The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has reiterated its call for genuine security sector reforms following the recent upsurge of arrests and detention of dissenting voices.
In its monthly monitoring report for the month of February, the human rights pressure group says the conduct of security services has a bearing on the country’s politics.
“The conduct of the security services has a bearing on the political, social and economic state of the country and government should therefore take necessary measures to ensure that the security sector is reformed to be an apolitical, professional and people-centred institution. This is because the human rights violations that ZPP has continued to record in the past year, all point to the members of the state security as the major perpetrators of human rights violations,” noted ZPP
The pressure group urged the Government to deal with disparities in rural areas by assigning distribution of aid to professionals in the civil service.
“Government should also act to deal with the inequalities in communities – especially rural areas- where some services and processes like the distribution of aid, are politicised, and where political party activists control such processes, which should be left in the hands of professional government services.
“Zimbabweans are, in essence, under attack from their own government. In light of the sustained attack on civil society players, political party activists and any perceived government and ruling party opponents, there is an urgent need to mobilise critical democratic forces for joint actions to compel the government of Zimbabwe to return to constitutionalism, democracy and security sector reforms.
“Government should implement the Constitution to its fullest and that includes Section 210, which stipulates that there must be an Act of Parliament to provide an effective and independent mechanism for receiving and investigating complaints from members of the public about misconduct on the part of members of the security services, and for remedying any harm caused by such misconduct. This act is long overdue as it will provide room for the thousands of Zimbabweans whose rights have been violated with impunity by state security agents,” said the group.
According to the report The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), contributed to 12.12 percent of perpetrators in February 2021, and they come second after the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), who contributed 59.66 percent.
