#NoToPoliceBrutality, BCC police should stop beating up vendors

Some people might think this is not Newsworthy but Bulawayo24 could not ignore this Facebook post by  Human Right Defender and activist Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo.

What Fuzwayo witnessed today has been going on for decades.

Before reading Fuzwayo's testimony it is important for one to know their rights according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Say #NoToPoliceBrutality

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52. Right to personal security

Every person has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right--

a. to freedom from all forms of violence from public or private sources;

53. Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

No person may be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

For the first time in my life today I got so angry that I nearly punched someone.

At about 4pm I got caught up in the midst of a fracas where Bulawayo City Council Police were removing vendors from the streets in the area around Tredgold Building.

The brutality that the police were inflicting on the innocent vendors was just way out of order. Old women and men were literally being whipped by the police using baton sticks and being handcuffed and bundled into council trucks.

Their hard sourced wares were being scattered all over the streets by the police with some thrown into the trucks.

Women with little children were running for dear life carrying their wares and dragging children like a monkey would do.

In the midst of all this, one council police brutally beat up a man selling cellphone accessories right in front of me and blood gushed from the man in an instant.

I couldn't just stand by and watch.

Without consideration, I threw down a Chicken Inn plastic bag I was carrying and went straight for the police detail. Just when I was about to throw the first fist of my life on someone, this gentleman who I don't know but identified me by name, quickly pulled me away and my punch missed its target by a whisker.

When I tried to redirect it the officer had moved a little bit away and proceeding with his chase for innocent vendors deliberately avoiding me who challenged him directly.

I have honestly never found myself in a moment like that. Truely if I had a gun or any other weapon I would have committed a horrendous crime which I could be regretting now.

Sitting here right now recapping on the incident I don't regret my anger at all neither am I regretting the action that followed, only regretting the man who timorously intervened and stopped me.

The brutal actions of those City Council Police certainly deserve an equally harsh response. Why are people being beaten for trying to make an honest living?

These are people and genuinely struggling people not out of their making but reacting to a prevailing situation outside their command.

Is their brutality at the command of the mayor and his officials? What intervention is council doing to help these citizens? What should they do in the current economic situation in the country?

Yes we have by laws but please why this hard handedness on innocent civilians? No one deserves to be beaten for selling to make a life for their children. Council has a civic responsibility for its citizens.

We can't have councils that value duty over responsibility, it's wrong. Instead of fighting people like this, council should be engaging with the residents and trying to guideline the vending. Fighting like this will never win them the war. .

Sizabisela lathi into yesirobayi leyi kayiphele.