Nkosentsha Khumalo
OVER 10 Villagers from Nkayi in Matabeleland North province are reported to have been viciously beaten and forced to sing Shona liberation war songs at the mercy of errant Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Officers during a brutal crackdown conducted recently.
Seven ZRP officers, who were investigating a case of diesel theft, brutally assaulted the villagers and forced them to sing Shona liberation war songs.
The mistreatment of the Nkayi villagers by ZRP Officers has evoked chilling echoes of the dark days of the Gukurahundi massacres, where an estimated 20 000 innocent civilians were mercilessly attacked by government forces.
Scars of the past have been reopened with the alleged violation of the villagers’ fundamental rights, the use of excessive force and racial discrimination, and the gross abuse of power by law enforcement officials, which all bear a disturbing resemblance to the horrors of the 1980s purge.
The Nkayi villagers have appealed to ZRP Chief Officers to take remedial action
against the delinquent police officers, who ill- treated them by severely assaulting them before coercing them to sing some Shona liberation songs.
Individuals at the heart of this humiliating ordeal are 11 villagers of Tshayane village in Ward 6 of Nkayi, Matabeleland North province.
The 11 villagers allegedly subjected to the brutal treatment includes 3 teenagers, namely Siphiwe Sibanda (18), Bekithemba Lunga (19), a 13-year-old minor, Philemon Ncube (21), Precious Nkiwane (25), Mxolisi Ncube (27), Sitshengisiwe Tshuma (38), Siphiwe Ncube (45), Douglas Lunga (46), Rueben Ncube (52), and Chiedza Takaendesa (55).
The alleged assault, which took place on 14 July, left these 11 villagers with injuries as they endured a violent rampage by the 7 ZRP officers hailing from Manoti Police Station in Gokwe, Midlands province.
Through their lawyers, Jabulani Mhlanga and Prisca Dube of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the villagers lodged a formal complaint to the Officer in Charge at Manoti Police Station, denouncing the brutal conduct of the officers during their Investigations of an alleged diesel theft case reported by local entrepreneur, Oscar Mawarire.
According to Mhlanga and Dube, the ZRP officers, armed with a rifle, truncheons, and whips, unleashed a wave of violence against the villagers, including a minor. Unwarranted force was used, and the villagers were brutally assaulted without just cause.
Revelations are that the villagers were also compelled to sing Shona language liberation songs under duress, and were assaulted for their alleged failure to sing correctly.
Mhlanga and Dube revealed that the ZRP officers, with no legal backing, embarked on an unlawful search of the villagers’ homesteads, violating their privacy and right to property.
Unsubstantiated claims were made by the officers, who alleged that the villagers had been using certain tools, confiscated from their homesteads, to carry out criminal activities.
“Although Mawarire, who is the complainant in the matter, informed the ZRP officers that the villagers were not the people whom he suspected of stealing his diesel, the law enforcement agents insisted on arresting the villagers and subsequently, 7 of them were apprehended and taken to a police post located at Kana Mission, “asserted the Lawyers in their X handle @ZLHZ lawyers.
“The arrest of the villagers was not only unlawful but also inhumane,” Mhlanga and Dube reported.
According to the lawyers, the villagers were deprived of their footwear and warm clothing, and were denied the basic legal right to be informed of their rights at the time of their apprehension.
“The ZRP officers reportedly
threatened to make an example of the villagers in order to deter “Ndebele thieves” from crossing into “Shona territory” and were once again subjected to further physical abuse and forced to sing more liberation songs.
“At the police base, the villagers were made to sleep on concrete
floors, without the provision of blankets and with no ablution facilities, with men being handcuffed to each other.”
“The villagers were all released on 15 July after being ordered to pay US$30 each per person by a police officer, who only identified himself as Dube but were not
issued with any receipts acknowledging payment of what was supposed to be an admission of guilt fine & were also not furnished with some request for medical report forms in order for them to seek medical attention at government-run medical facilities.”
Following the harrowing experience, the villagers were left with no choice but to seek medical treatment at a private facility, which only added to their financial and emotional burden.
Once they had received some degree of care, the villagers reached out to ZLHR lawyers Mhlanga and Dube, who on 1 August, penned a strong letter of complaint addressed to the Officer in Charge of Manoti Police Station.
The human rights lawyers vehemently demanded that the ZRP launch a thorough and impartial investigation into the brutal treatment of the Nkayi villagers, while also calling for appropriate disciplinary measures against the perpetrators of such brutality.
In their letter, Mhlanga and Dube said the Officers’ actions grossly violated the villagers’ fundamental rights, as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
The human rights lawyers protested against the violation of the villagers’ fundamental rights including the right to liberty, right to dignity, the right to bodily and
psychological integrity, protection from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment and the right to equality and non-discrimination, all enshrined in the Constitution.
The conduct of the ZRP officers, Mhlanga and Dube said, amounts to a serious breach of their constitutional mandate and hence the perpetrators of the brutal assault of the villagers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
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