Following massive protests over hyperinflation and socioeconomic troubles in Zimbabwe, security forces implemented numerous violent tactics to silence activists, journalists, and civilians who spoke out against the government.

Activists all over Zimbabwe have called the situation an “unprecedented clampdown”, citing the ways in which the government is oppressing dissent, including unlawful arrests, abduction, and even torture.

After the end of Robert Mugabe’s tyranny that lasted 30 years, many hoped for a chance at change with a new dispensation under Emerson Mnangagwa, yet things seem to have worsened in the last three years.

During his time in office, Mnangagwa has overseen an increase in human rights violations, including internet being cut off, terrorizing the opposition, and arresting anyone who speaks out against his administration. Also, debt in Zimbabwe has increased by US$3.5 billion, a number that is far above the country’s GDP. Corruption is seemingly at an all-time high, with civilians calling on families of ministers and the president himself to pay back money they received fraudulently.

When speaking of social injustice specifically, it is also important to note that there is now what appears to be a captured judiciary (meaning no separation of powers), limited freedom of speech, honest journalism becoming essentially criminalized, doctors and nurses striking (making hospitals more and more dangerous), and spikes in police brutality in the last three years.

Moving on to the economy, fuel prices have skyrocketed, prices have gone up but wages have not increased at the same rate, doctors, teachers, and engineers, are all earning less than what a waitress would earn in any other functioning economy, and the annual inflation rate is set at 150%, however the actual number could be much higher due to the fact that reporting on inflation isn’t allowed.

In the past weeks, protestors angry about everything previously mentioned have filled the streets, being led by popular activists in the area, however recent protests have become subject to violence at the hands of the police force. Activists and journalists have been arrested or unnecessarily harassed for speaking up against corruption; the military and police is using intimidation as a means of stifling dissent.

In connection to the protests, Zimbabwe authorities have arrested at least 60 people, 16 of which were injured and required medical attention. Those arrested included novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga, opposition MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, award-winning journalist Hopeell Chin’ono, and Jacob Ngarivhume, leader of the political group Transform Zimbabwe. The majority of those detained were presented with charges of inciting public violence,

A perfect example of how unlawful these arrests are is that of Mduduzi Mathuthu, an influential journalist and the editor of online newspaper Zimlive. On July 30, security forces raided his house in Bulawayo, however they failed to find him, prompting them to take his three nephews and sister instead. The nephews are Tawanda Muchehiwa (age 22), Advent Mathuthu (age 25), and Amandlenkosi Mathuthu (age 19), and his sister Nomahugu Mathuthu, all taken to compel Mduduzi to turn himself in due to charges of incitement of public violence after allegedly being found with flyers that said “Mnangagwa & His Cabinet Should Resign”.

According to a statement made by the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and issued to Human Rights Watch, security agents dropped off Mathuthu’s nephew Muchehiwa at about 10 pm on August 1, having been tortured by apparent security agents and presenting multiple injuries. In medical documents, it is apparent that he was assaulted with a wooden log, doused all over with an unknown substance, had extensive bruises, an acute kidney injury, and started to experience symptoms of PTSD.

Another case is that of lawyer Obey Shaba and three of his clients, activists Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbirj, and Netsai Marovato, who were detained on July 31 while on their way to Harare Central Police Station as part of their bail agreement. Earlier in the year, on May 13, police stopped the three activists in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and reportedly abducted, tortured, and sexually assaulted the three.

“I complied with all the instructions they [security forces] gave, that notwithstanding, I was ordered to lie down on the ground. My client, Chimbiri, was assaulted and molested in my presence. I felt helpless.”

Obey Shaba, member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

Chimbiri says that a soldier tore off her top and brassiere and proceeded to fondle her. She was later charged with disorderly conduct in a public place, despite the fact that security forces had sexually assaulted her.

These protests and their recent consequences have sparked a #ZimbabweanLivesMatter movement around the world, as well as triggering responses from many countries calling on the ZANU -PF regime to stop these abuses, especially South Africa.

Numsa, South Africa’s biggest trade union, has presented a strong response to this on-going crackdown, even criticizing Pretoria over its silence. Numsa general-secretary Irvin Jim blasted Zimbabwe’s governing party ZANU-PF, calling it contradictory as it used to be a liberation movement, also accusing SA’s government of “being too timid to call it out.”

“Zimbabwe is in the vicious grip of a failed liberation movement which has dumped the liberation vision just as the African National Congress (ANC) has done in South Africa. The only way ZANU-PF keeps hold of power is to unleash and sponsor violence against its own people.”

Statement from Numsa

Jim goes on to say that the union was “extremely irritated” by how slow the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the African Union were in acknowledging the prolonged crisis in Zimbabwe, saying they “failed to arrest the crisis,” and “failed to preserve democracy in Zimbabwe and protect human rights.”

According to several organizations and experts in the area, the root of Zimbabwe’s socioeconomic crisis lies in the failure of ZANU-PF as a liberation movement, which was designed to drive a reliable economic transformation program centered in the working class. ZANU-PF has betrayed the liberation struggle and suffers from what many call “political elite syndrome.”

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Sources: