Zimbabwean Live Matter

 The brutal regime of Zimbabwe is showing its true colours. There's no rule of law or protection of human rights. The police and army are the law to themselves. The officials are corrupt, inflation and unemployment rates are soaring. There's zero accountability. This report is damning, the international community needs to intervene and save Zimbabweans from this inept and violent governance.

#zimbabweanlivesmatter

Kwanele Khupe 

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/zimbabwe

Abductions and Human Rights Violations - by Justice Melusi Sibanda

Around 50 political opponents and unionists have been abducted in Zimbabwe this year. According to Amnesty International, they are victims of a "systematic and brutal crackdown on human rights" by the regime.


The human rights situation in Zimbabwe is to be assessed this week by the UN Special Rapporteur Clement Voule, who is the first independent human rights expert to visit the country. Voule will assess, among other issues, the continuing abduction of human rights activists and union leaders and the implementation of protection and freedom of association and peaceful assembly. His findings I think will make for interesting reading. The spotlight is on Zimbabwe at the moment and the government has ensure that the rights of citizens are respected. This talk by government officials of a mysterious third party being responsible for the abductions is pure horse crap.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans in the diaspora would have looked at the death of Mugabe as the time they would look to return home, unfortunately since Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power in 2017, the regime has resorted to the same brutal tactics used by his predecessor Robert Mugabe to "clampdown on human rights.

Qouting Pastor Evan Mawarire talking about the removal of Robert Mugabe from office, "So the journey towards Zimbabwe being a normal or a better society had begun. We thought since we marched together with the military and we stood up against Robert Mugabe, the military now has stood in solidarity with the citizens, surely we are going to see even just a slight improvement, just a slight betterment and that is all the new administration has to do.

Mugabe was the worst that we had had for 38 years. All President [Emmerson]Mnangagwa had to do was marginally better, just a little bit, then not just Zimbabweans would be happy with that, the whole world would have applauded.

But it was not to be."

We urge the Zimbabwean government to take action and hold perpetrators of these human rights violations accountable.

Human Rights Activists Detained by Zimbabwe Government - by Justice Melusi Sibanda

Our thoughts and prayers are with the 7 Human Rights Activists that have been arrested by the Zimbabwean Government on trumped up charges of seeking to subvert the government. Those arrested on May 20 were: George Makoni of the Centre for Community Development Trust; Nyasha Frank Mpahlo of Transparency International Zimbabwe; Tatenda Mombeyarara of the Citizens Manifesto; and Gamuchirai Mukura of Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development Trust. The following day the authorities arrested Farirai Gumbonzvanda, a girls’ rights activist and community volunteer with the Rozaria Memorial Trust. On May 27, they arrested Stabile Dewa of Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence and Rita Nyampinga of the Female Prisoners Support Trust.

Below is the Human Rights Watch report;

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the local group representing the activists, said that state security agents arrested all seven between May 20 and 27, 2019, at the Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare, the capital, on their return from a workshop in the Maldives. The workshop, hosted by the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies, focused on peaceful resistance. The charge sheets against the activists specified the meeting and its training in civil disobedience. 

“Zimbabwe’s government should stop criminalizing peaceful activism,” said Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Participating in a training workshop on nonviolent action is not subverting the government.”

All seven activists have been charged with subversion. They are being held at the Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare pending their application for bail.

Under Section 22 of Zimbabwe’s Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, “subversion of a constitutional government” is a treason charge. It carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Since the beginning of 2019, the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, which has promoted a “new dispensation” that respects basic rights, has arrested and prosecuted several peaceful activists on baseless charges.

Activists facing charges of subverting the Mnangagwa government and awaiting trial include Pastor Evan Mawarire of the #ThisFlag movement, and Peter Mutasa and Japhet Moyo, leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, all of whom were arrested in January.

On February 25, Rashid Mahiya, the chairperson of the group Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, was arrested and charged with subverting the government. Mahiya was granted bail on March 7 and is awaiting trial.

Obert Masaraure, the national president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, told Human Rights Watch that armed men abducted him at his home in Harare on January 18 and severely beat him with leather whips. They later handed him over to the Harare Central Police Station, where he was charged with subversion and inciting public violence.

“Zimbabwe authorities should immediately end the arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of activists who are exercising their basic rights and liberties,” Mavhinga said. “Repressing peaceful activists severely undermines Zimbabwe’s international re engagement efforts.” 

Article by
Justice Melusi Sibanda

E D Mnangagwa - Grade U (FAIL) - Melusi Sibanda

A letter to Emmerson Mnangagwa – Melusi Sibanda

Your Excellency,

39 years ago we entrusted your beloved ZANU PF with the privilege of inspiring and transforming our beautiful country and the lives our wonderful people for the better. However instead of the ‘elevation of lifestyle’ we all yearned for our people and once prosperous country, you have managed to mutate it into a land of misery and unending suffering.

You still rig elections, you still punish dissent and still imprison opponents. You still threaten, harass and even shut down media or any organisation that is there to defend human rights and our right to self-governance. You are bigoted.

To establish and maintain your power, you and your cronies practise rampant corruption both in our courts and our economy. You continue systematically terrorize your own people. You do not respect our dignity!

You then criss-cross the world wearing you Zimbabwe scarf screaming and shouting about how the West has tried and failed to bring you and Zimbabwe down and how our natural resources are now enriching real Zimbabweans whilst begging for money. Since you came in to power you have managed to turn our economy from bad to worse. The resources you speak off are all in the possession of the Chinese and the corrupt and powerful few. These rich few take their profits and out of the country the same way the Chinese companies do. They (you included) have set up base abroad. They (you included) have foreign bank accounts, their children (yours included) all attend foreign schools and universities, and even their health (your entire cabinet included) issues are dealt with abroad. Talk about a lack of faith your own building work – you built your house but sleep outside in-case it collapses.

Meanwhile we as a country are still considered too risky for investment due to our lack of transparency, shortcomings in rule of law and an almost non-existent economy.  Mr President, the diamonds have finished, yet you still give your army and the Chinese free reign over what could have been our only way out of this ZANU PF inflicted predicament.

After Robert Mugabe you have continued to destroy our beautiful land and continue to bring shame and pity to our proud people. You rule by repression and corruption. We have languished and lamented enough at your hands.

Your Excellency – you like Robert Mugabe are a tremendous disappointment! 

Grade - U (Fail)

Melusi Sibanda

Zimbabwean Land for ALL not just Zanu PF cronies by Justice Melusi Sibanda

Zimbabwe was once the bread basket of Southern Africa but after the land seizures, food production plummeted. The country now imports basic foodstuffs because of dire shortages of wheat, soya beans and other crops.

Former president Robert Mugabe reportedly owns at least 21 farms, which is against the government’s policy. His wife and children are also said to have benefited from the programme of land seizures. An informal audit by authorities exposed irregularities in the allocation of farms, with children as young as 10 reportedly getting land. A report by ZimOnline in 2010 found that all Zanu-PF's 56 politburo members, 98 members of parliament and 35 elected and unelected senators were allegedly allocated farms, and all 10 provincial governors have seized them, with four being multiple owners. Sixteen supreme court and high court judges also own farms.

The report said: "Of the nearly 200 officers from the rank of major to the lieutenant general in the Zimbabwe national army, 90% have farms in the most fertile parts of the country. This is replicated in the Zimbabwe republic police, Zimbabwe prisons service, air force of Zimbabwe and CIO [Central Intelligence Organisation].

In the past President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that his government is "ready to seize any idle land owned by some of the ruling Zanu-PF party heavyweights".  A lot of these farms lie in ruin resulting in tens of thousands of rural labourers out of work and food production that was propping up the economy severely curtailed. Again with Zimbabwean politics, talk is cheap. The rhetoric is encouraging, but we have been waiting to see the practice. Zimbabwe's economic problems will only be resolved through fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability. Paramount to this is how the land ownership problem is resolved. We note with dismay and disappointment that the President was seen making fun of his own government's monetary policy, we can only hope that this apparent lack of care does not translate to other government policies.

A Land Audit seeking to flush out multiple farm owners and correct some of the wrongs from the country’s chaotic fast-track land reform exercise was meant to have concluded in November 2018. In February 2019 the Zimbabwean Government advised that the Land Audit was likely to be concluded end of March 2019.  The implementation of the land reforms is probably this generation's final opportunity to right the injustices that have led to the displacement of so many Zimbabweans. It is too important to be left in the hands of Zanu PF alone. Too many lives have been lost both in the struggle for our independence and as a result of the chaotic land reform programme undertaken by the Mugabe regime. Economists estimate that Zimbabwe has lost close to $17 billion in potential earnings since Robert Mugabe's land reform programme launched almost 19 years ago.

We call for Transparency and Accountability in all Land Reform. This has to be overseen by an Independent Body that will carry out its duties conscientiously, fairly and impartially. This body should not be the Zimbabwe Land Commission, whose members are mostly appointed by the President.

Please sign the petition below

http://chng.it/vpnB4xWsj2

Article by
Justice Melusi Sibanda

EU Sanctions on Zimbabwe should remain until restoration of Human Rights by Kwanele Khupe

Apparently the South African minister Lindiwe Sisulu has pleaded with the European Union and United Kingdom to lift the sanctions against  Zimbabwe's brutal regime, is she serious?? Has she been living under a rock for the last month, or should I say 18 years? People in Zimbabwe are living under a brutal regime, there is no freedom of speech nor expression. There is no new dawn or a new Zimbabwe, this is the same corrupt, rogue Zanu PF that we have witnessed since independence. The Western world has to amp up the pressure and keep the sanctions until we see human rights restored in Zimbabwe.

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/sisulu-urges-eu-to-lift-zim-sanctions-ahead-of-march-bi-national-meeting-20190220



A message to Lindiwe Sisulu don't be complicit in Zanu PF thuggery, stand up for what is right, open your eyes and see the suffering the people of Zimbabwe are going through. Do not be blinkered by bureaucracy. The Zimbabwean government must know that only the restoration of human rights, freedom of speech, and rule of law will put an end to sanctions, anything less is not good enough.


Kwanele Khupe

The Mother of All Cover-ups Zimbabwean style - by Justice Sibanda

During the riots from January 14 to 16 that led to thousands being arrested – and left at least 12 dead and hundreds wounded – the army blamed rogue soldiers and deserters for causing mayhem. So as a result here comes the supposedly clever part, The Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) are set to conduct door–to-door searches countrywide to look for army regalia allegedly used by "rogue elements" in society to commit crimes. 

A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators in Harare during protests that erupted over disputed 2018 elections.

What a cynical load of nonsense, the one thing the Zimbabwean Army is not incompetent, there is no way we can be expected to believe that the Zimbabwean army were robbed.  The annoying thing is that the West is most likely eating this up and taking Zanu PF's side. No new sanctions from the EU, the UK in bed with a Rogue Regime, sending Asylum Seekers back with disregard to the ongoing human rights abuses. I know that we as a country have a lot to offer makes one wonder what is at play here, what has ED promised these people in exchange for them turning a blind eye. The most important thing now is for the rights of Zimbabweans to be respected. We hope this is not another opportunity for the army to conduct door-to door-raids and brutally assault civilians in their homes. We will be watching! Zimbabwe hang in there.

Justice Melusi Sibanda