President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday spoke against the culture of fear and violence in the country saying his government is committed to deepen democracy through entrenching constitutional rights and freedom of all Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe has of late recorded countless cases of abduction and torture of opposition and civil society leaders amid growing fears that the democratic space continues to shrink.
Before today, Mnangagwa had remained mum as the alleged abductions went unaddressed.
Presiding over the State of the Nation Address and opening of the Second Session of the Ninth Parliament, Mnangagwa said his government is in the process of opening up democratic spaces for all as enshrined in the Constitution and the freedoms must be enjoyed by all.
“The ongoing democratic reforms must entrench Constitutional rights and freedoms for all Zimbabweans. The culture of fear and violence must be uprooted from our societies.
“In line with this commitment to deepen our democracy, I have set up an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce to look into the Political, Electoral, Legislative and Administrative issues raised by the 2018 Election Observer Missions and indeed the Motlanthe Commission of Enquiry,” he said.
This was in reference to the August 1, 2018, post-election violence which killed six civilians and according to the Motlanthe Commission of Enquiry recommendations, perpetrators had to be brought to book.
This comes a few days after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, on his visit to Zimbabwe called on the government to ensure a thorough and independent investigation of these events and the prosecution of those responsible.
“The repression of protesters, the attempt to ban protests, the excessive use of force and the restrictive application of legislation regulating the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and association gravely overshadow efforts to democratically transform Zimbabwe,” he said.
In recent times, 50 people are alleged to have been abducted and the opposition as well as CSO push the blame on state security agents while the government has accused the former of “stage-managing” the abductions in an effort to “tarnish the image” of the government.
