With such a background, and as July 31 fast approached, and the State had so far
arrested Ngarivhume and Chin’ono, Zimbabweans continued to speak out.
In a state of panic, the State went into an overdrive.
Reports of harassment, arrests, threats, intimidation and abductions increased.
Human rights defenders and opposition political actors reported incidents of being
trailed by unregistered vehicles, others had their homes ransacked by people who were
clearly linked to the State.
Some of the cases include the break into Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of
Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) leader Obert Masaraure’s home at 1 am by armed men who
harassed his wife. Masaraure, whose organisation endorsed the July 31 demonstration,
and has been leading the teachers’ industrial action for better working conditions, was
not at home.
Former Zanu PF youth leader and Front for Economic Emancipation Zimbabwe (FEEZ)
leader Godfrey Tsenengamu revealed that his family was attacked in Bindura.
Job Sikhala of the MDC Alliance also claimed he was being trailed by security agents
and he subsequently went into hiding.
The health delivery
infrastructure is so
dilapidated that “unborn
children and mothers
are dying daily.” In one
painful case, seven out
of eight babies suffered
still births in one night at
Harare Hospital
The
World
Food
Program has projected
that the number of
Zimbabweans
facing
food insecurity could
reach 8.6 million by the
end of the year and that
is estimated to be 60
percent
of
the
population.
Inflation has remined
high, at over 786
percent.
During the third week of July, there was a suspicious break-in at the offices of the
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR).
ZADHR has been at the forefront of calling out government’s failure to ensure the right
to health, especially during this period of Covid-19.
Municipal police and Zimbabwe Republic Police officers brutally attacked ZPP staffer
Tinashe Njodzi as he tried to rescue the organisation’s Media and Communications
Officer, Tapiwa Zivira, a duly accredited journalist, who was filming an incident in
Harare.
To sanitise the crackdown, the police, in a Rhodesian government style, published a
list of ‘wanted persons’ and appealed to the public to turn them in, a few days before
July 31. The list contained names of human rights defenders and opposition political
leaders. The police followed up by making statements on state media and social media
platforms, claiming those on the list were wanted for inciting violence.
This was clearly meant to intimidate the activists – who had been on the forefront of
calling for the demonstrations- and leading the protests. Two days before July 31, the
State went into full steam suppression of rights by restricting movement, especially into
urban areas. Zimbabweans reported increased deployment of soldiers and the police
and more than ever before citizens were in fear of their own government.
Zimbabwe
is
now
considered one of the
four most food-insecure
countries in the world,
alongside
Yemen,
Somalia and South
Sudan. The IMF says
Zimbabwe has the
highest inflation rate in
the world; and it
estimates
that
the
country’s economy will
shrink 10.4% this year,
following
a
12.8%
contraction last year.
At a time of diminishing
GDP and skyrocketing
inflation, the security
forces have seized
control of the economy
and
financial
policymaking.
Armed soldiers patrol a street in Harare, Friday, July, 31, 2020. Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, was deserted Friday,
as security agents vigorously enforced the country's lockdown amidst planned protests. Police and soldiers
manned checkpoints and ordered people seeking to get into the city for work and other chores to return home. (AP
Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
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