By Zimbabwe Peace Project
The fact that the general citizens were on their own is backed by the statistics of the human rights violations recorded in the month of March 2021.
The harassment of citizens by state security agents continued, and ZPP recorded 79 cases, with the police once again leading the list of perpetrators making up 37.61 percent of the perpetrators of the human rights violations logged in March 2021.
The municipal police in Harare contributed to 7.55 percent of the perpetrators.
The violations by the national and municipal police, ZPP noted in its documentation processes, was mainly due to the continued attempts to stifle the operations of those in the informal sector.
“Police continued with their patrols here and whenever they came, they confiscated our goods and made us pay fines for simply selling our wares.
It is as if the full lockdown is still in place,” a vendor in Highfields said of the month of March. Z
PP recorded two killings, 18 assaults and 14 unlawful detentions, one case of torture and one case of attempted murder.
Politicisation of food and other aid remained prevalent across the country and ZPP registered 27 cases of food and other aid discrimination.
The ruling Zanu PF, which appears to have geared itself into election mode way ahead of the 2023 elections, contributed to a significant 16.77 percent of perpetrators of violations recorded in March 2021.
ZPP this month recorded 221 human rights violations, 83 of which were harassment and intimidation of citizens, mostly by the police deployed to enforce the lockdown.
The organisation recorded two killings, two attempted murders, one abduction, 21 cases of unlawful detention, and 35 cases of assault, most of which are attributed to state security agents. Harare recorded the highest violations at 65, followed by Manicaland at 40 and the Matabeleland region recorded the lowest number of violations.
