Photo Credit: Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

Last week, a friend and I went on a run that took us half way around the Borrowdale Race Course. The route reminded me about Natasha’s blog about the community living around the track, and their opinion of horse-piping.

The community was still there as we went past. As Natasha wrote, the contrast between the grass and cardboard shacks this community lives in  – exposed in the vlei in desperate conditions – and the enormous mansions of Gun Hill and Borrowdale which surround them is sobering and disturbing. But still, this was home for the people who lived there. Or it was until police raided the settlement and burnt it in a midnight raid yesterday, according to this statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights:

Police blatantly violate the right to shelter in raid and burning of Borrowdale settlement

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), is greatly shocked at the unbecoming conduct of identified members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) who at about 00:30 hours on 25 August 2010 raided and destroyed an informal settlement at Borrowdale Race Course in Harare.

At least thirty police officers, easily identifiable due to their police uniforms believed to be stationed at Harare Central Police Station and the nearby Highlands Police Station proceeded to order the settlers to remove their possessions from the shacks and go and built homes in their rural areas. After 10 minutes elapsed, the ZRP members, some of whom were armed, and also accompanied by police dogs, ordered all the settlers to embark into the police vehicle and proceeded to torch at least a hundred shacks. This was done despite the fact that some of the settlers had not managed to remove their possessions. The settlers were then detained in the cold weather until the early hours of the morning when they were taken to Harare Central Police Station.

Most of the settlers whose shacks were torched down are victims of Operation Murambatsvina and some of them are employees of the Borrowdale Race Course. They moved to the settlement after being rendered homeless when their houses were destroyed under the widely condemned clean-up campaign while some of them started to reside at this settlement in 2000. From time to time the police were said to have raided the said settlement, arrested the settlers on the pretext of hunting down thieves and eventually releasing them without any charges being leveled against them.

ZLHR lawyers attended to Harare Central Police Station to assist the detained settlers who were not easily locatable due to the fact that the police have not made any entries in their detention book. ZLHR lawyers, managed to locate the 55 settlers who include 5 minor children at 13:30 hours. Lawyers have since been denied access to the settlers by the Criminal Investigation Department section represented by one Superintendent Muchengwa who advised lawyers that the clients will be allowed legal representation once they have been formally charged.

ZLHR condemns the unlawful and unprocedural actions taken by the police. Evicting and burning down the settlers’ houses without adequate notice and without providing alternative accommodation and the arbitrary deprivation of property that ensued following the illegal torching of the shacks is a violation of their right to shelter and to family life, which are guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a voluntary State Party.

It is also disheartening that the police chose to carry out such a vindictive action against the settlers during this cold spell when they don’t have any powers to evict people. Only the messenger of court or Deputy Sheriff can carry out evictions on the strength of a valid court order which does not exist in the case at hand. Further, it is also sad to note that these arbitrary illegal actions were carried out after the Mayor of Harare had written a letter to residents assuring them that all informal settlers will not be evicted unless alternative accommodation is secured.

No lessons have been learned from the failures and illegalities of Operation Murambatsvina, and the state – through the City Council and the Ministries concerned are urged to bring to an end such illegalities and attend to issues of lack of adequate housing in a lawful and orderly manner.

ZLHR, urges the police to carry out investigations into this illegal conduct that is tantamount to arson as defined in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and bring those accountable for these inhumane acts to justice.

ZLHR, further wishes to remind the police to be mindful of the right of all accused persons to legal representation of their choice, and the right to be informed of any criminal charges upon arrest.

ZLHR calls upon all state actors to desist from violating the economic and social rights of innocent citizens but to work towards the progressive realization of these rights as in accordance with Zimbabwe’s human rights obligations.

We’ve received this post from poet and broadcaster Soneni Gwizi about the rights of disabled women:

Zimbabwe is caught up in the transition of writing a new constitution that “will” or should cater for all, particularly now in this inclusive government we are in. I am disturbed with the lack of effort from stakeholders particularly the government. They are not seriously including persons with disabilities at  decisions levels.

It is very sad that the visual and hearing impaired ( blind and deaf ) persons are sidelined due to communication barriers, they use a different communication medium due to the nature ot their disability, the braille and sign language which is not used in public meetings. I am aware that there is a lot of talk and suggestions that they must include all persons but let the truth be told, there is very little action taken on that statement.

Let us consider persons with disability with respect, dignity and allow their own voices to heard so that they can also live and be accepted in our communities.

They may not chant slogans and throw teargas at your buildings ( which they are capable of ) but they have a Right Too!

My voice, my right

They say lets unite and write a constitution with one voice
A voice that declares my rights
Unity means agreement, harmony, and union
It must represent the voices, needs interest and the rights of women, men,
and children of all types of back ground.
Is my right and voice being heard?
Are my needs considered?
For my needs and rights are different from yours society!
Do you not know?
I have struggles and challenges beyound mother nature!
Do you not understand that a constitution is one of the highest laws of a Country?
For years and years i have been trying to tell you Zimbawe,
That my rights and your are different,
You have always made me small in your eyes!
You have silenced my voice,
In your agender i appear like a cloud!
Here today and gone tomorrow.
Why do you ignore my voice and my rights?
Why do you undermine my intelligence, my gender, my disability, my right
Why?
I am just a disabled woman you voice!
Hey i am not just a woman,
I am intelligent, brilliant citizen of this nation.
My voice has to be heard and chronicled in the laws of this nation.
The journey has been too long my sister, my brother,
Hold my hand and lets walk together,
After all we are fighting and voicing for one thing which is,
FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM!
The right of a woman!

There is lingering talk about forgiveness, healing, truth and reconciliation, all centred around the violent nature of politics that has defined Zimbabwe’s elections especially in the past decade. This politically-motivated violence has been widely documented with people whose homes were burnt, their families killed during orgies of violence rightly complaining that the perpetrators are still walking the length and breadth of the scorched as free men.

As the country approaches another election within the next two years, the violence that has come to characterise political campaigns is already being reported, this time inspired by the constitution outreach programme, and this without any efforts having made to “make peace” with aggrieved victims of past political violence. It is within that scope that this country has placed itself on the path of cyclical violence with perpetrators rightly knowing that nothing will happen to them. After all it is quite straight forward: if you go unpunished for a perceived crime, what will stop you from repeating it? Talk about literally getting away with murder, Zimbabwe presents scholars with innumerable case examples! And we have seen it since 1980 anyway with the Gukurahundi massacres as known architects and the foot soldiers f the troubles have never been taken to task about their role.

Issues around forgiveness and healing are likely to elude us as long as there is no political commitment on the part the leaders who presided over the killing and torture of innocents, and we are guaranteed that angry emotions will be part of our individual and collective psyche for a long time to come. I listened to a man who all along had been enjoying his beer until someone muttered something about the futility of a truth and reconciliation commission and something about how the dead must be left to bury the dead. The man literally wept, saying he never knew his father as he was killed during Gukurahundi and – while he had been enjoying the beer among them – said how much he hated the Shona. Everyone went silent, for how would anyone pacify a man who has so much anger in him? This is a guy who walks and talks each day as if everything is normal but deep there hidden from the rest of us, he harbours and carries such hate and hurt.

This becomes a strong case for the open discussion of what evil has been spawned by political violence and the need for a truth and reconciliation commission so people can move on with their lives. Yet some people in their wisdom think the past can take care of itself by natural processes of time and have been arrogant to calls for a naming and shaming of people behind the raping and killing of wives and mothers since independence. The question for many is that what really can be expected from the people who are accused of heinous political crime and still control state apparatus that would in essence be in charge of letting the law take its course? So does the nation wait for that epoch when they are no longer in government and then they are tracked and shot down like rapid dogs?

But then some will argue that then this goes against the principles of restorative justice but conform to the dictates of vengeance instead, thus justice must be delivered in the here and now so that victims like the man cited above may know peace in their hearts. African politicians have tended to exhibit traits that seek to place them above the moral barometer of normal beings as they use both illiterates and literati to commit the basest crimes, but turn and say the charges are all conspiracies by political opponents: Charles Taylor, Mobutu, Idi Dada Amin, Baby Doc Duvalier – all their stories read the same and the tragedy is that even as we journey into the 21st century, we find ourselves having to make the same excuses made by these evil black brothers. It is invariably always someone else who is not power who is blamed for the atrocities! But with the nature of Zimbabwe’s politics whose popularity contests have largely been defined by clubs and cudgels as weapons of persuasion, we are no doubt in for another round of calls for national healing after lives have already been lost when all this can be averted by heeding the calls for restorative justice.

From IFEX:

Rwandan President Paul Kagame won another seven-year term in elections on 9 August, after already being in power for 15 years. He captured 93 percent of the vote by banning opposition parties and eliminating critical domestic news coverage, report Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists and other IFEX members. In the months leading up to election-day, the government systematically shut down news outlets and terrorised critical journalists into fleeing the country.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Peace Project and Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights have issued the following statement on violence during the current Constitutional outreach campaign:

A Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) outreach meeting was on Saturday 14 August, 2010 abandoned in Chipinge, Manicaland Province after some ZANU PF youths assaulted two villagers prior to commencement of the meeting.

The COPAC meeting was scheduled to be held at Checheche Primary School.

The villagers Charles Chovi and Charles Chunje were assaulted by some ZANU PF youths at Checheche Primary School, who were led by Tonderai Ngwendu and Gilbert Kombo, who used benches, boots and clenched fists.

The two villagers were accused of sitting on some benches which had been set up before the arrival of the COPAC team members for a meeting to solicit people’s input into a proposed draft constitution.

ZZZICOMP monitors who witnessed the incident reported that Chovi and Chunje sustained some injuries on their bodies and on the ear and sought medical attention at St Peters Hospital.

The COPAC meeting was called off after some villagers protested that the meeting could not proceed as some of them had been assaulted and intimidated before the arrival of the COPAC team members. Ngwendu and Kombo were fined by the police at Chisumbanje Police Station, who also asked Chovi and Chunje to pay an admission of guilty fine for engaging in public fighting.

Honourable David Chimhini confirmed the assault and the abandonment of the meeting. He said it was evident that some villagers had been intimidated before the arrival of the COPAC team and his team had to postpone the meeting to a date to be advised as tension was high at the meeting.

The Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT), and many others, are rightly fed up with how our city is being managed. They make the following recommendations to improve service delivery and cash-flows to the City of Harare:

1. The Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15) should be amended to ensure that local authorities are led by elected mayors, who derive their mandate from the residents, and not from their political parties.
2. Mayor Masunda should desist from making statements that undermine the concerns of residents with regards to transparency, accountability and governance at Town House.
3. The City of Harare should make the necessary adjustments to its huge salary bill, in line with the Government’s directive.
4. Residents of Harare, industry and business should pay justified rates and rentals and not allow themselves to be held at ransom by Mayor Masunda and his colleagues in the top management of the City of Harare who take home 70 percent of the city’s revenue in salaries and allowances against service provision of 30 percent.
5. The mayor should drop his attitude and listen to the voice of stakeholders who have repeatedly expressed concern at the city’s rates and services.