concern13. Below the findings in relations to schools and political activity and violence are described. 3.2.1 Violations Table 4 describes the violations that affected the actual running of schools during the period 2001 to 2008. These ranged from temporary closure of schools through to the school premises being used a “base” for either political activity or violence, or both. As can be seen, the use of schools as “bases” (42%) or being closed (36%) were the most frequently mentioned effects on schools. Table 4: Effects of political activities on schools – 2001 to 2008 Arson 2001 1 2002 0 2003 0 2004 0 2005 0 2006 0 2007 0 2008 0 Closure 2 6 2 0 0 0 0 16 Disruption 3 2 3 0 1 0 0 2 Used as base Property destruction Total: Percentage: 4 0 10 14% 10 3 21 29% 1 0 6 8% 1 0 1 1% 4 0 5 7% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 1 29 40% Totals 1 (1%) 26 (36%) 11 (15%) 30 (42%) 4 (4%) 72 The effects of such disruption to school life are described in the case below from 2002: Joel Hita, Tsana Guwa, other teachers and students of Mapanzure Secondary School had the school closed indefinitely after suspected Zanu-PF supporters who accused them of being MDC supporters beat some of the 50 teachers. Four of the teachers were reported as having been seriously injured. The Zanu-PF supporters are alleged to have arrived in a white Nissan truck and to have dragged the teachers out of the classrooms. They assaulted them in full view of the students. This is the second closure of the school following a similar closure in May 2000 in the run up to the Parliamentary elections. This was as a result of clashes between Zanu-PF and MDC after the parents accused the teachers of belonging to MDC. Table 5 (over) describes the ways in which pupils were affected by the political activity or violence that took place at a school. As can be seen, this ranged from being forced to flee due to the threats to pupils actually being assaulted. The highest category of violation was being forced to attend political rallies (which is, of course, wholly unacceptable), but a similarly high number of families and pupils were forced to flee the area or were forced out of school (33%). 13 Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2002), Teaching them a lesson. A report on the attack on Zimbabwean teachers, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. 12