Kubatana.net ~ an online community of Zimbabwean activists

Cruelty beyond the call of duty

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Sekai Holland - injuries
How must it feel to have lost access to someone you care about? To worry, knowing they are in the hands of vindictive, vicious, unaccountable policemen and women who are hell bent on making sure you can’t find them.

How must you feel when reports finally start to reach you that they are badly injured – bearing injuries they didn’t have before they entered the walls of one of the many police stations dotted around the city – and they are being prevented from receiving medical treatment and legal assistance?

How must it feel when finally they have been released and you visit your spouse, sibling, parent, partner, comrade in hospital and see them covered in bandages, bruises and swellings? Covered in injuries caused by violent, callous, repeated beatings at the hands of … the police?

How must it feel to get them home – finally released from a punitive, unjust legal system that is a parody of what it should represent?

Spare a thought for the families of Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh whose injuries were severe enough to warrant them being medivac’d to South Africa on March 17.

Grace Kwinjeh - Injuries

To prepare for the evacuation they got the necessary clearance from the President’s Office, Immigration, Customs, airport security – only to be stopped on the tarmac by… a policeman with a brand new, never before heard of requirement. The officer commanding the Law and Order Section of the police had arbitrarily decided they now had to get clearance from the Ministry of Health.

There is no legal requirement for these women to remain in Zimbabwe at this stage – as far as the law is concerned – so where exactly does Assistant Commissioner Mabunda stand in relation to the legal system in Zimbabwe? Inside or outside of it?

Imagine that man’s karma.

5 comments to “Cruelty beyond the call of duty”

  1. Comment by Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Zimbabwe: state cruelty:

    [...] Kubatana’s post showing cruelty by the goverment of Zimbabwe, “Spare a thought for the families of Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh whose injuries were severe enough to warrant them being medivac’d to South Africa on March 17. To prepare for the evacuation they got the necessary clearance from the President’s Office, Immigration, Customs, airport security – only to be stopped on the tarmac by… a policeman with a brand new, never before heard of requirement. The officer commanding the Law and Order Section of the police had arbitrarily decided they now had to get clearance from the Ministry of Health.” Ndesanjo Macha [...]

  2. Comment by Alexander M Zoltai:

    This is my first visit to your blog.
    Got here via GlobalVoices.

    You deserve praise for writing a post that takes information that’s causing most people to bury their heads and turning it into an intimate and powerfully wrought vignette.
    So much Humanity in the way you treat the topic.
    Thank you!

    ~ Alex

  3. Comment by Councillor Phil Bateman:

    When this vicious and evil man Mugabe is finally kicked out of Government . I do hope that we here in the West will do all we can to assist the democratic reform that will be required. I have visited Zimbabwe twice in my life. I hope that I can help in some way in the future…!

    In the meantime I have the utmost respect for all those that have the courage to oppose this man and his methods of Government.

    Councillor Phil Bateman
    Wolverhampton City Council
    UK

  4. Comment by Jeremy:

    Thank you for this website- we need one global voice of ACTION if we are amongst other things, going to get Zimbabwe back onto the right track, including the removal of Mugabe. Imagine- an estimated 3.5 million people have been forced to flee their beloved homeland, including myself. We all live in countries now that we dont want to be in, all we want is to return to our brothers and sisters in our beloved Zimbabwe.

    PLEASE HELP US

  5. Comment by …My heart’s in Accra » Ambassador Dell might not have such a hard time flying out of Harare…:

    [...] It wasn’t a good weekend to fly out of Harare. Sekai Holland and Grace Kwinjeh, two activists who’d been beaten last weekend were being medevac’d to Johannesburg for treatment of their injuries on Saturday. They were stopped on the tarmac and ordered to return to their hospital until they were officially cleared for travel by the ministry of health, a new requirement apparently created to prevent the women from leaving the country, having their injuries treated and speaking to the press in South Africa. The police have now said that all activists arrested on March 12th will need to appear in court before being allowed to leave the country – no word on whether the police and prosecutor will fail to show up in court, as they did last time the opposition figures appeared to face charges. [...]