Statement by the Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum on Violence

The former first lady Grace Mugabe spoke against violence in some remote area followed by Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces General Constantine Chiwenga. We however wish to draw to the attention  of the two ladies that the victims of violence are at their  doorsteps under their very noses here in Harare not only in the remote areas that they visited. Should they be serious about showing empathy to victims of violence we kindly draw their attention to the wards at the Avenues Clinic, Parirenyatwa Hospital, the church groups, and the MDC headquarters, Harvest House all in Harare where they would come face to face with multitudes of victims with broken limbs, broken ribs, lacerations and soft tissue injuries all over their bodies.

With so many victims of violence spread across the country’s hospitals, we ask how many perpetrators have been brought to book for their misdeeds? Zimbabwe has a police force mandated to uphold and maintain law and order without fear or favour regardless of the offenders’ political standing or affiliation. How can we have so many victims of violence characterised by serious bodily harm with no arrests to match the magnitude of the crime? This yawning gap can at best only be accounted for by the serious dereliction of duty and monumental incompetence on the part of the police and at worst their wilful and unpardonable complicity in crime.

The Army at least say they are not involved in the reign of terror while both the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) chose to remain mum despite choruses of accusations pointing at them. There is however overwhelming evidence of the involvement of the Army itself in the violence, let alone their partners in crime the police and the CIO, pointing at senior commissioned officers directing operations of violence against defenceless civilians.  The brandishing and firing of firearms, which lawfully fall under the custody of the three arms of state security, is in itself a telling indictment on their culpability. They surely cannot escape responsibility when they fail to explain away the proliferation of firearms in the zones of violence. The short answer is that this is an operation conceived and ordered and executed by the Joint Operations Command itself. Clearly they should stop insulting the nation’s intelligence through perfunctory reflex denials. Their failure or is it refusal to bring the reign of terror to an end despite prolific evidence of their capacity to do so, given only their will, is eloquent testimony to not only their complicity but more importantly to their authorship of the retributive campaign of terror for which they cannot escape responsibility.

Happyson Nenji (Webster Gwauya)           Wilfred Mhanda ( Dzinashe Machingura)                  Zimbabwe Liberation Veterans Forum