Farai Dziva|The MDC Alliance has intensified efforts to protect fundamental constitutional rights.

The party has also implored democratic forces to resist attempts by Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa to muzzle alternative voices.

Read statement below:

02 NOVEMBER 2020

MDC ALLIANCE NAMIBIA DISTRICT LAMBASTS THE RECENTLY ACCLAIMED ZANUPF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS LAW AS A DESPERATE MECHANISM OF DETERRENCE TO SOCIAL DEMOCRATS.

Mdc Alliance Namibia is perturbed by the fact that the Zanupf government continues to trample on the basic fundamental rights of the Zimbabwean citizenry.

Irrespective of the clearly visible provisions of Section 59 of the Constitution of the Motherland which states that, “Every person has the right to demonstrate and present petitions but these rights must be exercised peacefully”.

This is in line with diverse International Human Rights Instruments , including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As social democrats, we appeal to the illegitimate Zanupf government to respect its own constitution and international human rights instruments to which our beloved country is a signatory.

It was mesmerising to witness the regime’s perpetual suffocation of constitutional democracy when the Zimbabwe cabinet recently applauded proposed statute that would make it a crime for activists to make “spurious claims” of human rights violations, hold anti-government protests that could draw international attention or speak with foreign governments empty of state endorsement. The undemocratic development was backed by Monica Mutsvangwa who said President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa’s cabinet has appreciated the prospective amendments to the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act to criminalise the unauthorised communication or negotiation by denationalised citizens with foreign governments.

Although these proposed alterations to the law are expected to be backed by Zimbabwe’s August House which is monopolised by Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanupf party, Mdc Alliance Namibia goes on to solicit absolute justice in Zimbabwe. We want to encourage the disillusioned despotic regime to tolerate divergent views and expressions fundamental in any constitutional democracy, but in Zimbabwe, where we have no protections, it is vital. This foolish and selfish law has been criticised by both domestic and international Lawyers as well as social democrats in the vicinity.

As a district, we are astonished by Zanupf’s shift from hard-line policy to hard-line law which is completely worrisome in a purported ‘new dispensation’ after the 17 November Coup.

Moreso, while such hard-line and suicidal policies on political opposition are not novel in monocracy, the rigorousness and diameter of the law to enforce such a detrimental policy remains a mammoth task.

Brennan said: it would be a parody of democracy to confer on the people a power to choose their Parliament but to deny the freedom of public discussion from which the people derive their political judgements. In light of this postulation, Mdc Alliance Namibia supposes that the autocratic regime must halt controlling or schooling us on how hungry citizens should express serious national issues since it can greatly inoculate the strength of their political message, if not extinguish its revolutionary impact altogether.

Moreover, as genuine revolutionaries, we are clear that this law raises adverse questions about the contemporary attitudes and commitment to representative and responsible government in the country. Zanupf must be cognisant of the fact that in a society awash with national consciousness, independent individuals must embrace varying-perhaps sensational -avenues and measures to publicise nonconformity and remonstrance to ill-advised government policies. As an “alternative government”, Mdc Alliance is aware of the fact that, although the government has the obligation to regulate actions that undermine the public interest, such austerity legal measures should be tailored and balanced against the constitutional duty to ensure freedom of political expression in the Motherland.

Furthermore, the unceremonious inception of the Zanupf law has just generated fear in social democrats because it gives room to the captured securocrats to escalate the levels of human slaughter or massacre by overambitious Zanupf Satanists. Zimbabwe has seen multiple opposition activists being exterminated and desensitised by police with amnesty.

The police, army and state agencies must refrain from violence , including the exploitation of live ammunition against unarmed innocent civilians. In a democratic dispensation , we urge the Zimbabwe Republic Police , like any other professional police force , to guide and assist the protesters as they peacefully march through the streets anywhere in the country.

The enactment of this apartheid and repressive law is simply meant to entrench authoritarianism.

We shall continue to demand justice and our basic universal freedoms enshrined in the constitution. We advocate for the alignment of the 2013 Constitution before it is amended.

Social democrats have the conviction that it is alignment that comes first before any transformation is done. It is imperative to to remove unconstitutional jargon in our beloved constitution in the country.

In conclusion, Zanupf must ALIGN the 2013 Constitution instead of AMENDING it.

We shall continue to protest and petition the government against arbitrary arrests, abductions, torture and high levels of murder to opposition activists as stipulated in Section 59 of the constitution of Zimbabwe. We are not deterred by Zanupf shenanigans driven by greed and massive looting!

Mdc Alliance Namibia
Rundu Branch Spokesperson
Robson Ruhanya

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