By Violet Gonda
18 July 2007
Harassment of National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) members by state security agents is becoming a permanent feature in Zimbabwe. The latest victim is the provincial chairperson for Manicaland, who was arrested on Tuesday on charges of insulting Robert Mugabe. NCA leader Dr Lovemore Madhuku said Elisha Makuyana was arrested when he was debating with other people and criticizing the controversial price cuts that were imposed by the government recently. “Making it clear obviously that it was a very short term measure which was not going to solve problems and he made a remark about the fact that this is how Mugabe has been surviving, ” Madhuku said.
A member of the central intelligence organization who heard the NCA official make these statements arrested him and took him to Chipinge Police Station where he is still being held. He is being accused of making derogatory remarks about Mugabe.
Madhuku said the regime has deployed members of the security services everywhere, clearly showing a state of panic as discontent grows over the way the country is being run. He said: “They are not allowing more than two or three individuals to freely talk and discuss. They always come in to try and see what is happening, what is being said.”
According to the pressure group, this is the third time Makuyana has been arrested in just two weeks. He was followed by a group in Nyanga where he was going to distribute shortwave transistor radio in the rural areas. A statement said: “In the first two instances he was arrested on baseless charges of possessing a shortwave transistor radio without a Zimbabwean import license.”
Madhuku added that the CIO actually drove the official from Nyanga to his Mutare office, where over 21 radios were confiscated. He said they also took t-shirts, fliers and other materials.
We were not able to get a comment from the police. The group said it will continue fighting for a new constitution even though the government is trying to cripple its grassroots structures. It insists the way forward in Zimbabwe is to push for a new constitution to pave the way for free and fair elections and an accountable government.
This is a major issue that has been put on the agenda in the SADC led talks. But it seems unlikely that Mugabe will give in to a new constitution that would mean the opening up of space for Zimbabweans to freely express themselves.
And the progress of the talks between the political parties is uncertain as it is reported that the regime is spurning South African President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts. The talks too are supposed to pave the way for free and fair elections scheduled for 2008.
But back home, the opposition and civic society have criticised the way the voter registration exercise, that is currently underway, is being conducted. Madhuku said there can never be a credible voter registration process under the present conditions. He said; “We have no access, most players, to the rural areas where the majority of the people are.”
The civic leader said ZANU PF goes there and misrepresents the purpose of the voter registration process. “I actually have information from the NCA structures in Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central that people are being told to go and register to defend President Mugabe from being taken out of power by the west. So you go and register and you are told that the purpose of you registering is that when the time comes you must go and defend the President! Not that you are registering so that you exercise your right to elect your leader of your choice.”