EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE political landscape of Zimbabwe continues to be awash with intolerance and bias. While members
of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) are seen on the offensive in a few of the
recorded instances, in the majority of reported incidences in August the ruling Zanu PF is the dominant
perpetrator, a situation that continues to repeat itself.
Farm invasions reared their ugly head in areas across the country in incidences that displayed the
impunity with which some members of the ruling party, including chiefs, who are supposed to be
custodians of law and order in villages, take liberties with no apparent repercussions. Illegal parcelling
out of land continues to be a thorn in the side of local authorities who appear helpless in the face of
Zanu PF ‘political privilege’ in claiming land to do as they please regardless of governing by-laws. In an
incident in Nyatsime, a council surveyor going about his work looking for pegs which demarcate land,
was hounded out of the space he was working by a group of Zanu PF members who obviously acted as
if they are above the law and that land is a private preserve of theirs to do with as they wish.
Both the farm invasions in areas such as Mashonaland East and Mashonaland West, among a few other
areas; and the biased allocation of parcelled out pieces of land as residential stands to members of
Zanu PF ahead of those from other parties reek of a misplaced perception of ‘political privilege’.
Invaded farms were taken over by members or cronies of members of the ruling party. By the same
token, the illegal parcelling out of land going on through cooperatives and other unions, outside of
councils’ provisions and sanction, in Mufakose and Kuwadzana, among other areas, also portrays how
members of the ruling Zanu PF feel they have the ‘privilege’ to access land ahead of, and at the
exclusion of, others who are at their mercy in efforts to secure land for themselves.
Some residents of Hatcliffe, Budiriro, among other areas, had their homes demolished, leaving them
homeless. The repeated demolitions of homes, which is leaving hundreds of individuals stranded,
continues to be a major concern in the country. It robs affected families of their socio-economic rights.
A significant number of incidences documented for August show the right most denied to citizens as
the one to personal integrity and human dignity. This was expressed through various forms of
intimidation and harassment including verbal abuse, physical violence or the destruction of one’s
possessions. In one instance of intra-party violence a woman who was seen wearing a wrap cloth with
the face of former vice president, Joice Mujuru, was slapped in the face and had her wrap cloth torn up
by a fellow Zanu PF member who took offence at the woman’s perceived loyalty to the vice president
who has since fallen out of favour within the rank and file of the revolutionary party. In yet another
incident in Viko Village in Nyanga North, a perceived MDC-T supporter was cut on the lip with a knife by
a member of Zanu PF who was irked by the victim’s comment that he was a member of the party, which
had “destroyed the country”. The accused was identified as Tatenda Mapani.
In an incident in Muzarabani, a Zanu PF supporter Kudakwashe Chifamba acting in apparent cahoots
with his father, one Norman Chifamba, allegedly uprooted a fellow villager’s vegetables from his garden
on the accusation that the villager did not attend ruling party meetings.
Not only does violence get pride of place on the political landscape, but it also gets rewarded. This
report gives an account of an instance in Glen View South, where constituency legislator, Hon. Pius
Madzinga, allegedly rewarded acts of violence during recent by-elections. Madzinga is said to have
allocated residential stands only to those youths who had ‘violently’ campaigned for him to be legislator
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