Why has the President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa regime, of late, intensified its crackdown on gatherings?
What are they so terrified of?
They have become so paranoid of any form of gathering such that it is not just opposition elements that are now in the regime’s crosshairs.
A fundraising dinner for new classrooms at Beacon Hill Primary in Plumtree, slated for 28th June 2024, was barred by the police under the pretext of ‘security reasons and other reasons that are of national interest’.
Wow, really!!
Surely, what danger to state security and national interests would a primary school fundraising dinner have posed to Zimbabwe?
However, it gets worse.
On 16th June 2024, 79 opposition activists were arrested – after allegedly being brutally beaten up by the police – at the private residence of their leader Jameson Timba, where they were commemorating the ‘Day of the African Child’.
Their crime?
In spite of the gathering being well within the confines of the law – specifically the right of assembly guaranteed under section 58 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe – they were charged for ‘holding an unsanctioned gathering for the purposes of engaging in an unlawful demonstration’.
Up until today, there has not been a shred of evidence provided by the State to substantiate this ‘purpose of engaging in an unlawful demonstration’.
As a matter of fact, the 79 are still languishing in remand prison after being denied their section 50 constitutional right to bail.
Not only that, but one of the activists was arrested together with her one-year-old baby – who is also behind bars with its mother.
Furthermore, another of these opposition supporters, Tambudzai Makororo, had to have her leg amputated as a result of a serious injury sustained during the alleged beating up by the police.
As if this horrendous clampdown on perceived opponents of the Mnangagwa regime was not outrageous and despicable enough, more was to come.
On 29 June 2024, the police arrested five members of the NDWG (National Democratic Working Group) in Harare, who were merely engaged in a food distribution exercise targeted at the disadvantaged in society.
Again, the group was arrested for ostensibly conducting an ‘unsanctioned gathering and inciting criminal acts across the country’.
Is giving food to the less privileged now deemed as ‘inciting criminal acts’?
The NDWG is led by outspoken former legislator Job Sikhala – who, himself, endured nearly 600 days of pre-conviction detention – after being repeatedly denied bail by the courts.
Sikhala, who has been arrested 68 times by the ZANU PF junta, was subsequently found guilty for violating a non-existent law.
Section 31(a) (iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] – publishing and communicating false statements prejudicial to the State – was struck off the statute books by the Constitutional Court way back in October 2013.
However, under the Mnangagwa regime, a law that does not exist can still be used to convict a person of a crime!
Fortunately, on 22nd July 2024, both conviction and sentence were overturned and quashed by the High Court after appeal.
Just a day ago, 10 ZINASU (Zimbabwe National Students Association) members were injured, and 44 arrested after armed anti-riot police raided their private meeting at the ZESA Training Centre in Harare.
The other 43 members were released after being made to pay fines but their president Emmanuel Sitima refused to do so – as a matter of principle since he felt the students never committed any offence – and is currently in custody.
What is going on here?
Why is the ZANU PF regime so jittery and unnerved by any thought of Zimbabweans gathering, even if these are just patents seeking to raise funds for their school?
This has everything to do with the 44th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit slated for 17th August 2024 in the Zimbabwe capital Harare.
It would appear that Mnangagwa and his administration are having sleepless nights over the potential of demonstrations taking place during this summit.
The military-backed junta is fully aware that ordinary Zimbabweans are not happy.
In fact, the citizenry is totally outraged over the manner they have been impoverished and made to suffer under the Mnangagwa’s government.
Zimbabweans are thoroughly fed up!
They can no longer tolerate the indescribable misery they have had to endure under this administration – which had pushed half the population into extreme poverty.
What is worse, Zimbabweans are not blind to the unrepentant grand-scale looting of national resources by the ruling elite and those aligned to them.
They have cried out to the regional body for intervention – but this has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears – as SADC proves that it is nothing more than a ‘gentlemen’s club.
They protect their own at the expense of ordinary citizenry.
Nonetheless, Mnangagwa and his regime somehow believe the people of Zimbabwe will express their displeasure with both his government and SADC itself during the summit in August.
He does not want this sort of embarrassment, especially considering how much he has invested in this meeting as his personal moment of glory.
Therefore, this obsessive crackdown on anyone who may be construed as planning demonstrations during the SADC Summit is designed to prevent such demonstrations.
Nevertheless, under section 59 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, peaceful demonstrations are completely legal.
This SADC meeting, as with many others, is supposed to proceed as if all was fine in the respective countries, in spite of the people’s poverty and suffering.
As a ‘gentlemen’s club’, these leaders are meant to wine and dine whilst totally ignoring and pretending that there was any misery in the host country.
Is that not why the Mnangagwa administration is sparing no expense in ensuring the SADC heads of state enjoy the best comforts and luxuries that money can buy?
Yet, at the same time, the vast majority of ordinary Zimbabweans can not even afford two square meals a day!
I am reminded of the dinner by the pigs and humans – whilst the impoverished and oppressed ordinary animals watched through the window – towards the end of the book ‘Animal Farm’.
There is yet something else terrifying the Zimbabwe government.
If ordinary Zimbabweans are to be courageous enough to peacefully democracy during the summit, there is no way the regime can resort to its usual heavy-handedness.
There is no way the most harrowing events of August 2018 and January 2019 – whereby dozens of protestors were gunned down in cold-blood on the streets of Harare – can ever be repeated in full view of the world media and regional leaders.
So, the plan is to nip all potential demonstrations, no matter how peaceful, in the bud whilst also instilling fear in the population.
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: [email protected], or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
