Conflicting statements have emerged over the death of Petros Mutedza, an inspector in the police who was killed in Glen View last week. Some claim his death came after a nightclub brawl, while the police are adamant that he was murdered by activists and MDC-T supporters who have since appeared in court.
Ahead of elections and major summits, Zanu PF is often accused of resorting to intimidation on the assumption that it will beat its opponents into submission. Analysts raised events like violence that rocked the nation in the aftermath of the 2000 referendum ahead of general election also slated for that same year.
In 2002, ahead of the presidential polls there was countrywide violence only dwarfed by the fighting ahead of the 2008 presidential election run-off.
Now with Zanu PF clamouring for elections this year, the spectre of violence has once again been raised, with police rounding up MDC-T members and civic society activists on the accusation of murdering Mutedza.
“This is now being used as an excuse to terrorise people,” Kucaca Phulu, of Abammeli Lawyers for Human Rights said.
“The idea is to force the hand of Sadc and portray the MDC-T as a violent party.”
Sadc is due to hold an extraordinary summit in South Africa on Saturday on the Zimbabwe situation. The MDC-T has often accused Zanu PF of resorting to violence when cornered and Phulu believes the party would use this incident to show that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party was also violent.
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Phulu accused the police of not doing their jobs correctly in the sense that people were rounded up indiscriminately, saying the police were now using this incident to justify intimidation of MDC-T supporters.
“This is part of the campaign machinery of violence, it comes down to a function of Zanu PF to ensure that it wins any election,” the Bulawayo lawyer said.
Phulu cited the “coup-plotters” who spent four years in remand prison and were released last week without charge, as an example of how people were arrested indiscriminately and yet they had no case to answer.
“When one is drowning they clutch at straws,” he said, illustrating that despite years of using intimidation and violence, this campaign method had not worked for Zanu PF but the party still stuck to it.
Human rights lawyer, Dewa Mavhinga described the arrests as a red herring meant to divert attentions from the state’s “weak and compromised” institutions.“Of course Sadc will see through this entire charade,” he said.
Mavhinga blasted partisan policing designed to strike fear in the hearts of many — torture in custody.
“But it will not work, violence cannot win the hearts and souls,” he said.
Since the country attained independence, Zanu PF has been accused of making sure that its opponents are arrested and in most cases such cases are usually dismissed by the courts.
The late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo was the first to be charged with treason and had to flee the country to live in exile.
