THERE is no doubt about it — everyone in Zimbabwe is no longer safe. It is possible for you to be kidnapped at any time, and the government officials will say that you orchestrated it.
You can be stoned to death like Tinashe Chitsunge, a Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activist, and the police will say you were run over by a truck.
Like Mboneni Ncube, another CCC activist, you can be speared to death, and your killers go unpunished. This is Zimbabwe, a country with a long history of enforced abductions and disappearances dating back to the 1980s.
Itai Dzamara, an activist and journalist, was abducted by five men in Harare in 2015 and he has not been seen since.
In 2022, Moreblessing Ali was out with her friend in Beatrice when she was allegedly abducted by an unidentified man following an argument. Her mutilated body was found three weeks later.
Again, in September this year, Womberaiishe Nhende, the elected councillor for Glen Norah Ward 27 in Harare, was allegedly abducted and tortured before being dumped on the outskirts of Harare.
Last month, former Mabvuku-Tafara MP James Chidhakwa was allegedly abducted, tortured, injected with an unknown substance and had his dreadlocks shaven off before being dumped in Arcturus.
Two weeks ago, CCC legislator Takudzwa Ngadziore recorded a short video of gun-toting men closing in on him before he was allegedly abducted, tortured and injected with an unknown substance and later dumped in Mazowe.
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Just this week, another political activist Bishop Tapfumaneyi Masaya was found dead after being allegedly abducted, while campaigning for a CCC candidate.
The likes of Jestina Mukoko, Netsai Marova, Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri, Ghandi Mudzingwa, Ishmael Kauzani, Patrick Nabanyama, Nelson Mukwenha also suffered similar fate. Fortunately, some survived but the trauma will never end.
In all these cases, nothing has been done to the perpetrators. What have we become as a nation? Is it a crime to be an opposition activist in Zimbabwe?
According to Mukoko, the State has a hand in the alleged abductions.
Thus, if the State, charged with the duty of protecting its citizens, is the one allegedly committing the atrocities, then who will defend the people? The right to physical security and safety belongs to everyone, and the government must respect, uphold, promote, and fulfil this right. No one should be afraid to express themselves openly or to engage in non-violent protest.
Amnesty International is on record calling for the Zimbabwean authorities to ensure that enforced disappearances and abductions, are treated as extremely serious crimes, and ensure justice and accountability.
But it seems these calls are falling on deaf ears. No one cares.
How long will this go on? The politics of coercion and terror must end. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as head of State, has a duty to put an end to these crimes against humanity. If not, one day he will be held responsible.
We call upon the government to conduct a prompt, thorough, impartial, independent, effective, and transparent investigation into the disappearance and torture of citizens.
