In an interview with The Zimbabwean recently, some teachers revealed how war veterans had warned them against making presentations and contributions to the constitutional outreach programme. We are living in hell here. Endless threats against teachers have become a daily phenomenon as all schools have been placed under siege by marauding thugs bent on barring teachers from expressing their views during the constitutional outreach programme, said a Mudzi based teacher who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.
A teacher based in Kotwa, who also asked to remain anonymous, gave chilling details of how some teachers had been place under very close surveillance to monitor their movements and to see who they interact with.These people suspect that the anti-Kariba Draft message is being peddled by teachers and this is the reason why they are intimidating and closely monitoring teachers day and night, even before the outreach programme kicks off, he said.
The constitution-making process has provided a perfect opportunity for state security agents and ruling party thugs to unleash a new wave of terror as they make concerted efforts to force the Kariba Draft document down the throats of Zimbabweans. Pro-democracy activists working for the human rights watchdog, Zimrights, have also been warned against carrying out civic education programmes.
The co-chairman of the constitutional parliamentary committee (COPAC), Douglas Mwonzora, is on record as having called on the highly partisan police commissioner Augustine Chihuri to deploy a substantial number of officers throughout the country to protect citizens during the outreach programme and to arrest thugs on the warpath.
Post published in: News