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ZPP
Monthly Monitor – December
2012
Zimbabwe
Peace Project (ZPP)
April 26, 2013
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Executive
Summary
Political tensions
and intolerance remained heightened across the country in the early
days of December 2012 dropping significantly in the last two weeks
of December when the festive spirit gripped the nation as the Christmas
and New Year holidays beckoned. The major sources of conflict in
December 2012 were the partisan distribution of agricultural inputs
and food under the Presidential inputs scheme which spilled over
from November and political parties’ preparations for decisive
general elections which were then rumored to be slated for early
2013.
As has always been in
the past four years the number of politically motivated human rights
violations were a bit subdued during the month of December with
399 cases having been recorded down from 456 incidents recorded
in November.
Several cases of intra-party
conflict in both Zanu-PF and MDC-T were also recorded as aspiring
candidates contested for the right to represent their respective
parties in the upcoming elections. There was also an upsurge in
acts of repression against civil society organisations with state
security agents targeting organisations specifically dealing with
voter registration.
The simultaneous distribution
of maize seed, fertilisers and sometimes rice and maize-meal to
Zanu-PF supporters and denial of the same government-funded aid
to others heightened political polarization in many communities
across the country setting a dangerous trajectory for the coming
elections. The registration of the beneficiaries for this scheme
differed from one place to another. In most villages the registration
was done secretly within Zanu-PF with other members of the community
only getting to know about it when they saw Zanu-PF members carrying
the donations home.
In other places the villagers
were asked to contribute money to hire a vehicle to collect the
donations. When Zanu-PF local leaders tried to discriminate villagers
during the distribution, they failed as communities members demanded
their monies back. Such a case took place in Dombodema in Bulilima
West where people power carried the day and everyone ended up benefiting.
Partisan state security
agents seemed to have moved quickly to implement one of the resolutions
of Zanu-PF’s people’s conference in Gweru which ominously
“instructed the party to ensure that Government enforces the
de-registration of errant NGOs deviating from their mandate”.
On 13 December
2012, five police officers stormed ZimRights
head office in Harare and arrested
the associations’ Education and Programs Manager - Leo Chamahwinya
accusing him of illegally conducting voter registration. He was
remanded in custody and spent the Christmas and New Year holidays
behind bars. On the December 17, 2012 in Bulawayo, the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Association (Zimrights) Regional Coordinator Florence
Ndhlovu was summoned by Detectives from the Law and Order section
and was accused of being in possession of illegal information relating
to the voters roll.
The incarceration
of Chamahwinya and Dorcas Shereni pointed to a renewed clampdown
on the activities of human rights NGO’s that gained pace in
November when 3 CSU
staffers were arrested
and detained on a spurious charge of defacing a wall in Bulawayo.
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