by MARCUS MUSHONGA / TINTSWALO BALOYI
Southern Bureaus
HARARE, (CAJ News) – THE mass arrest and intimidation of activists and opposition officials in Zimbabwe is a litmus test to the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC’s) commitment to upholding human rights.
In South Africa, the ongoing infringements in the northern neighbour, a perennial offender in human rights violations, is already a source of divisions in the newly-formed government of national unity (GNU).
It brings to the fore the ideological differences of the parties that agreed to form the coalition government after the May 29 elections that did not produce an outright winner.
Simultaneously, the crackdown is further driving a wedge between Zimbabwe and its northern neighbour, Zambia, which in recent years has become the sole voice of the violations against citizens by the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Following the clampdown on pro-democracy activists, calls are mounting for the 16-member SADC to move the upcoming 44th Ordinary SADC Heads of State and Government regional bloc’s summit from Zimbabwe to a different venue.
In South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA), the long-running opposition party, now a key member of the GNU, has made the demands.
This is a source of apprehension in the unity government, amid the two parties’ differing policies on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The DA has for years been outspoken about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe, but the ANC has adopted the so-called quiet diplomacy.
It was always going to be interesting how the new government in South Africa would react when the problems north of the Limpopo resurfaced.
In recent weeks, apparently as a move to curb protests during the summit, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front- (ZANU PF-) led government of Mnangagwa has arrested dozens of activists.
The crackdown has continued in recent days, including last Thursday when four activists were hauled off a plane at the main airport and allegedly tortured. They were among a total 18 activists arrested on the day.
They were charged under public disorder laws after taking part in protests demanding the release from detention, since June, of opposition leader, Jameson Timba.
There were more reports of opposition legislators arrested on Sunday.
Emma Louise Powell, DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation, has called on Minister Ronald Lamola to exercise South Africa’s right as a member of SADC and urgently demand that the SADC summit to be held on August 17 in Harare be moved to a different location.
“The DA makes this call following multiple reports of yet another state-sponsored clampdown on pro-democracy activists by a paranoid ZANU-PF regime, fearing public protests in the lead-up to the summit,” Powell said.
She claimed that Mnangagwa’s upcoming SADC chairmanship was testament to the continued failure of regional leaders to hold Zimbabwe’s “political thugs” to account.
“South Africa, as a leading member of SADC, must now take a firm stand to uphold international law and advocate for the summit to be moved to a location that upholds and respects democratic values,” Powell said.
The DA official believes this action would send a clear message that South Africa, as a member of the SADC, would no longer tolerate the suppression of democratic freedoms on its doorstep.
Successive ANC administrations have largely sided with ZANU-PF owing to their liberation war links.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One South Africa (BOSA), maintained that the country should cut diplomatic ties with Zimbabwe.
“The abuse of political rights and the arrests of activists over the last few days is more justification of that position,” Maimane said.
The opposition leader stressed that the problems in Zimbabwe impacted on South Africa.
“The more Mnangagwa crushes the people, the more Zimbabweans are driven into South Africa. The more he steals from his people, the more we pay,” Maimane said.
But ZANU-PF remains defiant.
“The SADC Summit will be held in Zimbabwe. Nothing can change that,” the ruling party-aligned ZANU-PF Patriots emphasised.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) denied that the government had banned or prohibited public gatherings due to the forthcoming SADC summit.
“This is false,” said police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner, Paul Nyathi.
“The public should dismiss this false information with the contempt it deserves,” Nyathi said.
Zimbabwe already has a diplomatic tiff with Zambia following the controversial elections the former held last year.
Zambia’s Nevers Mumba led a SADC observer mission that denounced the elections as lacking credibility. SADC eventually endorsed the election of Mnangagwa.
Joseph Kalimbwe, a youth activist of Zambia’s ruling United Party for National Development (UPND), also called for the summit to be moved from Zimbabwe.
“People who abduct their own citizens have no business hosting a SADC Summit, let alone chair it,” Kalimbwe said.
“Our region, the finest, most stable and democratic on the African continent, is now sinking before us. Instead of rescuing it, we give it to political misfits to finish it all off,” Kalimbwe claimed.
Angola is to hand over the chairship of SADC to Zimbabwe at the Summit on August 17.
– CAJ News