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Since September 2011, about eight girls under the age of 16 were impregnated by some Police Officers in Jotsholo, Lupane West Constituency, Matebeleland North Province. Of the eight cases, four are well documented although the victims refused to give testimony in court whilst the other four are not documented because the girls refused to speak out. Four girls were impregnated by a senior police officer who has a grown up daughter. But whenever he finds her daughter with a boyfriend, he would take the boyfriend into the bush and thoroughly beat him up!
Most of the girls do not know their rights and take it as a privilege to fall in love with police officers, even if they are married. The victims are usually school pupils from the poor, remote areas of Jotsholo, who stay at Jotsholo Business Centre on rented accommodation attending secondary school (bush boarding). Similarly, some parents of the victims do not want to speak out because they expect lobola or bride price from aspiring in-laws. But the other challenge is the legal clause(s) which define a minor. Historically, a person was regarded as a minor until the age of 21, which was reduced to 18 and 16 years respectively.
As one parent said: ‘as parents, the definition of the minor (under 16 years, NOT 16 years) is leaving us powerless and without control of our children. At 16 years, the child will be at school (usually at Ordinary Level) and will be under the care of a parent. At the same time, and according to the law, the child is in a position to make independent choices, including starting a family. We feel this age is too minimal, as the child needs two more years to do Advanced Level education, still under the guidance of the parents. In fact, since the abolition of students grants for tertiary education, the parents are obliged to support the child for three or four more years of university or college education. This means to say a child is free to make an independent decision at 16 years does not augur well with the real life experiences’. For most of the parents in Jotsholo, the maturity age of 16 should be reviewed to give parents the opportunity to take care of the child until he or she is independent. However, CCJPZ values justice and equality before the law. The police officers, regardless of their profession, should be brought to book and account for their actions. As encouraged in Mathew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”. In addition, the law makers should think deeply about the current laws defining children and revise them to suit the Zimbabwean context.
A ZANU PF ward Councillor from Matebeleland North Province said it is not easy to stop setting up torture bases during election period because it’s a ‘directive from the national structures of the party. ‘All ZANU PF political leaders, especially us Councillors and Traditional Leaders who are close to the people were given instructions from above to set up bases, mobilise traditional leaders to show us political opponents, War Veterans to administer punishment, and the youth to implement the punishment on political opponents’, she said. The Councillor said although she might not like the abuse of human rights that occurs during the election time, she does not have much power to stop them. She added that setting up of bases and instructing people to perform regular drills (toyitoying) as well as all night political vigils has become one of the principles of their political party – (gwara remusangano – uhlelo lomhlangano): ‘You can’t deny something that would be happening all over the country. Bases and toyitoying happened across the country and what special about you (traditional leaders and other community leaders attending a peace building discussion) to oppose them.’ added the Councillor, further justifying the establishment of bases. This is evident torture bases can be easily established because the structures to set them up are already there in the community. What is not there, at least at the moment, is the directive from ‘above’, which usually comes during the election time. However, as a Catholic organisation, CCJPZ does not condone torture bases and subsequent use of the young people to beat up political opponents. Each person, by virtue of being created in the image of God has his or her dignity, rights and freedoms that they should enjoy in order to fulfil their potential in life. CCJPZ will continue to work with the communities to oppose these and other actions that undermine the way God want us to live on this earth.
In Banket, there is a ward (located in the area between Banket and Raffingora) created during the Fast Track Land Reform Programme that is inhabited by people who came mainly from Zvimba. The ward members call themselves Gushungos, after the totem of the President who also comes from Zvimba. Most people from this ward, calling themselves “Gushungos” have a lot of pride and do not respect other people’s rights. Whenever there is a government programme, they demand, sometimes violently, preferential treatment and to be served first since they are ‘the rulers of the country’. During the agriculture inputs distribution spear headed by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) in December 2011, for example, the Gushungos forced themselves ahead of the queue and grabbed most of the inputs for themselves, leaving many, especially the poor, with little or nothing. But the group had also benefitted more during the grain loan scheme. This group has self-claimed power that it has threatened to ‘take action’ against those who undermine them and the political party they support. They claim, in the name of Gushungo, nothing will happen to them and no one can stand in their way. It is not clear whether this community is related to the President, but they abuse the rights and dignity of other citizens in their community in the name of Gushungo. It is likely that as the country moves towards electoral processes the Gushungos might use their ‘power’ to force people to support their views, including displacing those who might be seen as too “radical” for their political party. CCJPZ encourages people to live together in peace as advised in John 20:19.
19 January 2011: A group of youth came at a place where we used to leave our wares overnight (Clock Room, a Council building commonly known as paResearch) at around 2200hrs and destroyed the wall of a Council building located between Engeen Filling Station and Rambamai beer hall. We were five vendors guarding the Clock Room, but no one was injured. The following morning, we sent two of our colleagues to report the matter to the police and a docket number RRB 1030666 was opened. We also notified the Council offices at Rememberance Drive of what had happened. We gave them the case number as evidence we had reported the matter to the police.
21 January 2011: At around 2100hrs, a group of youth, under the leadership of Gobvu and Jimmy Kunaka arrived at the Cloak Room where seven of us were guarding the vendors’ wares. We were just removing the rubbles that had accumulated after the wall was destroyed on 19 January 2011. We quickly rushed into the Cloak Room, closed the doors and started to call our colleagues to come and help us. Some of our co-vendors came, but they failed to get close to the Cloak Room to help us because the group was enormous. As a result, our colleagues were forced to go to the police to seek assistance. After about fifteen minutes, the noise and commotion out of the Cloak Room stopped. Somebody outside shouted: ‘Open the door. It’s Police. We have come to assist you’. We peeped through the window and saw six Police Officers. Across Ardbenie Drive close to Tichagarika Flats opposite Engeen Filling Station, there were a lot of young people we could not count.
The Police insisted us to open the door claiming they had come to recue us: ‘Open the door and come out so that we can take you to the Police Station where you can be liberated. This place is too crowded, and more people are still coming such that we might end up failing to control the crowd’, shouted Officer Magauze, the Officer in Charge for Mbare Police Station.
We told the Police that we were taking care of the vendors’ wares for the night. We expressed our wish that we wanted the vendors’ wares to be secured because that is where they got their livelihoods. However, the Police said they were going to leave some of the Police Officers looking after our wares at Cloak Room. Whilst they were speaking, we saw, through the window, the youth crossing the road coming towards the Cloak Room. We insisted we could not come out because the Police Officers were few and we were not satisfied with the security they were going to provide. Officer-in-Charge (O.C.) Magauze then said: ‘Wait a minute! I will talk to them before you come out’. The O.C., accompanied by one Police Officer, crossed Ardbenie Drive and walked towards Tichagarika Flats where the youth were gathered. They talked to the ring leader, commonly known as Gobvu, who resides at No. 22nd Street, Joburg Lines, Mbare. They talked to each other for about ten minutes, but we did not hear what they discussed.
The OC came back to us and warned: ‘Come out of that building and accompany us to the Police Station because the youth are threatening to burn this room in our (Police) presence’. But we told OC Magauze that we were not going to come out of the room. We requested him to call more reinforcements from the Police Station because we felt we were not safe, and above all, we wanted to take care of our wares. We heard one of the Police Officers saying: ‘You want to teach us our work, wait; we will show you that we can to do our work without your supervision’.
One of the Police Officer started to move outside the room, probably looking for something to use to destroy the door. After failing to find anything, he started moving towards Mai Musodzi Hall where the youth were assembled. We were peeping through the window, watching how the Police moved around. The Police Officer was given an iron rod by one of the youths and started to destroy the lock of the Cloak Room. The Police managed to destroy the door and entered. The used their cell phones to light the room and commanded us to accompany them to the Police Station. Initially, the building was destroyed by the youth, and now, the Police had done their part in the destruction. It was a painful situation! We depended on the security of this room.
We obeyed the Police and agreed to leave the room. The six of us came out, but one hid himself behind a hip of the flea market wares. Whilst we were outside, there was another group of youth (Group B) that came and started to ask the Police what had happened. We recognised the group as our colleagues in the flea market industry. The Police asked Group B to accompany them to the Police as well; otherwise they will be endangered by the initial group of the youths (group A). We started our journey to the Police. But we saw part of Group A coming to us whilst many were going into the Cloak Room. We told the Police that we wanted to run away because part of Group A was advancing towards us shouting ‘Thief! Thief!’ One of the police Officer produced a riffle and threatened to shoot anybody who would run away. However, some of the youth followed fifteen or so metres from us. After a while, the Police told Group A to go away. They complied.
We arrived at the Police Station where we were instructed to sit on the wooden benches. We told the Police on duty that we wanted to report our case, but we were told to wait for the OC to give instructions. After about thirty minutes, O.C. Magauze arrived and commanded the Police Officer on duty to write down our names, ID numbers and addresses. At the same time, we were instructed to remove our shoes, belts and an extra shirt or trousers. Whilst we were doing this, Officer Mahachi (also known as Dispal), a women who is in Charge of all the Police Stations in Mbare, arrived. She asked what we had committed. We explained what had happened. She asked O.C. Magauze if he had seen Group A where they had collected us. O.C. Magauze said he did not see anybody.
Officer Mahachi then said: ‘You are going to be arrested for a murder case!’ We asked: ‘Whom did we kill?’ Officer Mahachi responded: ‘You MDC people are murderers; you killed a person in Harare South. We want to carry out our investigations whilst you are locked in cells.’ Our names were written in a register of people who are locked in cells. ‘See you tomorrow MaChinja (euphemism for MDC supporters)’, sad Officer Mahachi.
Meanwhile, our colleague who hid himself behind a hip of flea market wares in the Cloak Room entered the Charge Office under the heavy arms of two men we could not identify. His body was soaked in blood. His hand was fractured. His back had been stabbed by a sharp object. We requested for a cell phone to call somebody to bring a car to take our colleague to hospital. Within a short period of time, a vehicle came and took our colleague to Avenues Clinic. But the driver asked why victims of violence are put in cells whilst the perpetrators continue to loiter freely, beating more people in the streets. The Police Officers in the Charge Office responded: ‘We follow commands!’
The 19 of us were later put in cells where we stayed for three days before we were taken to Mbare Magistrate Court on the fourth day. We were represented by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. We were accused of inciting public violence. We were transferred to remand prison where we paid bail on 27 January 2011. Some of our colleagues who had sustained injuries and bruises took the opportunity to visit Counselling Services Unit (CSU) for treatment. But this was not enough.
31 January 2011: Whilst we were repairing the Cloak Room, one of our colleagues received a phone call from members of Group A advising us to leave the place as soon as possible because ‘we are coming to attack you’. This was around 1500hrs. We agreed to leave the place as soon as possible. But it was too late. As we moved out of the room, we were already surrounded by over 300 youths. The safest thing for us was to go back into the Cloak Room. We went inside and locked the doors. We tried to phone our colleagues to come and help us. We did not call the Police because we no longer trusted them. Stones were hailed towards the room, finding their way to us through the windows. Those who responded to our call for assistance could not come closer. They remained about a kilometre and some metres away from us.
Some of the youth started to destroy the building, whilst others climbed to the roof to remove the roof sheeting. The front door fell off and we realised our lives were in danger. We attempted to protect ourselves by throwing back the stones. Those who had come to assist us rushed to Mbare Police to ask them why they were leaving us in that situation. The Police said: ‘We don’t have manpower. We have phoned Harare Central. They are coming’.
After about forty-five minutes, a Police vehicle full of Police Officers arrived under the leadership of Officer Shoko, who is the O.C. for Matapi Police Station. He stood in front of the room. No other Police Officer got out of the car. Group A moved away from our building and the violence receded. After about three minutes, the Police vehicle drove away towards Mbare Police Station. Group A was given another opportunity to attack us again. Most of the people who sympathised with us followed the Police vehicle, demanding to know why they were failing to stop the violence. They crowded Mbare Police Station. This was a dangerous situation at a Police station. Realizing this, armed Police with tear gas canisters drove about three vehicles and came back to the scene of violence.
The war did not end, but intensified. Again, the other Police Officers remained in the vehicle. O.C. Shoko, who is also a Chief Security Officer of a political party in Mbare, wielded a gun and started to scare away people. He came to the room where we were and shouted: ‘You killed a person’. When he looked at us, he realised we had been injured. Then he said: ‘I am joking, I have come to rescue you. Come, let’s go’.
We were driven in one of the Police vehicles where stones continued to bombard us. But the police moved swiftly towards Mbare Police Station. In Mbare Charge Office, we recognised Mr. Kadenge, a member of JOMIC. When we were about to sit, we were instructed: ‘remove your shoes. You are under arrest’. Most of the people who were in the Charge Office started to demonstrate. That is when the four of us managed to escape. We were picked by an ambulance to Avenues Clinic from Heavy Industrial area.
1 February 2011: We were discharged from hospital, but we were advised by our colleagues that we must not set our foot in Mbare again. We found accommodation in a safe house. We left our properties in Mbare, but all was taken by Group A, which assumed Chipangano as their name. We used to operate flea markets at a place called Lucky Seven Mbare Msika. All the clothes we used to sell were taken away when they broke into the Cloak Room. However, sometime in September 2011, somebody sponsored us and we began to sell musical compact disks in the Central Business District, especially at corner First Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue. The problem began when the Police started telling us to leave the place because ‘we don’t want to see MaChinja selling their things in town’. But most of the vendors had contained the situation for some time by bribing some of the Police Officers who patrolled the area. However, it was realised some of the Police Officers were demanding too much causing some of the vendors to operate at a loss.
11 January 2012: The Police woke up early to garrison Nelson Mandela Avenue in civilian clothes. We arrived at our usual vending sites and started to conduct business as usual. We did not know that we were already garrisoned. At around 0800hrs, all the vendors operating between First and Angwa Street were rounded. The Police started to beat us continuously until we got to Harare Central Police Station where we realised one of our colleagues was unconscious and had fractured his left leg. Ten of us were arrested. Represented by ZLHR, we were taken to court where we were remanded in custody for three weeks. On 1 February 2012, we were bailed out on US$100 for each individual.
We do not know where those with different political views are allowed to live. Where should we live? Can we be stripped of our citizen because we have different political views? We want to be self- sufficient, but they take everything we buy for resale. We are always on the run and we miss our families and permanent homes. We have lost confidence in our Police and we don’t have anywhere to report. O.C Shoko, for example, told us at one time that: ‘I will bury all of you this year. Go to Britain. You don’t belong here’. We know all the people who harass us in Mbare: Martin is the group leader at Mbare Msika, whilst Jim Kunaka and Demere are the ring leaders in Mbare and Mashawasha flats. Others are Chamunorwa Rusike, Tawanda Mhishi, Fungai Manzvimbo, Robert Jweva, Godfrey Makoto, Richard Romio, Garikai and Paradzai.
The golden rule for farmers depending on rain fed agriculture and surviving on growing of crops, especially maize is; ‘plant with the first summer rains’. Most farmers are aware of this and usually prepare themselves in advance for every agriculture season. However their plans are usually disturbed by some decision makers who try to intervene, sometimes deliberately, at the most pertinent moment: soon after the fall of the first rains. Just a week before the rains, some less privileged (orphans, widows and the elderly) peasant farmers from Holy Cross, Chirumanzu District, were each instructed to pay US$32 for an unspecified amount of fertilizers and maize seeds (including transport) by some people who claimed to be Agriculture Extension employees. However, the funds were diverted and the so called organisers used the money to start a beef committee. Similarly, households from Chamakanda and Leenwood (Chirumanzu-Sebakwe Constituency) were advised by a senior politician to pay US$32 each in the last week of November 2011 in order to receive 15 bags of fertilizer, 25 kgs of maize seed and a bottle of herbicides on ‘Friday’. The money raised was deposited into a bank account in Chivhu. Given the time they spent in saving, their plans were just cut abruptly in few hours by false promises which forced farmers to miss the important days for planting. By March 2012, most farmers who contributed were still waiting for the ‘Friday’ to receive their inputs. Of course, there have been well thought ideas of providing inputs for the farmers, but the implementation process has caused poverty. Whilst some farmers, especially in the remote areas of the country are skipped by these processes despite the fact that they just want not more than 4 bags of fertilizers and 15 kgs of maize on good time for a family of six to be well fed throughout the year, the allocation of inputs by the Grain Marketing Board has not been fair. At the end of December 2012, an A2 farmer (with an offer letter), for example, was allocated 1200 bags of fertilizer (800 Compound D and 400 Ammonium Nitrate) per 100ha while an A1 or communal farmer got 6 bags (4 bags Compound D and 2 bags Ammonium Nitrate). What then happened is that the popular and well known A2 farmers took all the available inputs, leaving nothing for the marginalized farmers. Even on Christmas Day of 2011, some A2 farmers were still collecting their inputs and we wonder if they are going to use them now, or it is just hoarding for future use? The implication of this injustice is that the poor people who have been deprived of agriculture inputs on time will experience poverty and will be consequently used by politicians as election campaign machinery. It seems agriculture input deprivation is deliberate to create that situation of desperation and hunger among many poor people so that they can be easily incited against one another, especially political opponents, in exchange for food rations. When will this practice stop?
They have experienced violence. They continue to experience intimidation. But they have developed some strategies. They attend all political meetings and accept everything offered by any politician or political party:
‘We are not stupid! We know who is causing violence. We know the political parties that are behind violence. We have made our researches. We recently found out that Jabulani Sibanda is not a war veteran, but was a driver of a senior politician from Matebeleland, who was one of the leaders of the liberation struggle. He came to Masvingo Province for more than a year and intimidated us. We attended most of his meetings where he threatened us with more violence. We know the political party that he represents. We agreed to whatever he said, and even sloganeering, but we will never vote for violence. Jesus loved us first and created us in His image. Thou shall not kill, says the Bible. No one, except God, has the right to take away life. How can someone repeatedly threaten to fill 25 litre containers with human blood if his party loses elections? Is this not being too cruel and ruthless, especially the old, that the containers will be filled with blood of people who will be killed for making their independent political choices? We have lost lives and surely this cannot go on forever. They can say anything, they can do anything, but we know voting is secret and we can make our own choices on the ballot. There are other scenarios that we are also noting. Imagine, most of the schools in our area had no books, but one politician came to us and instructed us not to accept books donated by UNICEF because “they came from the whites”. We are not stupid! How can we refuse books for our children when we know that the wealthy politicians send their children abroad for quality education? The bottom line is that we know where all this is coming from. Our revenge is on the ballot.’
Gura Primary School, located 20km from Chireya Business Centre in Gokwe is a potential hazard to children. It was opened on 30 June 2011 and currently has 327 pupils and 8 teachers (2 are trained – the Headmaster and the Deputy). The opening of the school was largely political since it was facilitated by District Vice-Chairperson of a political party. Of course, there are other schools that are like Gura Primary in Zimbabwe, but Gura Primary was instituted on political grounds to blindfold the local community, especially to gain votes ahead of next elections. The school has wooden log sheds as classrooms. There are dilapidated huts that are used as teachers’ houses. There is no furniture. Pupils sit on logs and crouch to write in their exercise books placed on their laps on dusty floors. See the photos in the previous post.
On Sunday 26 February 2012, 64 year old widow from Mbare was forced out of the Catholic Church by a group of five youth after being accused of helping MDC with cooking utensils. The old woman has a tradition of generously providing her cooking utensils to individuals or groups on request for free of charge. It happened that on Saturday 25 February, a young man came to her house and kindly asked for one of her big pots. As a tradition, she could not refuse.
The following day, she was followed in Church to explain why she had provided ‘a big pot to cook food for MDC’. Of course, it is not allowed in the Catholic tradition to go out in the middle of the Sacrament. But the five youth threatened to burn the Church building if the old lady was not coming out. One of the youth in the group even phoned for more Chipangano youth to come as reinforcements. They continued to make noise, shouting that even ‘Mudhara (the old man: the youth were rhetorically referring to the President) does not want Catholics in this country and he has instructed us to burn this Church if the old woman is not coming out’. The youths said they even wanted to take the Priest presiding over the Mass with them because they were instructed to do so by Mudhara. However, as the Parish Chairperson was trying to negotiate with the youth to go away, one other lady who overheard the commotion went inside the church and instructed the old women to go out.
The five youths force marched the old woman to her home amid allegations and shouts that she was an MDC supporter. When they arrived at her house, the youth began to shovel the old women, pushing her from one youth to the other. They took SIM card from her cell phone and around midday, they took her to Paget House for a ‘thorough punishment’. However, most of the youth at Paget House recognised her and testified that she gives her cooking utensils to everyone on request regardless of political affiliations. Amidst the discussion, Mr. Tendai Savanhu arrived at Paget House to address the group which forced them to release the old lady in order to listen to Mr. Savanhu’s address. But this was not enough!
At around 1am on the following day (Monday) the five youths knocked at the old woman’s bedroom door and demanded to see her. They had come to deliver a message: ‘you can disappear any time, any day’. Later in the day, the widow reported the case to the Police. After the Police report, she got her SIM card back (on Friday 2 March), albeit without all the credit she had bought.
Since the early morning she was threatened, the widow has not been living at her house. She survives on moving from one friend to the other and sometimes, she spent the whole day praying inside St. Peter’s Mbare New Catholic Church. As we write, she is waiting for somebody to give her bus fare so that she can go to the rural areas and come back after elections.
But the old woman, probably representing the feelings of many victims of Chipangano in Mbare, is traumatised: ‘Smith was better because we enjoyed an element of freedom. If this is what we call independence, I don’t think many would like it. Mbare has become hot! We are harassed. Everyone in Mbare is forced to attend night vigils (they call it huyai tiverengane – lets count each other to see who is not at this vigil). But I am telling you, this is a disservice to the political party that is organising these operations. Surely, how can somebody vote for people who traumatise them? But now, everyone here is clever. They attend the meetings but they are well aware that balloting is secret. In 2008, we were equally intimidated and consequently instructed to submit the serial numbers of our ballots. Most did, but they submitted wrong serial numbers’.
But where are these youths coming from? “We call them Magunduru – or the homeless who live and sleep on street pavements. Most of them do not have national identity cards and are therefore not registered to vote. They are just given food and drugs by powerful political figures to follow their instructions and carry out some delegated duties. Those youths who do not like this abuse have relocated and some are now living in South Africa’.
The Catholic priest raised his chin to show us his dented throat where a member of the Fifth Brigade almost got rid of his throat in early 1987. Seventeen years then, the Priest remembers the big knife, sharpened on both edges, being placed slightly on his throat, but firm enough to make a painful slot that let out considerable millimetres of blood, leaving a permanent mark. However, ‘it was the other member of the Fifth Brigade who instructed his colleague to stop killing me because I was just an innocent boy who did not know anything about the so called dissidents.’
Whenever we meet this Priest, he does not forget to tell us this story. ‘I always feel as if an amount of load has been taken off my shoulder every time I share my Gukurahundi story. You know, there is a problem in keeping things to yourself. I was once hospitalised when my blood pressure shot 200/150 for being too private. Speaking out eases mental pressure, but it also depends on whether somebody is listening’.
Some would assume Gukurahundi happened ‘long ago’ and many who experienced it directly are no longer there. The Priest’s experience and information he gets from his wide spectrum of social networks in this community indicates this is not true: ‘Most of us were young then and we witnessed terrible human slaughter too horrendous for our age then; worst inhuman practises not easy to forget: the smell of burnt human beings; the smell of decomposing human bodies locked in huts; the sight of human blood, oozing at terrific speed from peoples’ limps; human stomachs, ripped open, just in the same way one would do to a goat; chopped human heads, rolling like balls on a pitch…’ The Priest pauses, showing a deep apprehension as if he was explaining something that happened the previous day. He continues: ‘God loved us first and created us in His own image. No one, except God, has a right to take away life!’
The worst scenario today is that people who were young then are starting to question why they are orphans; why their brother, uncle, mother, father, sister or grandmother is not there. The life of poverty, isolation and loneliness they are experiencing now is a result of Gukurahundi. Some have realised they don’t have good education because their parents and guardians, who could have given them financial and moral support to improve their lives, were killed or abducted. Poverty being experienced by some of the Gukurahundi victims is directly linked to the massacres of 1980s.
What is the solution? ‘The victims are demanding little from the perpetrators and those in solidarity with them. But the solution is not to give them money because lost lives cannot be reclaimed by cash. The solution is not just to pronounce a more insulting statement that Gukurahundi ‘was a moment of madness’. The solution is to give the victims opportunity to narrate their stories whilst those in solidarity listen. They want shoulders to cry and shout out their anger. They want the perpetrators to publicly admit and apologise for what they did. Finally, they want tangible development and livelihood improvement initiatives that show they are still part of this nation. Gukurahundi isolated them from the rest, but economic and political marginalisation has separated them from the best’, said the Priest.
