intimidated and harassed by ruling party supporters without the police taking action
in most of the cases.
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) reports for April show a total of 123 violations up
from last month’s 112. The month under focus had 798 victims altogether. Of these
victims, those affiliated to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) stood at
3.4 % which translates to 27 people while those affiliated to Zanu PF are 19.
A total of 798 victims and 188 perpetrators were recorded. 62.2 % of the victims
were male while 37.8 % were females. 87.6% of the perpetrators were male while
12.4 % were female.
146 perpetrators were affiliated to the ruling Zanu PF party which is 77.7 % of the
figure. Only one of the perpetrators could not be established which party they were
affiliated to. 18 perpetrators were police officers while 7 of the perpetrators were
Central Intelligence Organisation operatives and 14 perpetrators were from the
MDC-T. There was a drastic decrease in the number of unknown perpetrators this
month.
Outlook
Deepening internal conflict within the ruling party, increase in hate speech cases
may point towards a volatile environment as the 2018 elections approach. There has
been an increase in the media of hate speech rhetoric from politicians with at least 4
cases recorded at high level meetings. Failure by police to arrest perpetrators of
political violence also points towards a bleak political environment towards the 2018
elections. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said they are still investigating
the violations recorded at Manzou Farm and disputed that they are meeting
resistance from government officials in Mashonaland Central.
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