The person in photograph 9 was stripped naked and whipped with barbed wire on the same night by the same perpetrators as the previous case. He had one eye poked out with a screwdriver, leaving him blind in this eye. It seems common for the same perpetrators to operate with impunity in a particular area, attacking people again and again without being apprehended.80 In a 2003 report, Themba Lesizwe found that among 48 victims of torture who had fled to South Africa and whom they interviewed, the average number of separate experiences of torture was three per person, again indicative of a pattern of the same individuals being targeted on multiple occasions.81 As Zimbabwe heads into yet another pre-election phase, with general elections looming in 2005, it is predictable that once more human rights violations of various types will escalate, and that in many instances, those targeted before, will be targeted again – by the same perpetrators. Many of these will no doubt flee as persecution mounts, but will they receive asylum seeker status? 3. Attitude to Zimbabweans within Home Affairs Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) There have been repeated claims in the last year that the Home Affairs RRO in Johannesburg has an implicit policy of making it difficult for Zimbabweans to gain asylum seeker status. Home Affairs consistently states that very few Zimbabweans are trying to apply for asylum seeker status, referring to the fact that on their records, Zimbabweans do not even make the top ten nationalities seeking refugee status in South Africa. However, others claim that the reason so few Zimbabweans show up on the computer database as asylum seekers, is that they are being denied access to the reception offices and therefore do not enter the official statistics. Refugees International (RI) observed in July 2004 that Zimbabweans do face more barriers than other nationalities, in spite of denials from Home Affairs that this is the case.82 In their report, they cite their own observation that Zimbabweans start queueing more than 24 hours before the offices open to Zimbabweans every Tuesday, and that on the day RI were there, the person who was second in line failed to access the offices, as Home Affairs only allowed in one Zimbabwean that week.83 In the 2003 survey conducted by Themba Lesizwe, 34 out of 48 Zimbabwean exiles who gave detailed interviews claimed to have tried to get asylum seeker permits, and only 4 had actually succeeded in obtaining one. In the assessment of Themba Lesizwe, all 48 qualify as political asylum seekers, having all been tortured in Zimbabwe prior to fleeing their country.84 80 This man’s father was murdered by 5 Brigade during the 1980s massacres at the hands of the current government. People who are known political activists have been targeted repeatedly not only in the last five years, but also in previous eras, such as the 1970s war of liberation, or during the massacres under the Mugabe government that took place in Matabeleland in the 1980s. See PHR-DK, January 2002, op cit, for full case histories including “Previous experience of violence” for these victims. 81 Themba Lesizwe, full report details here 82 RI, 14 July 2004, op cit. Barry Gilder in his interview with the authors was also adamant that asylum seekers from all countries faced the same problems with the system backlog. 83 RI, 14 July, op cit. The Guardian (UK), Flails and insults await Mugabe refugees, 2 January 2003 also claims that there is an obstructionist policy towards Zimbabweans seeking asylum, with guards whipping people in the queue and demanding bribes. 84 Themba Lesizwe, 2003, op cit. 40