March 18-25, 2015
Contents
Compiled by MIGS Desk Officer for Zimbabwe – Mike Taylor
Zimbabwe’s Prisons
The Zimbabwean, March 18, 2015
“Jail sentence often means death” by ‘Jera’
- Conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons are well below what is acceptable six years after an undercover television exposé revealed a prison system in which malnutrition and communicable diseases are rife.
- The Zimbabwe Prison System (ZPS) (or Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional System) struggles to provide even one meal per day to inmates. In 2013, over 100 prisoners died of malnutrition. Ostensibly, the president’s organizing committee has confiscated cattle intended to produce food for the ZPS in the past.
- In September 2014, the Commissioner General of the ZPS claimed that corruption was to be ‘weeded out’ but that does not appear to be the case.
NewsDay, March 24, 2015
“Relatives not allowed to provide clothes to family members in prison”
- Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice-President of Zimbabwe, has told Parliament that state policy does not allow family members to provide clothes to prisoners.
- Mnangagwa said that prisoners must wear uniforms to be able to identify them as a danger to the public.
- Mnangagwa, Minister of Justice, said, “I have no problems in receiving cash donations so that we use the money to buy the correct material for sewing uniforms . . .”
- There is currently a serious shortage of linen in the country’s 46 prisons. Inmates are obliged to wear tattered rags in the cold season.
*State owned media did not comment on this issue this week.
Accusations of MDC-T plot to destabilize Zimbabwe and Itai Dzamara
Independent Media
Daily News, March 24, 2015
“Tsvangirai visits Dzamara family” by Fungi Kwaramba
- Leader of the MDC-T, Morgan Tsvangirai has visited the family of missing prodemocracy protester Itai Dzamara. Tsvangirai said that a desperate and panicking Zanu PF were behind the disappearance of Mr. Dzamara.
- Tsvangirai also said that Dzamara was taken in broad daylight by who could only be the state security apparatus.
- Tsvangirai also conveyed the stress that Dzamara’s family was undergoing due to his disappearance.
- The barber who was present at Dzamara’s kidnapping said that the kidnappers identified themselves as state security agents.
- The Zanu PF has countered these accusations by saying that MDC-T engineered the kidnapping to bring Zimbabwe to the forefront of international attention
State-Controlled Media
The Herald, March 24, 2015
“MDC-T in plot to force early poll”
- MDC-T began speaking with ‘progressive’ Zanu PF counterparts. A meeting of MPs will take place in May; it will be called the National Convergence Conventions. The Herald claims that the conventions are designed to plan protests which will destabilize Zimbabwe.
- Leaders of other political parties, church representatives and civil society members have also been invited to attend the conventions.
- MDC-T is allegedly working with former members of ex-Vice President Joice Mujuru’s “cabal” to orchestrate the conventions.
- An organized campaign is taking place outside of Zimbabwe, in locations such as Denver and Cincinnati in the United States and Johannesburg in South Africa. The initiative appears to be designed to revitalize Zimbabwe. It is called “Zimbabwe First.”
Brief Analysis
Brief Analysis, by Mike Taylor, MIGS Desk Officer for Zimbabwe
Now that Zanu PF appears to have purged many from among its ranks who were VP Mujuru loyalists, intimidation of the opposition appears to have returned. With the MDC-T headquarters coming under an apparent police ‘siege’ last week and renewed slighting of MDC-T in state-controlled media, Zimbabwe may be entering a new phase of political unrest. The recent phase of party factionalism within the Zanu PF appears to have moved to a new chapter of MDC-T suppression. Accusations that MDC-T may be responsible for the disappearance of Itai Dzamara, the political activist who orchestrated Zimbabwe’s own ‘occupy’ movement is also cause for concern.
To add to the possible looming unrest in the political arena, there is the impending issue of a major crisis of the state prison system. Undercover footage from SABC five years ago indicated that at that time, Zimbabwean prison sentences meant shocking malnourishment and maltreatment. It appears that this has not changed as a recent prison riot at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison may indicate. The prison system admits that it is struggling financially. Unproven allegations have surfaced that elements of Zanu PF may be siphoning off food destined for prisons. As the economy of Zimbabwe continues to stagnate, so too does the dehumanization of prisoners.
Note: If hyperlink does not function, you can see the SABC report (via BBC) at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5eosHpXwFg
~MT