By Dr MASIMBA MAVAZA
Zimbabwe has been in the news for a long time with the west accusing Zimbabwe for breaching the human rights of many opposition members. This included the arrest The women – youth leaders Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, and MDC Alliance legislator Joanna Mamombe who claimed to have been found injured and alleged to have been tortured by state security agents.
These three made a point that their arrest is well publicised and this added a chip on the Zimbabwean record of abuses. These three women were granted bail but each time they come together they would provoke and dare the police to arrest them.
Zimbabwe has a set of laws which are applicable to all citizens who commit the crimes specified in this law whether they are opposition members or not. There is equality of law in Zimbabwe and thus whoever commits a crime is arrested regardless of his or her political affiliation.
Over the past few decades, it’s become easier to convict public officials for corruption but harder to know who’s really guilty of it. But it has become a world out cry if an MDC politician is arrested for committing crimes.
Ironically the West implores Zimbabwe to apply the law differently. The West would rather impose sanctions on Zimbabwe to force them to apply the law leniently against the MDC criminals.
The question we ask ourselves is what exactly is a political prisoner. Would it be said that Zimbabwe has political prisoners in its prisons. A political prisoner is someone imprisoned because they have opposed or criticized the government responsible for their imprisonment. The term is used by persons or groups challenging the legitimacy of the detention of a prisoner. Supporters of the term define a political prisoner as someone who is imprisoned for his or her participation in political activity. If a political offense was not the official reason for the prisoner’s detention, the term would imply that the detention was motivated by the prisoner’s politics. So going by this definition Zimbabwe has politicians who are in prison for criminal offences. This does not make them political prisoners and their arrests are not motivated by politics. It is true that many politicians who are criminals always hide behind politics in order to frame a defence outline in their criminal trials.
In view of the particular attention paid to the problems of criminal and administrative prosecution for political reasons, the opposition has mixed the criminal cases and their political aspirations,the cases of which have been numerous in recent years in Zimbabwe.
In every criminal case the end result will be deprivation of Liberty, deprivation of liberty means detention or imprisonment of a person at any place if he/she is unable to leave it:
a) due to any kind of coercion applied by a public officer, or with the knowledge and connivance of a public officer, or a public authority,or
b) due to the enforcement of a decision taken by a judicial, administrative or other public authority or public officer.
We must always know that there is a benefit in democracy.
One of the benefits of democracy is the separation of power and the respect for rule of law. The three (3) arms of government stick to their constitutionally provided roles and above all, every person is under the law. Among the popular rights in a democracy are the fundamental human rights, which include the right to a peaceful protest. This implies that there could be an unpeaceful protest, too and raises some questions. In any democratically constituted government there has to be law enforcement.
Every government has a right to protect its people and the properties of its people and its property. In protecting lives and property, the Zimbabwean Police is bound by law to apply necessary means and force to protect its people. Those who believe that politics is a passport to commit crimes should not cry foul when the arms of the law get to them.
Zimbabwe is one of the emerging democracies which respects the separation of powers. The police can only recommend that a criminal be kept in custody. This recommendation is not an order and the court makes its own independent and fully informed decision. If bail is denied in Zimbabwe it is not influenced by the government. Yes some overzealous prosecutors think that bail is their decision. Bail is only granted by court.
Unlawful Protests, Protesters and the Zimbabwean Police Force:
While a protest is a verbal or non-verbal expression of disapproval and objection, it can be lawful or unlawful. In Zimbabwe by a combination of fundamental human rights, the right to protest is a fundamental human right. Clearly, two (2) fundamental human rights (the Right to Freedom of Expression and the Press and the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Association) make up the right to protest in Zimbabwe.
Let all persons (rich or poor, strong or weak) be treated equally. This is same ideology that led the forging of the principles of rule of law, so that everyone is below the law and everyone respects everyone’s rights. This also ensures that no person is allowed to violate the rights of another in the exercise of his/her own rights. On this foundation, fundamental human rights are no excuse for violation of any democratic laws. And, fundamental human rights have constitutionally approved circumstances and procedures for their suspension and limitation. Hence, although protest is a human right it becomes unlawful when unlawfully conducted in a manner that rights of others are violated. Where a protest is unlawful, police have a role to play in controlling the protesters but not in exerting any form of punishment.
A protest is expected by law to be peaceful and not destructive. Unpeaceful protest is not protected by human rights rather it is a violation of laws in Zimbabwe. Unpeaceful protest is better referred to as a violent demonstration. Like any other violation of law, there must be a way to contain the violent behaviours of the protesters. Protestors are not supposed to be punished by the police they must be handed over to courts after a court hearing and upon the order (judgment) of a court of law they will then be expected to abide by this order. The police and the court do not collude against the accused. The court works independently of the police.
So the politicians who commit crimes in the line of their political activities are not arraigned for being politicians but for being criminals in the political garments.
Unlawful protesters are never to be punished by law enforcement agents rather they are to be arrested and prosecuted in court, so that a court of competent jurisdiction will issue punishment, where the protesters are found guilty. Law enforcement agents (including, the Police) are not empowered to punish offenders.
However, law enforcement agents are empowered to apply reasonable force in ending unlawful protest (riots). The key thing is reasonableness, so a police officer should not apply more force than necessary or purposefully injure protesters that are no harm to him or the public. For the avoidance of doubt, beating/ maltreatment of arrested/detained protesters is unlawful and the concerned police officers (law enforcement agents) should be prosecuted.
The greatest evil is for the criminals in the opposition outfits to spread the misinformation that Zimbabwe is having political prisoners in its jails. The people who are in Zimbabwe’s prisons are criminals who are politicians. The arrest and conviction of most of them completes the circle of due process.
The Zimbabwean police provides the protection of public safety and the rights of all persons in Zimbabwe. They can not look aside when some people’s rights are threatened by criminals in political gowns.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police is an independent organ of the Executive and is subject to the direction of the courts and bound by their orders.
Every law enforcement agency in Zimbabwe is a representative of and responsive and accountable to the community as a whole regardless of their political alignments. It should be known that our police officials are part of, and have a duty to serve, the community. Despite the lies being told by the opposition.
Members of the police shall exercise their functions, powers and duties as impartial servants of the general public and the Government of the day. Zimbabwean police officers may not participate directly in political activities. Unlike the lies being told by the opposition to the world
No member of the police is ordered or forced to exercise his or her functions or powers or deploy police resources to promote or undermine any political party or interest group, or any member of such a party or group.
With such a professional police force one wonders why Zimbabwe is ranked in the worst polls of human rights abuses.
Zimbabwe does not use Political Motivation to arrest people. Political motivation means the actual reasons for action or inaction, unacceptable in a democratic society, performed by the law enforcement bodies and judiciary and others with authority to achieve at least one of the following purposes.
a) consolidation or retention of power by those with authority;
b) involuntary termination or change in the nature of one’s public activities.
A person deprived of liberty is to be regarded as a political prisoner, if at least one of the following criteria is observed:
1. the detention has been imposed solely because of their political, religious or other beliefs, as well as non-violent exercise of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and other rights and freedoms guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) or the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR);
2. the detention has been imposed solely for activities aimed at defending human rights and fundamental freedoms;
3 the detention has been imposed solely on the basis of gender, race, colour, language, religion; national, ethnic, social or class origin; birth, nationality, sexual orientation and gender identity, property or other status, or on other basis, or due to their firm links with communities united on this basis.
All police action shall respect the principles of legality, necessity, non-discrimination, proportionality and humanity. Zimbabwe has done all things possible to comply with the requirements of natural justice.
Conclusion
Peaceful protests are lawful in Zimbabwe. No person needs approval of any government for a peaceful protest to be held in Zimbabwe. No human right in needs the approval of any person before it can be enjoyed. The issue of whether any approval is needed before a peaceful protest can be held in any part of Zimbabwe has long being resolved by the constitution. Any person in Zimbabwe can protest but where a protest becomes violent it is unlawful and participants can be arrested and prosecuted in a court of law. It is only a court of law that can issue punishment and not any law enforcement officer.
Zimbabwean system does not allow the three arms of of government to collude.
Any report elsewhere that Zimbabwe arrests people for political differences is a lie. We as a country do not arrest people for being members of a political party. We have political leaders who are critical of the government and they still roam our streets poking holes into our future but they are left free.
Those who are in prison have not been put there by ZANU PF but by their actions. Our courts are not partisan and they do not take instructions from political players.
Whatever the sadists in the other countries say it does not change who we are. We are the most good country which respects the rights of its citizens.
What more can we do as a nation to show the world that we are compliant to humanity and we respect each other.
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