opportunity to understand the consequences and the impact of taking
part in political activities. In all such activities, strong monitoring and
evaluation components must be present and initiatives tested against
the principles of the Conventions.
9.1.3 Participation of children in political activities must be always in the
best interests of the children and not based on manipulation or to
settle scores. What this means is that children must not be stopped
from attending political rallies but rather political parties must
understand that children have the right to freely participate and must
therefore act responsibly by promoting harmony so that children
learn positive aspects from the political rallies.
9.2
The complainants (teachers) also highlighted that they were forced to
attend political rallies. As highlighted above, the Gweru Youth
Interface Rally was conducted during the holidays while the Bulawayo
Youth Interface Rally was conducted on a Sunday. As a result it was
not possible to determine which members of the complainants’ bodies
attended the rallies after being compelled to. It had also been reported
that it was rural teachers that were forced to attend rallies while urban
teachers did not face the same challenges. As a result at the rallies
that the Commission attended there were no teachers who could
verify that they had been compelled to attend the rallies since both
were in the urban area.
9.3.
The Commission managed to have an interview with one Gweru
Provincial member of the Association of Rural Teachers of Zimbabwe
Midlands Province who confirmed that during the holidays it is difficult
to compel teachers to attend the rallies unlike during the school term.
He outlined that when schools are open, on top of being forced to
attend rallies they were compelled to make contributions towards the
event. Failure to do so led to one being threatened with harm and
prevention from working in the district among other things. They were
also forced to wear t-shirts and other regalia of the Zanu PF which
seriously curtailed their right to freedom of association and assembly.
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