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ZPP
Monthly Monitor – January 2013
Zimbabwe
Peace Project (ZPP)
April 26, 2013
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Executive
Summary
The long drawn
out constitution
making process gained considerable momentum in January 2013
with the three principals in the inclusive
government resolving the contentious issues and agreeing to
a draft constitution. News that the principals had finally agreed
to a draft breathed fresh air into Zimbabwe’s stale political
atmosphere.
The agreement
signalled the unofficial start of the 2013 political campaign season
with intra-party conflicts being recorded across the country as
rival candidates from parties across the political spectrum positioned
themselves to represent their parties in the coming elections.
Zanu-PF’s
membership registration drive was rolled out across the country’s
10 provinces with some reluctant people being forced to fill in
comprehensive data forms that required detailed personal information.
The membership registration exercise turned into a mass intimidation
exercise similar to the anti-sanctions campaign of 2011 with Zanu-PF
activists threatening violence on all those who failed to fill in
the registration forms.
The beginning
of the year also saw a continuation of harassment and intimidation
targeted at human rights defenders and civil society organisations
that work on human rights and governance issues. The police arrested
Zimbabwe Human
Rights Association (ZimRights) Director Okay Machisa when he
and his secretary handed themselves in to the police on January
14, 2013 for allegedly conducting illegal voter registration and
fraud. The arrest followed a raid and subsequent arrest
of Leo Chamahwinya in December 2012.
War veterans’
leader Jabulani Sibanda continued to terrorise villagers in Manicaland
Province since November 2012. He reportedly ordered traditional
leaders, war veterans and communities to his meetings where he openly
threatened opposition supporters with death.
His new tactic
of mass intimidation is reportedly to give two exercise books to
village heads with instructions to use one as a register of Zanu-PF
supporters while the other will be used to take down the names of
opposition supporters. He also ordered everyone of voting age to
go and register to vote and then bring the registration slip to
the village head.
In January,
the ZPP recorded Sibanda’s meetings at Pfidza in Chipinge
East on January 15, he was at Garahwa in Chipinge South on the 18th,
Marange business centre on the 22nd and at 22 miles in Mutare South
constituency on the 23rd of January and the message remained the
same.
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