa’s government has
trampled on those very pillars.