BY BEAUTY NYUKE
THE National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader, Lovemore Madhuku, has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new dispensation of perpetuating the human rights abuses that happened under the late former President Robert Mugabe.
“It is a real notion which Mnangagwa has carried on, which says that if the majority is quiet, then we will beat you (the minority) up, we will arrest you.”
“Let us work on political reforms until we get to the next election. We support the idea of an all-stakeholder’s platform where we can have a continuous discussion, but this relates to those who are not political parties. Political parties must come to Polad,” he said.
Madhuku said the increase in human rights abuses in the country should be raised in the Polad platform.
Polad, a forum of fringe political parties that lost the 2018 elections was created by Mnangagwa. Madhuku is a member of that platform.
“I know that in the political environment, there are complaints of human rights abuses. I want to make it clear that as the NCA, we believe in human rights observance. We check whether the country is going by human rights observance.
“We do not look at the majority of the people; we look at the most active minority. You are judged in relation to that most active minority. It’s a matter of how you treat those people, and that is how your human rights observance is judged. Human rights are about respect for everyone, including those that are regarded as the minority.”
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The NCA leader said Mnangagwa’s administration was mistaken in believing that human rights were only a preserve of the majority.
“I think the government is mistaken there, and this is coming from President Robert Mugabe’s legacy, which says if the majority are not complaining (you are observing human rights). You are (only) three or four people complaining,” he said.
Mugabe was removed by the military in a coup in November 2017. He later died in a Singapore hospital in 2019.
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