Video showing Zim police brutality launched in Johannesburg

By Tichaona Sibanda
14 December 2006

The Solidarity Peace Trust and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa on Thursday described police brutality in Zimbabwe as vicious and equated it with the ill-treatment of blacks during the ‘dark days’ of the colonial era.

The two organisations said this in a joint statement at the launch of a report ‘Policing the State’ and a video ‘Patriotic Force’ in Johannesburg.

Professor Brian Raftopolous, a Zimbabwe political analyst based in Johannesburg, and who launched the report described the police torture as shocking and evidence that sanity in Zimbabwe can only return if Robert Mugabe steps down from power.

He also noted that police in the country have been turned into a party force that applies the law selectively between Zanu (PF) and MDC supporters. Archbishop Pius Ncube, co-chairman of the peace trust blamed African leaders for their silence on the persecution of political opponents in Zimbabwe.

The Archbishop said some leaders on the continent were just as corrupt and brutal as Mugabe, hence their fear to confront him on the issue. Our correspondent in Johannesburg, Thuso Khumalo, who was at the launch which was also attended by the international media said the video contains graphic footage of police in riot gear brutally assaulting demonstrators.

He said it is a collection of raw footage from different independent sources in Zimbabwe. In one instance it shows the police beating up people outside the Parliament building. In all said Khumalo, it was footage that left journalists shocked.

‘Policing the state’ highlights the growth of police brutality in Zimbabwe, which also coincided with the rise of the democratic challenge to Mugabe. The findings of the report are based on lawyers’ records from 38 firms in the country, who submitted data relating to 1,981 arrests that they considered to be primarily political in motivation.