Zimbabwe activists face crackdown ahead of summit

On the morning of August 7, four masked men tried to break into the offices of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC), a network of groups fighting for democratic freedom in a country where it is often deadly to dissent.

Inside the Harare building, three staff members scampered to hide as the men smashed a security camera outside the gate and tried to force their way in. It was only after neighbours who witnessed the attempted break-in assured the staff that the men had left after triggering an alarm that they came out of hiding. Staff members have since avoided the office.

“No one wants to go there. It was a very traumatic experience for them, and they feel unsafe,” Peter Mutasa, chairperson of the coalition, told Al Jazeera. The intruders, he said, were likely government operatives as the incident followed a government-owned newspaper accusing Mutasa of planning demonstrations.

“It has been their modus operandi, and there have been threats issued by the president’s spokesperson,” he said. Al Jazeera contacted Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Home Affairs, which made remarks this month about agitators seeking to unleash civil disobedience, to comment on the claims but did not receive a response.

The incident at CiZC comes during crackdowns on pro-democracy activists and opposition members as Zimbabwe gears up to host a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Saturday in Harare.

It’s the first time the 16-member bloc will meet in Zimbabwe in a decade. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa will also assume leadership of the SADC – a critical first for his administration.

But that glory is marred by what activists call “paranoia” from the government as police units flooded the streets this week in anticipation of protests.

Since June, security officials have attacked activists and opposition party members at private hangouts and protest venues, accusing them of trying to disrupt the SADC summit. Seventy-eight people, including Jameson Timba, leader of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), were arrested without bail on June 16 at a political gathering that authorities said was “unauthorised”. On June 27, another set of protesters demanding the release of the detained CCC members outside a court in Harare were also bundled away by security forces.

About 160 people have been arrested since June, according to Amnesty International. Police officials hit protesters during arrests and psychologically torture them in detention, lawyers representing them said.

“The government is paranoid. It’s afraid of its own people,” he said. “If it’s a government that was elected by people, that is confident of its legitimacy, we wouldn’t be experiencing what we are witnessing now.”

The government has levelled its own accusations against the opposition. Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe in a statement early this month said agitators were trying to “inflict reputational damage” on the country.

“Adequate measures have been put in place to account for and rein in anybody seeking to disturb peace for any reason,” he added.

New government, old policy

When Mnangagwa, 81, took office in 2017, activists did not expect much from him, Mutasa said.

There were obvious red flags. Mnangagwa was not only a founding member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, but he was also vice president to Robert Mugabe, who led the country for 29 years and brutally repressed his critics.

Mnangagwa was also the state security minister during the 1980s Gukurahundi massacre when Zimbabwean security forces swooped down on civilians in opposition political strongholds of southwest and central Zimbabwe, killing at least 20,000 people.

As Mnangagwa promised political reforms upon taking office after a bloodless coup that ousted Mugabe, rights groups predicted that his reign would likely be a continuation of the old guard.

Still, analysts noted, the tightening of the country’s civic space has been surprisingly brutal. Peaceful critics have faced physical assaults from an increasingly militarised Zimbabwean police, making it difficult for people to speak freely, according to Amnesty International. Activists and their loved ones have been targeted with intimidating messages. Others have been abducted or killed.

In March, the United States imposed sanctions on Mnangagwa, his wife and six others for rights abuses and corruption.

In the lead-up to elections in August 2023, authorities passed the Patriotic Bill, criminalising “wilfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe” and imposing sentences of up to 20 years. Opposition groups said the law is essentially designed to punish opposition members, rights activists and journalists.

Mnangagwa was re-elected with more than half the vote, but CCC candidate Nelson Chamisa described the election as a “giant fraud”, alleging large-scale rigging.

Just after the vote, several opposition members were abducted and tortured, then released. In November, CCC member Tapfumaneyi Masaya was also abducted in Harare. His body was later found dumped on the outskirts of the city. He also had been tortured.

Authorities have repeatedly denied state operatives were involved and have said the opposition abductions were staged. ZANU-PF also denied allegations of rigging in the elections although SADC observers who monitored the vote flagged delays, banned opposition rallies and biased state media coverage as issues of concern.

SADC’s silence

As the crackdowns have increased since June, there has been silence from the SADC, even as calls mount from rights groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch for the bloc to take action.

Some called for the summit to be moved away from Zimbabwe.

“We are very much disappointed by our neighbours,” Mutasa said. “This is happening under their watch. We believe this is something SADC should be able to speak out against because the crisis in Zimbabwe has the potential of spilling over into a regional one.”

South Africa, Zimbabwe’s neighbour and a leading SADC member, has especially come under the spotlight.

Pretoria has positioned itself in recent years as a champion of the underdog under former Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor. It was South Africa that dragged Israel to the International Court of Justice in December, accusing it of genocide over its war in Gaza.

But curiously, some say, Pretoria has not commented on rights violations in its neighbourhood. On social media, posts from Zimbabwe accuse the African National Congress (ANC)-led coalition government of “hypocrisy” and “colluding” with Harare to suppress the people of Zimbabwe.

“South Africa’s silence … appears paradoxical,” said Tinashe Sithole, a political science lecturer at the University of Johannesburg. Pretoria likely doesn’t want to risk a spat with Harare that could affect trade and security relations, the professor explained.

There’s also the risk of aggravating a hot-button issue in South Africa at the moment: immigration, he added. Zimbabweans, pressed by deteriorating political and economic conditions at home, have migrated in huge waves to South Africa in the past three decades. As their numbers grow in a country that’s also battling unemployment and a struggling economy, Zimbabweans and other foreigners have been subject to xenophobic violence.

But “prioritising regional stability and diplomatic ties … risks validating claims of ANC complicity and undermining South Africa’s moral authority on human rights,” Sithole pointed out.

Opposition leaders, including Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the Build One South Africa party, have called Pretoria out. The Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which is a core part of the new coalition government, in a statement on August 2 demanded that the SADC summit be moved from Zimbabwe and Mnangagwa be stripped of his chairmanship.

“Allowing the summit to proceed under the current circumstances will not only endorse ZANU-PF’s flagrant abuse of international law but further undermine the principles upon which SADC was established,” the DA statement read. “President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s upcoming SADC Chairmanship is testament to the continued failure of regional leaders to hold these political thugs to account.”

Sithole said that rather than staying silent and risk being seen as “tacitly endorsing or tolerating” Harare’s actions, SADC leaders could use the chairmanship as a teachable moment.

“By applying diplomatic pressure, monitoring progress and supporting reforms, member states might guide Zimbabwe to align more closely with SADC’s principles,” he said.

Several other SADC members, including Tanzania and Angola, have also faced recent backlash for rights violations.

Meanwhile, as delegates begin to arrive in Harare, staff members of CiZC are forced to lay low.

Mutasa said he fears there will be an even bigger escalation after the summit. ZANU-PF is splintering into factions as some anticipate Mnangagwa will run for an unconstitutional third term. As the factions war, activists are likely to be the proverbial grass that suffers under elephants, some warned.

“We are working with the worst-case scenario,” Mutasa said. “We are now in the ZANU-PF succession mode, and we can’t rule out an escalation.”

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Opposition leader Jameson Timba of the CCC was among those arrested in June