News / National
Zimbabwe now 'worse than under Mugabe'?
07 Aug 2023 at 15:25hrs | Views
UNDER the long and cruel reign of Robert Mugabe, a lot of very bad things happened.
But it's not clear that anyone was stoned to death for opposing him or his cronies.
On Thursday this week, however, political activist Tinashe Chitsunge suffered this horrific fate in Harare at the hands of a mob from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Chitsunge had gathered with friends and associates to hold an opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) rally ahead of this month's election when he was attacked by braying thugs.
Almost six years ago, the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe allowed themselves a moment of hope.
The decades-long rule of national-hero-turned-despot Mugabe was finally at an end.
The country was battered and destitute. But many – and particularly those who'd suffered at the hand of the regime – were ecstatic.
It was claimed that since Mugabe's first premiership in 1980, Zimbabwe's life expectancy had fallen by half, while deaths from politically motivated violence sponsored by the government exceeded 200,000.
Anything had to be better than Mugabe and his cronies.
But in the midst of the excitement in November 2017, when economic meltdown and national protests allowed Mnangagwa to grab power, not a few Zimbabweans reminded their giddy compatriots that the man who'd ousted Mugabe had been one of his closest associates.
On 23 August, that man, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 80, goes to polls, accused of violating the law and tearing apart independent institutions to cling to power.
Like Mugabe's before his, Mnangagwa's reign, cemented by a disputed election victory in 2018, has been marked by brutality and corruption.
In an interview with The Associated Press Chamisa gave warning that any evidence of tampering by Mnangagwa's ruling ZANU-PF party in this month's elections could lead to "total disaster" for an already-beleaguered nation.
This has not come as a surprise to many in Zimbabwe. Nicknamed "The Crocodile" on account of his cunning, Mnangagwa's CV was marked by his role as Mugabe's hatchetman for the best part of 40 years, and in particular his association with ethnic massacres in the 1980s.
Thousands of civilians were massacred by the Zimbabwean military, mostly ethnic Ndebeles in Matabeleland. Mnangagwa was in charge of intelligence services at the time.
As many feared, Zimbabwe under Mnangagwa has not become freer or fairer.
Khanyo Farisè, Amnesty International's deputy director for southern Africa, pointed to the fate of Tinashe Chitsunge as merely the latest grim symptom of the hatred and lawlessness promoted by the regime.
"The fatal attack on Tinashe Chitsunge paints a grim picture of the human rights environment in Zimbabwe ahead of general elections scheduled for 23 August," she said, after demanding justice for the dead man.
"What we have seen in Zimbabwe over the past five years amounts to a brutal crackdown on human rights – especially the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association."
And as Zimbabwe heads to the polls, with Mnangagwa seeking to give his Zanu-PF party regime a veneer of credibility with a election victory, Amnesty and other campaigners have documented how political opposition figures have been singled out and persecuted by the Mnangagwa regime.
MP and CCC interim vice-chairperson, Job Sikhala, has been incarcerated in leg irons at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison since 14 June, 2022 after he stepped in to act as the lawyer of the family of Moreblessing Ali, a murdered community mobiliser and CCC supporter whose body was found mutilated on 11 June, 2022 in the Zengeza West Constituency, outside of Harare.
Sikhala's detention without bail and without trial for over one year has underlined the questions about the Zimbabwean judiciary's independence. Many Zimbabweans are fearful of ZANU-PF's intimidation and do not openly engage in political activities, attend opposition rallies, or otherwise express their viewpoints, Amnesty says.
Similarly, in a pre-election report published this week, Human Rights Watch provides more evidence that the upcoming election is bein rigged.
Tendai Biti, the CCC MP, has told Human Rights Watch that his party has "not been allowed to campaign" ahead of the polls.
"At least 63 of our rallies have been banned from January 2023 to now," he says. "We have not been able to hold any single rally or meeting this year. Even those who have attempted to hold meetings in their houses have been arrested. In urban areas we can mobilise to some extent but in rural areas we cannot."
Biti adds: "We lived during Mugabe's time, and we thought it was bad, but I think I owe him an apology. This regime is worse."
Ostallos Siziba, the CCC deputy spokesperson, said: "Right now, we cannot hold meetings in towns and cities, and we cannot go to the rural areas. ZANU-PF declared that rural areas are no-go zones for the opposition…"
CCC leader, Nelson Chamisa, had hoped to take his campaign to the countryside in an effort to win over voters in the Zanu-PF heartlands.
Political activists are not the only targets of the regime.
Hopewell Chin'ono, a prominent journalist who investigated a multimillion-dollar Covid-19-related corruption case, and Jacob Ngarivhume, a political activist who called for a nationwide protest in reaction to allegations of government corruption in July 2020, were arrested and detained in a bid to silence them.
Chin'ono was jailed in November 2020, in part for exposing the actions of a woman who tried to smuggle undeclared gold through the Robert Mugabe airport, and the alleged looting of Government funds by people with political connections during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The court barred his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, from representing him. After several appeals, he was eventually acquitted.
Ngarivhume is serving a four-year jail sentence after he was convicted and sentenced in April for calling for nationwide protests against government corruption.
When Mnangagwa toppled Mugabe, he promised to tackle the country's economic woes "head on".
But thanks to a mix of corruption and incompetence, plus stringent Western sanctions prompted by the regime's political repression and human rights abuses, Zimbabwe's impoverished population is poorer than ever.
At 101.3 per cent year-on-year in July, Zimbabwe has one of the highest inflation rates in the world, putting in the league of failed states such as Venezuela, Lebanon and Syria.
"The monthly pension should be in US dollars because the local currency does not buy anything," 51-year-old widow, Regina Ruona, told Reuters this week.
Unemployment rates are disastrous, with fewer than one in three Zimbabweans holding formal jobs.
Mnangagwa has stressed the need for peaceful elections. In November 2022, he told Zimbabweans that "political players seeking the people's mandate during the upcoming 2023 harmonised general elections must maintain and consolidate the current peace, unity, harmony, and love that we have built".
Every day that statement looks less like a serious pledge and more like an unfortunate joke.
But it's not clear that anyone was stoned to death for opposing him or his cronies.
On Thursday this week, however, political activist Tinashe Chitsunge suffered this horrific fate in Harare at the hands of a mob from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Chitsunge had gathered with friends and associates to hold an opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) rally ahead of this month's election when he was attacked by braying thugs.
Almost six years ago, the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe allowed themselves a moment of hope.
The decades-long rule of national-hero-turned-despot Mugabe was finally at an end.
The country was battered and destitute. But many – and particularly those who'd suffered at the hand of the regime – were ecstatic.
It was claimed that since Mugabe's first premiership in 1980, Zimbabwe's life expectancy had fallen by half, while deaths from politically motivated violence sponsored by the government exceeded 200,000.
Anything had to be better than Mugabe and his cronies.
But in the midst of the excitement in November 2017, when economic meltdown and national protests allowed Mnangagwa to grab power, not a few Zimbabweans reminded their giddy compatriots that the man who'd ousted Mugabe had been one of his closest associates.
On 23 August, that man, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 80, goes to polls, accused of violating the law and tearing apart independent institutions to cling to power.
Like Mugabe's before his, Mnangagwa's reign, cemented by a disputed election victory in 2018, has been marked by brutality and corruption.
In an interview with The Associated Press Chamisa gave warning that any evidence of tampering by Mnangagwa's ruling ZANU-PF party in this month's elections could lead to "total disaster" for an already-beleaguered nation.
This has not come as a surprise to many in Zimbabwe. Nicknamed "The Crocodile" on account of his cunning, Mnangagwa's CV was marked by his role as Mugabe's hatchetman for the best part of 40 years, and in particular his association with ethnic massacres in the 1980s.
Thousands of civilians were massacred by the Zimbabwean military, mostly ethnic Ndebeles in Matabeleland. Mnangagwa was in charge of intelligence services at the time.
As many feared, Zimbabwe under Mnangagwa has not become freer or fairer.
Khanyo Farisè, Amnesty International's deputy director for southern Africa, pointed to the fate of Tinashe Chitsunge as merely the latest grim symptom of the hatred and lawlessness promoted by the regime.
"The fatal attack on Tinashe Chitsunge paints a grim picture of the human rights environment in Zimbabwe ahead of general elections scheduled for 23 August," she said, after demanding justice for the dead man.
"What we have seen in Zimbabwe over the past five years amounts to a brutal crackdown on human rights – especially the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association."
And as Zimbabwe heads to the polls, with Mnangagwa seeking to give his Zanu-PF party regime a veneer of credibility with a election victory, Amnesty and other campaigners have documented how political opposition figures have been singled out and persecuted by the Mnangagwa regime.
Sikhala's detention without bail and without trial for over one year has underlined the questions about the Zimbabwean judiciary's independence. Many Zimbabweans are fearful of ZANU-PF's intimidation and do not openly engage in political activities, attend opposition rallies, or otherwise express their viewpoints, Amnesty says.
Similarly, in a pre-election report published this week, Human Rights Watch provides more evidence that the upcoming election is bein rigged.
Tendai Biti, the CCC MP, has told Human Rights Watch that his party has "not been allowed to campaign" ahead of the polls.
"At least 63 of our rallies have been banned from January 2023 to now," he says. "We have not been able to hold any single rally or meeting this year. Even those who have attempted to hold meetings in their houses have been arrested. In urban areas we can mobilise to some extent but in rural areas we cannot."
Biti adds: "We lived during Mugabe's time, and we thought it was bad, but I think I owe him an apology. This regime is worse."
Ostallos Siziba, the CCC deputy spokesperson, said: "Right now, we cannot hold meetings in towns and cities, and we cannot go to the rural areas. ZANU-PF declared that rural areas are no-go zones for the opposition…"
CCC leader, Nelson Chamisa, had hoped to take his campaign to the countryside in an effort to win over voters in the Zanu-PF heartlands.
Political activists are not the only targets of the regime.
Hopewell Chin'ono, a prominent journalist who investigated a multimillion-dollar Covid-19-related corruption case, and Jacob Ngarivhume, a political activist who called for a nationwide protest in reaction to allegations of government corruption in July 2020, were arrested and detained in a bid to silence them.
Chin'ono was jailed in November 2020, in part for exposing the actions of a woman who tried to smuggle undeclared gold through the Robert Mugabe airport, and the alleged looting of Government funds by people with political connections during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The court barred his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, from representing him. After several appeals, he was eventually acquitted.
Ngarivhume is serving a four-year jail sentence after he was convicted and sentenced in April for calling for nationwide protests against government corruption.
When Mnangagwa toppled Mugabe, he promised to tackle the country's economic woes "head on".
But thanks to a mix of corruption and incompetence, plus stringent Western sanctions prompted by the regime's political repression and human rights abuses, Zimbabwe's impoverished population is poorer than ever.
At 101.3 per cent year-on-year in July, Zimbabwe has one of the highest inflation rates in the world, putting in the league of failed states such as Venezuela, Lebanon and Syria.
"The monthly pension should be in US dollars because the local currency does not buy anything," 51-year-old widow, Regina Ruona, told Reuters this week.
Unemployment rates are disastrous, with fewer than one in three Zimbabweans holding formal jobs.
Mnangagwa has stressed the need for peaceful elections. In November 2022, he told Zimbabweans that "political players seeking the people's mandate during the upcoming 2023 harmonised general elections must maintain and consolidate the current peace, unity, harmony, and love that we have built".
Every day that statement looks less like a serious pledge and more like an unfortunate joke.
Source - iNews
