President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been accused of making broad promises on political reforms but failing to deliver since taking power in 2017, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) barometer report has said.
The report released this week said there was a striking similarity between the current administration and the previous one under former President Robert Mugabe that thrived on crude authoritarianism.
The report which tracks President Mnangagwa’s performance since 2017 said there has been a democratic regression since the coming in of the ‘second republic’.
“In as much as the “Second Republic” or “New Dispensation” came promising wide ranging reforms of the country’s politics and governance mode, the evidence at hand point to more talk and less action. In fact, there has been democratic regression and increasing reliance on crude authoritarianism in the exercises of public power. There has not been much difference between the first and second republic,” read the report
The report titled Plus a Change, The Second Republic’s Governance Performance Since 2017 maintains that the current administration’s scorecard on governance, rule of law and human rights, among others was worse than that of Mugabe.
“Governance and economic relations issues in Zimbabwe have generally attracted negative rating for more than two decades. Based on key business and economic indicators useful for assessing the strength of the economy, the Second Republic scorecard has never been different from its predecessor.
“A high number of systematic and escalating violations of human rights particularly targeting opposition members and civic actors such as journalists, MDC Alliance members, Student leaders, Trade Unionists by security forces were recorded over the course of the period under review.
“In 2018-2019, extra-judicial killings of 17 people, 17 rapes and sexual assault, 26 cases of abduction, 80 gun-related injuries, 586, cases of assault and torture, and 954 cases of arbitrary arrests were recorded. In 2020-21 70 civic and political activists were abducted and tortured. 2021 also recorded a high number of arrests of government critics and continued judicial harassments,” read part of the report
