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