Zanu PF Retains Zimbabwe’s Most Violent Party Status

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF has maintained the tag of being the country’s most violent political party during a month in which most violations were committed in the elderly leader’s home province.

This is according to the December 2015 report by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) where house demolitions in Harare also featured among rights violation cases recorded during the festive month.

“A total of 233 violations were captured by ZPP in the month of December alone with a majority of them perpetrated by Zanu PF and with most cases occurring in Mashonaland West 68 cases (29%),” said the ZPP.

Mugabe hails from Zvimba district in Mashonaland West.

Mashonaland Central came second with 37 cases (16%) with Midlands also rated quite highly with the third highest number of cases at 33 (14%).

“An overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence for December were from Zanu PF at 85% compared to November Zanu-PF figure of 93%,” said the ZPP, which also said the rival MDC-T only accounted for 5% of the cases.

“Such a trend shows, without a doubt, that Zanu PF is the dominating culprit when it comes to violence.”

On the contrary, Zanu PF victims of political violations were a mere 11% and were mostly attributed to infighting as opposed to political rivals.
Opposition MDC-T victims stood at 36%, a slight decline from the 39% recorded the previous month.

The political affiliations, if any, of the remaining 52% could not be established.

December also saw some 250 homes razed to the ground by the Harare City Council in Budiriro and Aspindale areas leaving hundreds of citizens homeless and stranded.

The denial of food aid to opposition supporters by Zanu PF linked traditional leaders and politicians was also among the December violations.

Ousted Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s People First party also joined the victims group mostly by perpetrators from their erstwhile colleagues in Zanu PF.

“In December 2015 alone,” said the ZPP, “a total of 62 instances of food violations where individuals linked to opposition politics and to a minor extent those Zanu PF members who were not seen at party meetings were denied food aid.

“A persistent trend shows such cases being mostly common in the three Mashonaland provinces.

“With 15 out of the 62 cases, Mashonaland Central had 24% of the cases (almost a quarter). Mashonaland West’s 14 cases made up 23%; and Mashonaland East had 16% with 10 cases.”

The ZPP gathers its information through reports from its 420 community-based monitors (two per each of the 210 electoral constituencies of Zimbabwe).

Zanu PF has often dismissed NGO reports linking it to rights violations saying the Western sponsored groups were being paid to tarnish the ruling party’s image. —source-newsday