country, while the current violence has occurred mostly in Harare – in Mbare and central Harare
in fact – with very few significant injuries being treated from rural areas.
In the authors’ opinion, what is happening in Zimbabwe at the moment is what we call “matchbox
rattling”. If in 2002, your house was burnt down, and in 2008, your neighbour’s house was burnt
down, then in 2011 the local war veterans only have to stand in the village and “rattle the
matchbox” to invoke very high levels of fear and anxiety in the entire village.
The authors, and others who document violence, are noting some violence countrywide, but
what is more significant is the level of intimidation, which combined with the deliberate and
effective closure of spaces noted in the previous section, is resulting in keeping entire
communities in a state of heightened tension and fear.78 The deployment of soldiers in some
rural areas has added to this sense of fear. Villagers in Mudzi, for example, have reported that
gangs of Zanu PF youths patrolling up and down their villages are creating such an atmosphere of
fear that people are afraid to go and work in their fields.79 The 4 assault victims from Mudzi who
have received treatment for actual violence injuries, are therefore a small indication of a much
greater atmosphere of repression, one which is forensically difficult to measure.
The memories of violence from 2008 in particular, as well as the fact that those who murdered
and beat others have not been charged or brought to justice, means that it does not take much
to keep people afraid and compliant. This greater context has to be remembered when assessing
the specific numbers of forensically measurable injuries treated so far this year.
4.
Contexts of the violence – Harare
Most of the victims of violence have been from Harare, as previously noted. These can be broadly
linked to particular events and processes.
i. Mbare, Epworth, Warren Park
The biggest group of victims consists of 33 men and women who were injured during the
violence that has taken place in Mbare and other central suburbs, mainly during late January into
February. Mbare is one of Harare’s biggest and most central high‐density areas, and is also a
large informal trading market. There is a pattern of Mbare being targeted by the state that goes
back at least as far as the demolitions of 2005, when Mbare market was more or less razed to the
ground during Operation Murambatsvina. There have been running battles over accommodation
in council flats over the years, with Zanu PF supporters forcibly evicting presumed MDC‐T
78
See Zimbabwe Peace Project monthly report for January this year, which corroborates our conclusions.
79
Interviews in Mudzi, February 2011.
35
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