Source: Human rights groups slam police brutality – DailyNews Live
Blessings Mashaya 26 September 2018
HARARE – Rights groups and political analysts have expressed outrage over
the savage attacks on vendors and ordinary citizens by police in its
on-going blitz against vending in Harare’s central business district (CBD)
and its precincts.
This comes as pressure is mounting on government to set up an independent
body to investigate complaints against members of the security forces.
Government welcomes the decision to decongest Harare’s CBD and drive
vendors off the streets in the wake of a deadly cholera outbreak, has been
sullied by some rogue police officers who ran amok at the weekend,
indiscriminately assaulting people, without any slight form of
provocation.
Yesterday rights groups said the police conduct was “barbaric” and
unconstitutional.
“The police are not protecting citizens as required by the Constitution.
The only institution with the right to punish the citizens if they are
found guilty is the court. I don’t know where the police are getting this
(brutal attacks on people).
“They must use minimum force and when I say minimum force it must not mean
beating people, they must use other ways not to brutalise people.
“It’s very illegal and unconstitutional. I don’t know who taught them to
use force, it’s a culture that we need to desist from, it’s barbaric and
unconstitutional” said Okay Machisa, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association
(ZimRights) executive director.
The Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) said
it was wrong for police to beat up vendors as this was against the law and
spirit of building trust with ordinary citizens.
“The use of force to remove vendors is both illegal and inhumane.
“As Viset we believe in dialogue. We are convinced that constructive
engagement is the panacea to the challenges faced by the informal sector
“The government must deal with the real causes of #Cholera such as
provision of safe and potable water. Blaming vendors won’t ameliorate the
morass,” it said.
Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme warned that the police heavy-handed
approach had the potential to create resistance and violence by affected
groups.
“There is no need for police on the streets and for vendors to be driven
out of the streets by police.
“There is no evidence linking vending… to cholera in Glen View and
Budiriro that is being caused by broken down water and sewer systems.
“The heavy-handed police responses breed resistance and more violence yet
they don’t cure the scourge of unemployment which is creating vendors.
“This will backfire and breeds violent extremism as people will feel
hopeless after the only means of survival they have is taken away by State
violence.
“Once violent extremism begins all little gains (President Emmerson)
Mnangagwa’s administration has registered will be reversed,” Saungweme
warned.
Last week, Mnangagwa swore in a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the
violence and death of civillians who were killed when the army used live
ammunition to break ugly demonstrations in Harare on August 1.
But before the Commission had started its work, riot police officers went
on a rampage at the weekend with some rogue officers savagely assaulting
revellers at nightclubs and harassing ordinary people going about their
business in the CBD.
The weekend’s brutal acts by law enforcement agents went against public
pronouncements of both Mnangagwa and new police commissioner general
Godwin Matanga – who have preached messages of peace and a new
dispensation in the country.
Police and their municipal counterparts have launched a combined blitz on
vendors following the deadly outbreak of cholera which has so far killed
32 people and left thousands needing treatment.
Meanwhile, legal watchdog, Veritas, has revived its attempts to have
government set up an independent body to investigate complaints against
members of the security forces, in line with the new Constitution which
Zimbabweans authored and adopted in 2013.
“Section 210 of the Constitution has still not been implemented over five
years after the main parts of the Constitution came into force on August
22, 2013.
“The section provides for setting up an independent body to receive and
investigate complaints against the security services (i.e. the Police
Service, the Defence Forces, the State intelligence services and the
Prisons and Correctional Service).
“In the interests of the public, and to protect their own reputation, it
is important for these complaints to be investigated fully and impartially
by an independent body,” Veritas said in a statement.
The legal watchdog said it had previously tried to push the government to
implement section 210 but with little success.
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