18
North, Mount Darwin, Hurungwe [Karoi], Kariba, Makoni West (Rusape),
Chikomba and Makoni East
Mrs. Erica Nyaunde, a witness in the Makoni East election
petition, told the High Court that she was the victim of
harassment stemming from her willingness to testify in the
case. She stated that on 17 April, three men followed her into
a phone shop. One man, who she could identify only as
‘Douglas’, was wearing a ZANU (PF) t-shirt. Mrs. Nyaunde
had gone to the phone shop to make a call about a check she
was trying to cash. Douglas produced handcuffs and told her
that she would ‘cash her check at the cemetery’. The men also
said, ‘you gave us problems and your name is among 68 going
to the High Court’. The men dispersed after the proprietor of
the shop called police. A policeman then escorted Mrs.
Nyaunde to a terminus.
5.
Conclusions:
This brief expose cannot do justice to the incredibly complicated story of the organised
violence and torture in Zimbabwe. It is the case that organised violence and torture
remain the most persistent form of political problem solving that is used in our many
political crisises. This brief expose cannot certainly do justice to the understanding of the
terrible legacy of suffering that all this unnecessary violence has brought. We have barely
begun to deal with the legacy of the 1970s and the 1980s when we bring about another
vast crop of new victims: we will be dealing with the consequences for yet another
decade at the least.
At least in part this problem emerges from the militarized approaches of our government
and the failure of this government to from a revolutionary party to a contemporary
democratic party. This is so well put by Chenjerai Hove:
“Our government consists of men coming from the Bush : no law, only the law
of the jungle. These men came into government and put their whole mechanism
of violence into law. Torture people. Kill people. So the Bush has come to town.
There’s a lot of Bush in this town.”
It is imperative that we find a new way to deal with political conflict. It is imperative that
we find ways to heal the thousands of damaged victims, and ways to rehabilitate the
perpetrators. We need to find a new way to see ourselves, as Chenjerai Hove has so
elegantly put it:
“We need a new leadership of African love, care, compassion and justice.
African philosophy about life is set on the dignity of the human being: hunhu.
That is a very philosophical term. It means respect for the self, for others, for
nature, for environment, for gods, rivers and mountains. It means more than a
dignified person; it has to do with a strong and beautiful person that gives life to
others so that they can you life. Leadership needs to know that if you kill
someone, something will come to kill you. If a leader kills, he will be a leader of
death…You didn’t create life, you can’t take it away. You must have hunhu; you
must respect life; you must respect that African philosophy. African culture is
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