By Prince Njagu-The year 2020 has been a gloomy one for most Zimbabweans. Abductions, torture and then a global pandemic which has seen even the world’s biggest economies suffer the worst recession in history.
The ZANU PF regime led by Emmerson Mnangagwa has now resorted to using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to silence and oppress Zimbabweans who are standing up against his tyrant government.
Illegitimate arrests and detentions are being used as a weapon to silence the heroes that speak out against the ZANU PF regime.
Activists, journalists and opposition party youth leaders have been put in jail for expressing their disgruntlement against the current administration. The latest case being of Godfrey Kuraone, the MDC Alliance National youth organiser who was arrested when he went to report to the police as was stipulated in his bail terms.
Kuraone has since been denied bail at Masvingo Magistrate court and is being denied proper medical assistance although he is unwell. This does not only go against international statutes but also against the Prisoners Act.
Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono has been one casualty of this mired legal system, as he has been left languishing in prison for speaking against corruption within the ZANU PF administration.
Zimbabweans are being denied all the fundamental human rights; no freedom of expression, no access to basic health services, people are being tortured and abducted. All these are violations of human rights and when you speak against these issues the law or security forces are used.
How can a government claim to be a democracy when the state of affairs in the country are this bad? A democracy allows opposition, freedom of speech, accountability and they do not intervene with the legal system.
The year 2020 kicked off with the abduction of the three MDC youth leaders, Legislator Joanna Mamombe, youth leaders Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova. This was then followed by several mysterious disappearances of other youth leaders who expressed their discontent with the current government.
These three brave warriors were abducted and tortured under police custody, and their crime was standing up for the Zimbabwean masses who have been leaving in anguish during this lockdown.
The vast majority of Zimbabweans are informally employed and when the lockdown was imposed, all these people were left in limbo with no food and no source of income.
These same people are starving, and the ZANU PF government is doing nothing in as far as helping them.
When the three MDC Alliance leaders took to the streets and expressed their dissatisfaction, the ZANU PF government, through the aid of security forces abducted and tortured these brave cadres.
Two more young activists, Namatai Kwekweza and Vongai Zimudzi were arrested after they protested the amendment of the constitution under an indefinite imposed lockdown.
A series of abductions and torture against oppositional party members and activists who criticise the government have been the talk of the year so far.
Hopewell Chin’ono a prominent journalist was arrested and put behind bars for his criticism and exposing the rot in the current government.
The media should be the window through which people see the outside world and it should be there to provide checks and balances on a ruling administration, but it becomes so worrisome when journalists that ask for accountability from office bearers’ are being put in jail for this.
As citizens in a democracy, the government should allow individuals to enjoy the freedom of expression and under no circumstances should these basic rights be suppressed. Citizens should not be victimized for exercising their rights.
All these heroes and heroines of Zimbabwe were unlawfully arrested for exercising their fundamental human rights, and they cannot appeal anywhere as the legal system is also flawed.
In a bid to silence Zimbabweans, the ZANU PF regime, has been victimizing and instilling fear through these detentions and delayed justice.
The Zimbabwean court system has been under the microscope for several years, and this year, it has left many concluding that indeed the judiciary in Zimbabwe is a puppet of ZANU PF.
Chin’onos bail hearing being postponed time and again. Kuraone denied bail 14 days ago by Masvingo Magistrate Patience Madondo and the other three MDC alliance leaders, Legislator Joanna Mamombe, youth leaders Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova now facing fresh charges, regardless of the fact that they have been traumatised and tortured.
The list of these young brave heroes is endless, and for their sacrifices the Zimbabwean people should salute them.