ARTUZ Leader Challenges Media Lies
As the crackdown on Civil Society Organisations continue, the leader of the Amalgamated
Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) Obert Masaraure was forced to take the media
head-on after a newspaper, The Patriot, published an article he deemed to be defamatory.
Masaraure who is a victim of abductions, torture and arrests was featured in an article published
in The Patriot Issue 409 of June 28 – July 4 2019 entitled “False Abductions …. the case of Obert
Masaraure” which purported that he was fabricating his abduction and torture by state security
agents. The Forum's Public Interest Unit (PIU), issued a letter of demand for retraction to The Patriot
on behalf of Masaraure who felt that the publicised statements were calculated to falsely and
maliciously portray him as a liar, a fraudster and a 'cashvist'.
Paying tribute to a human rights icon
In commemoration of the Mandela Day, the National Transitional Justice Working Group
(NTJWG) published a press statement on 21 July, 2019. Drawing on the contributions by
Nelson Mandela, the NTJWG encouraged Zimbabweans to dialogue about difculties facing
the country to address the challenges Zimbabweans face today. You can read the full statement
here
On Friday 19 July, 2019 the NTJWG hosted a radio programme on Star-FM entitled ‘The Role of
Leadership in National Healing and Reconciliation Processes’ to explore the role of leadership
in facilitating and catalysing reconciliation and healing processes, provide a platform for key
transitional justice actors to extract lessons on leading transitional justice from lessons in other
jurisdictions and to generate a practice note for Zimbabwe’s leadership in efforts at building
informed political will in transitional justice processes.