By Agencies
CIVIC society organisations (CSOs) have described as unfortunate the plunging of the country into “a war zone” before and during the just-ended Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit.
The remarks emerged during the civic society’s human rights, democracy and governance symposium held in Harare recently as part of the main summit.
The meeting was attended by civic society members from various southern African countries.
Dzikamai Bere, the national director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), who were part of the organisers, said the operating environment continued to shrink for CSOs even now when Heads of States and Government were about to converge for the crucial engagement.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the symposium, Bere said there has been a low turnout after their venue was infiltrated by unidentified elements.
“Last week, this venue which is hosting the human rights, governance and democracy symposium as part of the SADC People’s Summit was invaded by unknown people who claimed that they were looking for some activists and that has caused fear in many of our participants,” he said.
Bere said this was disappointing considering that their meeting was being held in line with freedom of assembly and expression.
“The crackdown that we have seen on civic society seems to have been targeted at discouraging people from meeting and organising.
“The contrast is that Heads of State are meeting and organising without any disturbances and when people choose to do the same they are labelled criminals. I think it is a violation of the SADC Treaty,” he said.
“The SADC Summit seems to have contributed to increasing and shrinking civic space here in Zimbabwe.
“We are beginning to see that SADC Heads of State and Government summit have turned Zimbabwe into a war zone as the government increases its crackdown on human rights activists and political activists.
“We have more than 100 people already in prison whose right to bail before trial is being violated and we have four young people who were abducted on their way to Victoria Falls, tortured and then handed over to the police.”
Bere emphasised that their meeting was a peaceful one which was aimed at allowing the people to advance grievances to their leaders as citizens with SADC Member States.
Thabo Masuku, the executive director at Eswatin’s Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice, echoed the same sentiments adding that it was disturbing that such violations were still happening in this era.
“I think every situation when it comes to rights issues is quite peculiar. Zimbabwe is a republic, Swaziland is a monarchy, so there are different values but of course the tenents of democracy, human rights and rule of law are universal.
“So, what we expect to find in these countries as expression of human rights, democracy and governance should be the same. Unfortunately, it’s different. We come from Swaziland where political parties are banned, political parties are not able to contest for political power, civic society space is quite repressed with a lot of legislation,” Masuku said.
He said recently the Suppression of Terrorism Act appeal was passed by the Swazi government and was trampling on the rights of people and shutting voices of dissent.
“Billing up to the summit here we have seen a lot of incidences in Zimbabwe which was quite depressing and disturbing that in this era of human rights we are still seeing such things happening,
“So each and every country in SADC we have realised that we have peculiar problems, but they seem to find resonance in the leadership style within governments which we see in the SADC region,” he said.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa last Saturday assumed the chairmanship of the regional bloc, taking over from Angolan President Jão Lourenço.
As Mnangagwa took over reins, scores of political prisoners and pro-democracy campaigners were languishing in jails, a development which exposes the regime’s intolerant attitude towards alternative voices.
