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Legal Monitor - Issue 131
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 20, 2012

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Torturers in the dock

The chickens are coming home to roost for two police officers accused of torturing a 43-year-old Bulawayo woman.

Constables Tinevimbo Shoko and Tazvitya Mudzingwa based at Pumula Police Station last week appeared before a Western Commonage Magistrate in Mpopoma on assault charges.

While many other cases of torture by police officers are going ignored, Shoko and Mudzingwa's case brings a ray of hope that cases of civilians being tortured in police cells could start getting attention from authorities.

Shoko and Mudzingwa are back in court tomorrow for continuation of their trial which commenced last week.

Magistrate Temba Chimiso is presiding over the matter while Mrs Nyathi is prosecuting.

The police officers are in the dock after Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) intervened and warned of legal consequences if action was not taken against the two for allegedly torturing 43-year-old Mankanzanyana Moyo. The torture included denying her medication.

ZLHR senior projects lawyer, Lizwe Jamela on 13 January this year lodged a complaint to the Officer In-Charge of Pumula Police Station.

Police responded to ZLHR's complaint after a follow up letter to Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri on 16 January stating an intention to sue.

"Please be advised that on behalf of the Commissioner-General of Police we are treating the matter just as good as other reports of assault made by citizens and foreigners in Zimbabwe. We do not condone such behaviour even if perpetrated by our members," wrote a chief superintendent who signed the letter as L Matange.

According to the ZLHR letter to Chihuri, the two police officers assaulted Moyo at Pumula Police station in Bulawayo with a baton stick under her feet and slapped her on the face.

"She was then severely assaulted under her feet to the extent she could not put on her shoes upon being released," read the ZLHR letter.

"She was also denied her medication when her alarm went off alerting her of the twelve hour intervals for medication. She was instead insulted about her medical status and told people like her always die in prisons and she should just admit and give the police what they wanted. All of which necessitated her seeking medical attention (report of which is attached together with an extract from her treatment book) at Mpilo Hospital, Bulawayo. Such torture we consider to be inhumane and degrading treatment."

The issue of police torturing civilians in police stations has been on the spotlight since the beginning of the year.

Doctors say Agnes Muponda, a 37-year-old Bulawayo woman, could have suffered "potential damage of life" after police tortured her at the Criminal Investigations Department housed at CABS Building in Bulawayo on Saturday 14 January.

A medical report indicates she could also have suffered permanent disability after being attacked by officers who had taken her in on allegations of theft.

A government doctor at United Bulawayo Hospitals who attended to Muponda after her ordeal stated in a medical report that she has suffered "extensive bruises over the entire trunk (and) limited movement over the ankle joints."

The doctor noted after examining Muponda that there was "potential danger of life" following the attack.

He described the injuries as "very serious", most probably caused by a "blunt" instrument. The degree of force used to inflict the injuries was "severe", according to the doctor's report.

The report noted that Muponda's life was left vulnerable because of "extensive tissue injury".

Permanent disability was likely to occur at the ankle joint, the doctor said in an affidavit signed on 17 January, a day after attending to Muponda. Before Muponda, police at Chisamba police in Mutare had opened the New Year with the torture of Noel Zino, a bus loader from Mutare on 9 January.

In typical Zimbabwe police style, officers at Chisamba Police Station in Mutare's Sakubva high density suburb beat up Zino to force him to admit that he had assaulted a passenger. The court later threw out the case against Zino for lack of evidence.

Rights groups such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum have been campaigning for an end to impunity, which they blame for the continued torture of civillians by state security agents. The Forum told the 50th Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul last year that torture, a crime prohibited under regional and international law, was still rampant in Zimbabwe.

This was despite a decline in the magnitude of levels of organised violence and torture in the country since the formation of the coalition government between President Robert Mugabe and long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2009.

The government committed itself to giving consideration to ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment at last year's Universal Periodic Review.

But information availed in Banjul last year showed that on the ground; State institutions could take a while to wipe out torture, which hit a high during the 2008 election period and has refused to die down.

"Organisations providing psycho-social, medical and legal assistance to victims of torture are still being inundated with requests for assistance from victims of the 2008 March harmonised elections and the June presidential runoff election," the Forum said in a position paper at the Banjul meeting.

"Perpetrators of torture remain largely immune to prosecution and the law does not criminalise torture. This encourages impunity."

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