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Human rights abuses
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-36
Monday September 6^th – Sunday September 12^th 2004

ZBC’s reluctance to expose continuing human rights violations in the country was demonstrated by its suffocation of the authorities’ clampdown on opposition and civic organisations during the week.

While the other media carried 16 reports on the issue, 10 of which were in the private media and the rest in the government Press, ZBC ignored the stories altogether. The reports included the arrest of civic and opposition leaders such as NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku and MDC legislator for Kuwadzana Nelson Chamisa along with 12 others.

Although the private media and the government Press reported on the arrests, as well as police raids on the NCA and MDC offices in Harare and Bulawayo, the government Press did not view the incidents as reflective of government’s continuing repression against dissent. Thus their stories appeared designed to downplay the culpability of the police. Neither did they identify POSA as the major source of such repression. For example, The Herald and Chronicle (9/9) quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena apparently dismissing any wrongdoing by the police following their raids on the NCA and MDC offices by claiming that the police’s "obligation" was to "follow indications that suggest any commission of crime". Bvudzijena argued that the police acted in the manner they did after receiving information that there was "subversive material" at the two organisations’ offices.

However, the private media were more forthright. They viewed the arrests as an intensification of government’s campaign against the opposition. The Zimbabwe Independent (10/9), for example, quoted Madhuku describing his 16^th arrest under POSA as "clear evidence of escalating political repression and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe". In addition, the paper quoted him claiming that police had warned him, in the presence of his lawyer, that one day other people opposed to the NCA agenda could kill him. Said Madhuku: "they gave me an example of how (Herbert) Chitepo was killed. I was given a long lecture on that."

The independent radio station Studio 7 (9/9) quoted human rights activist and lawyer Gabriel Shumba condemning the arrests saying they demonstrated that government was using POSA "to intimidate and harass the voices of dissent". Similarly, MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi (The Daily Mirror 9/9 and SW Radio Africa 9/9) and MDC lawyer Josphat Tshuma (The Standard 12/9) also interpreted the police action as part of government’s persecution of its perceived enemies. Said Nyathi on SW Radio Africa (9/9): "The actions that have been taken by the Zanu PF government in the past few days vindicate our decision as a party to suspend participation in all elections until this government demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that it intends implementing in full the Mauritius Protocol…"

However, The Manica Post (10/9) revealed that the country’s deteriorating political situation had even turned ruling party supporters against each other. This followed a retributive attack by suspected war veterans against supporters of ZANU PF’s Makoni North MP, Didymus Mutasa, believed to be behind the recent assault of retired Major James Kaunye who is vying for Mutasa’s post.

But despite the media’s revelations of such political mayhem, The Financial Gazette (8/9) berated Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube’s resolute stance against such government-tolerated chaos. The paper surprisingly used the Archbishop’s reported discussion with the British heir apparent, Prince Charles, over Zimbabwe’s deteriorating political situation, to mean the cleric was advocating British colonial hegemony in Zimbabwe.

The comment, more notable for undermining its own logic, described Ncube as a "less-than convincing self-appointed moral authority" who has been "poisoned by the noxious fumes of the once blazing but now smouldering colonial fires …". The paper even claimed that Ncube’s concerns for Zimbabwe were "guided by vain and groundless hope".

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