ZIMBABWE Human Rights Association (ZimRights) says it has noted that democratic space was shrinking under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and that ‘nothing has really changed’ since the November 2017 coup that toppled long-time ruler, the late President Robert Mugabe.
This was revealed at a ZimRights commemorations on Thursday
running under the theme: ‘30 years of Grassroots Organising-Celebrating Community
Leadership in Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Human Rights in Zimbabwe.’
ZimRights national director, Dzikamai Bere expressed
concern over an increase in state sponsored human rights violations.
“The use of violence and intimidation against the people is
scaring people who want to exercise their rights to protest. We have seen a
legacy of police brutality against protesters. And because of that, it makes
people think twice before they exercise their rights to protest. We have also
seen misinformation and disinformation particularly from state security
apparatus peddling the propaganda that protesting is unlawful and yet it is a
constitutionally guaranteed right,” Bere said.
Bere accused authorities of failing to take any tangible
steps to demonstrate a commitment to accountability, justice for human rights
abuses as well as respect for the rule of law.
“That question explains the tragedy of the country where we
are measuring mal-performance instead of us competing for excellence. Our
leadership is competing for bad things. This feels like a continuation of the
same regime because we continue to see the same state apparatus being deployed
against citizens,” he said.
However, Bere said Zimrights also launched a booklet on
human rights to promote citizen engagement in governance and human
rights-related issues in the country.
“So what we have been doing as ZimRights is providing the
information to communities. We launched the guide to democracy and elections,
which is a citizen guide to effective participation to democratic processes. It
explains what democracy is.”
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and deputy Information
minister Kindness Paradza did not respond to questions sent to them on Bere’s
claims. Newsday
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