Security sector reform could stem the tide: Lawyers

Comment & Analysis
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said the organisation was handling at least 15 cases where claimants were demanding up to a US$1 million in damages.

“It’s a question of the breakdown of the rule of law,” said Rangu Nyamurundira, the public interest litigations project manager with ZLHR. “It gets worse when we have partisan police officers.”

Lawyers said there were several other cases where claimants were suing the police through their own private lawyers.

Most of the cases involved MDC-T activists and human rights defenders perceived to harbour a “regime change agenda.”

Nyamurundira said security sector reform was the best way to reduce lawsuits against the government.

He said there was also need to sue individual security agents in their personal capacity “because some of them hide behind Chihuri to commit horrendous human abuses.”

Police spokesperson senior assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said it was the prerogative of any aggrieved individual to seek readdress through the courts.

“I think it’s better to wait for the outcome of the cases because it is the prerogative of any aggrieved person to seek recourse through the courts and we can’t deny that,” he said.