Source: Critic of Zimbabwe’s Government Fears for His Life | Human Rights Watch
Authorities Should Ensure Apostle Chiwenga’s Safety, Free Speech Rights
An outspoken street preacher and prominent critic of Zimbabwe’s government, Apostle Talent Chiwenga, has fled his house following heightened surveillance of his church and home in Harare by people in unmarked vehicles.
Yesterday, Chiwenga told me by phone that he believes the Zimbabwean authorities have dispatched a team of state agents known as the “Ferret team” to kill him for his activism, following several failed attempts over the last two years. Apostle Chiwenga has regularly used street sermons in Harare and social media platforms to openly rebuke Zimbabwe’s government for its gross human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, abductions, and torture of activists, rights defenders, and journalists.
In two audio messages widely circulated on social media in September, unnamed persons, both of whom claimed to be members of the ruling ZANU-PF party and Zimbabwe liberation war veterans, labelled Chiwenga an “enemy.” One of them urged other veterans to hunt Chiwenga down because he is “Satan who preaches politics to inspire people to revolt against ZANU-PF.” Four confidential sources in the security sector separately told me last week that the authorities are unhappy with Chiwenga and view him as a security threat that should be “neutralized.” Three security officers described the ongoing surveillance of Chiwenga’s Harare church and home by people in unmarked vehicles.
In June 2020, Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister, Kazembe Kazembe, publicly labeled Chiwenga and others as part of an “illegal and subversive bandwagon under the control of certain diplomatic missions.” On two occasions, Chiwenga was involved in car accidents days after publicly raising concerns about threats to his life by security agents, including a July 2020 accident in Norton, near Harare, and a horrific road accident in June 2019 that killed his wife and two other people.
The Zimbabwean authorities should take steps to ensure the security and protection of Apostle Chiwenga and other critics of the government. Human rights advocates like Chiwenga should not live in fear for exercising their fundamental rights to free speech.
COMMENTS
This rabble known as ZanuPF must realise now that Zimbabwe does not belong to them. Zimbabwe is the people of Zimbabwe no other way. The people of Zimbabwe must see this first and foremost . This rabble has trodden on us all trying to make us feel as if they owe us a lot. ZanuPF must realise if it were not for the people of Zimbabwe this country would have been nothing and ZanuPF is simply trying all in its power to derail that hard work and take credit for this.
So now it is the Ferret team. The Harare team used to call themselves the A Team after a TV show of that name.