DECEMBER, 2023
Minority Rights in Zimbabwe
According to Francesco Capotorti, Special Rapporteur of
the United Nations (UN) Sub-Commission on Prevention of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a minority is
defined as a group that is numerically smaller than the
majority of a state's population, occupying a non-dominant
position. The United Nations Minorities Declaration (Article
1) provides that states should protect the existence of
minorities. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are among the
most marginalised minority groups in Zimbabwe and the
world. It is typical for their needs and concerns to be
disregarded, repressed, and covered up. Throughout the
country, ZPP recorded violations of the right to equality and
non-discrimination; and partisan distribution of food aid and
farming inputs. Evidently, there is a lack of priority for
people with disabilities in the distributions thus raising
concerns of their wellbeing and access to adequate food,
and the state should act promptly to assist this group of
people given the worsening economic conditions. In an
ongoing case concerning a victim with disability, a ZANU
PF activist Lawson Zulu is accused of extortion after he
allegedly demanded a US$200 protection fee from a
beneficiary of a residential stand scheme facilitated for the
Zimstarnews.com, an online publication has reported that
several beneficiaries under the scheme for the visually
impaired have been threatened by ZANU PF activists trying
to compel the victim to drop the charges. Section 83 of
Zimbabwe’s Constitution provides that the state should
address barriers that hinder PWDs from being self-reliant”
and not being able “to be protected from exploitation and
abuse��� as well as “to have access to medical treatment.”
Some of the minority groups disregarded in Zimbabwe
include the LGBTIQ community. In a statement about
human rights violations against its community members
recently, GALZ, an association of LGBTIQ people in
Zimbabwe, remarked that one in every three LBTQ women
are survivors of gender-based violence. They added that
LBTQ women are victims of violence in digital spaces
facing online harassment, cyberbullying and targeted hate
speech on social media. The statement further states that
the violations against LGBTIQ also include derogatory
comments, which also affect their human dignity.
Discrimination, violence and derogatory statements against
LGBTIQ people violates their right to equality and nondiscrimination as stipulated in Section 56 (1and 3) of the
Zimbabwean Constitution, protecting all citizens and
recognising them as equal before the law.
visually impaired in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza.
Partisan distribution of food aid and farming inputs
ZPP recorded 19 cases of partisan distributions of food aid and farming inputs. All cases were related to ZANU PF officials
denying opposition members access to either government-sponsored food aid or farming inputs, largely under the
government-sponsored Pfumvudza input scheme. In most of the cases, victims were accused of being members of the
opposition, largely the Citizens Coalition for Change. In a case recorded on 10 December in Matabeleland South in Manama
Village, ZANU PF activist Mokeetsi Noko removed a beneficiary on the list citing that he is a Mthwakazi Republic Party
activist. The victim was told to receive his farming inputs from his party and not ZANU PF. In Midlands, a case in Zhombe
constituency was recorded where Violet Shumba a ZANU PF activist deprived maize sees to two victims because they had
failed to attend ZANU PF meetings for nearly four months. By unlawfully using government sponsored food aid, Shumba was
effectively violating the villagers’ rights to ‘make political choices freely (Section 67 of the Zimbabwean Constitution) as well as
to freely and peacefully ‘participate in the activities of a political party or organisation of their choice.’ The partisan distribution
of food aid and farming inputs also disadvantages poor households who largely depend on these inputs as the continued
fashion limits the victims’ right to access adequate food.