By Staff Reporter
A DECADE after the disappearance of human rights activist and journalist Itai Dzamara, pressure is mounting on the Zanu PF government to provide answers.
Campaigners and activists have condemned the ruling party, with some branding it a terrorist organisation that must be held to account for Dzamara’s disappearance.
Itai Dzamara
Dzamara was last seen on March 9, 2015, when he was allegedly taken from his home in Glenview, Harare, by State security operatives in an unmarked vehicle.
The circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain shrouded in mystery, prompting renewed calls for a thorough and transparent investigation.
Award-winning human rights lawyer and Principal Managing Partner at Tsunga Bhamu Law International, Arnold Tsunga, has implored the President Emmerson Mnangagwa-led government to make a public announcement explaining why it has failed to bring the perpetrators of Dzamara’s disappearance to justice.
“The government has to do all in its powers to make a public and open announcement on why it has not been possible to bring the perpetrators of the abduction of Itai Dzamara to account,” he said.
“The failure of any progress, it really affects human rights activists and in particular it affects the family. The family of a disappeared person, they suffer uncertainty, trauma, and they don’t have closure,” he added.
“It’s a threat to the rule of law; it’s a threat to the justice and accountability. It reduces confidence of people in the ability of our law enforcement system to be able to protect the citizens.”
Former Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala stated that the Zanu PF-led government knows the whereabouts of Dzamara and owes the public an explanation as to what happened to him.
“The regime knows what happened to Itai Dzamara,” Sikhala said.
“It is the duty of every government to protect its citizens. The security of every person falls in the hands of the State. We still demand with our loud voices to know what happened to Itai. It remains a serious issue of public interest,” he added.
Human rights defender and Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure minced no words for Zanu PF, describing it as a terrorist organisation and warning that the perpetrators of Dzamara’s disappearance would eventually face retribution.
“The Dzamara story reminds us that the Zanu PF party is a terrorist organisation. We will not tire to demand the return of Dzamara. Those who abducted him Dzamara will be forced to pay in the coming Zimbabwe,” he said.
Efforts to obtain comment from the government were unsuccessful, as both Information Minister Jenfan Muswere and Information Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana could not be reached on their mobile phones.
However, Zanu PF Director of Communication Farai Marapira asserted that human rights defenders and activists carry the burden of proof, as they are the ones making unfounded allegations against his party, which he described as a law-abiding institution.
“He who alleges must prove. It is sad that some people would seek cheap mileage over another family’s anguish. We are a law-abiding institution which holds the laws of our land sacrosanct. It is crass madness to then associate us with such a vile accusation,” Marapira said.
Zimbabwe has neither signed nor ratified the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance despite repeated calls to do so by UN Member States. The government, it seems, is dragging its feet on this issue.
This convention came into being in 2006 and started being implemented in 2010.
Last year, human rights lawyer Obey Shava, represented by renowned lawyer Tendai Biti, took Mnangagwa’s government to the High Court, arguing that the administration must ratify the United Nations Convention against enforced disappearance treaty.
Shava deplored what he described as a systematic pattern of enforced disappearance, abduction, torture, and cruel and degrading treatment. He asserted that numerous individuals, including himself, human rights defenders, opposition political party supporters, legislators, and ordinary citizens, have been subjected to these acts, with some also being injected with unknown substances.