06/03/2024
An Open Letter to the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe by Jestina Mukoko
6 March 2024
Your Excellency, I read with keen interest a story in the NewsDay earlier this year with the headline ‘It’s time to heal’. ‘[I]t is indeed a time to heal not wound,’ you were reported to have said at an event organised by the Faith for the Nation campaign in Bulawayo in December 2023. Reading through the article, I reckoned the message is commendable and I am glad you acknowledged that citizens have been wounded. I was reminded of the statement by two events that happened over the weekend. I came across Bishop Tapfumanei Masaya’s daughters speaking at their father’s memorial. I also witnessed the violence that broke out at the burial of Moreblessing Ali nearly 2 years since her gruesome murder. Both Bishop Masaya and Ali met their fate after being disappeared. Beyond this statement and event, Your Excellency, is where a lot of work is required for healing to be attained. Importantly a conducive environment to facilitate, support and sustain healing is urgently needed.
Being a survivor of State violence myself, I could not stop musing what your statement meant for me and numerous others who have faced the same fate as mine, that of enforced disappearance. I say State violence boldly, Your Excellency, because besides my account of how I was abducted and detained, the Supreme Court on 20 March 2012 in the case Mukoko v Attorney-General SC 11/12 unanimously put it on record that “the whole conduct of the State security agents in kidnapping and detaining the applicant and subjecting her to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment was a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed to her by s 13(1), 15(1) and 18(1) of the Constitution”. Effectively my rights were violated by state entities required by law to protect me. In related damages proceedings, the State was ordered to pay damages for the harm caused on my body, wellbeing and dignity. I was paid ZWL150 000 in 2018 of which ZWL50 000 met legal costs. I had sued for the damages in USD, but damages were awarded in ZWL terms as the 1:1 currency regime applied at the time. This notwithstanding, l was left to find my own ways to repair, heal and rebuild.
Although the courts were later to vindicate me, it is on record how the State denied involvement in my ordeal, as it has and continues to deny involvement in the enforced disappearance of other Zimbabweans whose cases I mention below. The subject of enforced and involuntary disappearance is one that is spoken in hushed voices as citizens fear being subjected to the same. Considering my ordeal and how it was publicised not just in Zimbabwe but caught the attention of leaders in the region and internationally, I am going to engage you on the subject without fear. I have also detailed my experience in the book The Abduction and Trial of Jestina Mukoko; the fight for Human Rights in Zimbabwe, published in April 2016.
It has been fifteen years since the fateful morning of 3 December 2008 when I was abducted from my house by State security agents, only wearing a nightdress and morning gown. The then Minister of State Security Didymus Mutasa issued a statement denying the involvement of State security agents, a position that turned out to be false as judicial proceedings were to reveal. I have gone through individually funded rehabilitation. While I now view myself as a survivor who has triumphed, there are times when I feel my wound is still festering because I do not know the reason I was abducted, and even more so, abductions continue to take place.
Your Excellency, I spent 21 days incommunicado before being charged with allegedly recruiting young people for the opposition MDC-T party to be trained in Botswana to perform acts of sabotage and terrorism to overthrow a constitutionally elected government in Zimbabwe. You and I and many others know there was no recruitment nor training I was involved in; the State owes me the truth in relation to why I was abducted. Those who abducted me are known and for all these years have not been held accountable for their actions; rather they have been protected. I plead, Your excellency, that unless they are held to account, there will be no cost for their actions and they will do it again and again. Impunity is a global epidemic that has even been acknowledged by the UN Secretary General António Guterres. How do I begin to heal when the perpetrators of this grievous crime against humanity continue to walk scot-free and might even have been rewarded for their harmful actions?
Itai Dzamara is still unaccounted for, ever since he was forcibly taken away while having a haircut at a local barbershop in Glenview. Itai is reported to have been forcibly taken away by men who accused him of stock theft. Since 9 March 2015, Itai has lost out on the growth of his young children and his family has not enjoyed fatherly and spousal love for almost a decade. In 2015 when this happened, Your Excellency, you were the leader of government business in Parliament and you described Itai’s disappearance as barbaric. Such acknowledgement gave us hope that something would be done to facilitate his return and reunification with family. However, we continue to hope in vain. Your Excellency, how can Itai’s parents, wife and children heal when they do not know what happened to him and no one has accounted for his disappearance? While the courts ruled that the police should investigate and give regular updates, the family has not received any official updates except for what they read in the media and some of it toxic, scratching their open wounds. Itai’s disappearance now seems to have turned into a cold case. I believe his family deserves answers, and it is only then that their long journey to healing can kickstart in earnest.
When in November last year the news broke of the recovery of the dead body of Bishop Tapfumanei Masaya in Acturus in Harare, I was reminded of the abduction and murder of Tonderai Ndira in May 2008. Bishop Masaya is reported to have been abducted by a convoy of Toyota Fortuners a few days earlier in the run up to the 9 December 2023 by-elections. Eye witnesses allege the convoy waylaid Bishop Masaya and a fellow opposition activist, and the pair was forced into one of the vehicles. The fellow opposition activist was released a few hours later. Ndira is reported to have been taken away from his house by heavily armed men who drove a Toyota Single cab. The two deceased men Bishop Masaya and Ndira were both from Mabvuku-Tafara and met their deaths in strikingly similar inhuman encounters. Their families struggled to identify their severely tortured bodies. Both were opposition activists. Both are survived by families who have since been deprived of fatherly and spousal love. Your Excellency, a call for healing in the midst of these realities without action rings hollows without practical and tangible action. Both families deserve closure through conclusive investigations that reveal the truth of what transpired and why. Absent that, heartbreak and trauma sustain the bleeding wounds of the families and it is difficult to heal and self-sustain when a breadwinner has been plucked. Their offspring now live a life of suffering and without proper facilities and processes to deal with their pains. Healing for these families is just but a dream. The cost on these families whose lives were so tragically transformed is massive and their needs must be considered if they are to start the journey of healing.
It is a time to heal, you say Your excellency. But how does Tawanda Muchehiwa heal without justice? Twenty-two year old Muchehiwa sustained wounds in the torture he was subjected to after being abducted in broad daylight at a shopping centre in Bulawayo in July 2020, an incident captured on CCTV. His assailants claimed to be police officers who were bringing him under arrest. Furthermore, it is alleged that at toll gates they identified themselves as ‘ferrets’ and they were being allowed through. When his captors eventually dumped him close to his home, his gaze told a heart wrenching story of severe torture. Even with CCTV evidence and the revelation that the vehicles used in the abduction belonged to Impala Car Rental, no one has been held to account. In such a situation, Your Excellency, the call to heal is stripped of sincerity. Citizens should be protected from abductions by the State and it is the State’s role as the foremost duty bearer for all rights guaranteed by the Constitution, to create conditions where citizens’ right to personal security is guaranteed and if violated, those responsible are held accountable.
Dr Peter Magombeyi, a junior doctor also disappeared in September 2019 for days before he was dumped in Nyabira, disoriented by the severe torture he sustained. Dr Magombeyi’s colleagues staged night vigils and protests for days demanding his unconditional release. They presented a petition to the Speaker of Parliament and it is after the protest that he was dumped. Your Excellency, I am aware there have been strong denials by the State as to who is perpetrating these heinous crimes. A third hand has been blamed for the abductions. If there is a third hand, then surely a State that is duty bound to protect its citizens cannot afford to fold hands as unknown forces torment its citizens. The call to heal is not at all misplaced, but it requires much more for it to bear fruit. On account of his ordeal, Dr Magombeyi is no longer resident in the country at a time when the country requires qualified personnel in our health institutions. After investing in training him, the country has lost his services. How can the junior doctor heal when he is cut off from the rest of his loved ones and how can his loved ones heal when they are now forced to forge a life without him?
When the news of the abduction of comedian Samantha Kuraya popularly known as Gonyeti started filtering through in August 2019, we were all shocked as to why she had been targeted. Like many other cases of abductions, Kureya’s assailants claimed to be police officers. She was stripped naked and made to roll in raw sewage; such degrading and inhuman treatment. She was naked when she sought the help of the community to cover herself up. Kureya was abducted from her home in Mufakose and dumped in Crowborough. Prior to the unfortunate incident, Kureya and her fellow artists had done a skit on the government and the police. The abduction seemed to insinuate a censorship agenda. Nothing, to our knowledge has been extended to Kureya to aid in her healing, and like many other victims, she finds herself in an environment that militates against her healing, yet healing is a process that takes place when a favourable environment that is victim centred exists.
Civil society and trade union leaders have been targeted in enforced and involuntary disappearances. Obert Masaraure of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe was abducted in January 2019 and subjected to torture before being dumped. In the same year, Tatenda Mombeyarara was abducted in a similar fashion then tortured and injected with an unknown substance. Tatenda now has injuries that are lifelong. When the news of these abductions and torture spread, the response of the State was that the victims had self-inflicted the injuries that they sustained in the torture. In both cases the victims were forced out of their homes by people who claimed to be police officers. Healing can never take effect where those responsible for the heinous crime are not held to account or worse protected. Unless perpetrators account for their actions, they remain motivated to do harm without deterrence.
Then there is the case of the opposition trio of Honourable Joanah Mamombe, Councillor Cecelia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova who survived abduction and severe torture in May 2020. This was after they joined a protest against hunger in Warren Park, Harare as communities struggled to make ends meet during the global pandemic-imposed lockdown. They were reportedly abducted in Harare and disappeared for days before being dumped in Bindura. The three report having been initially flagged down at a police check point on Samora Machel Avenue before being ordered to drive to Harare Central Police Station. It is unclear how they found themselves out of the police station and custody, but what followed, in their account, was being subjected to severe torture and sexual assault. Your Excellency, it is inconceivable that the three young leaders are expected to heal in the absence of a conscious and gender sensitive process to address their experiences. They were made to drink each other’s urine; their breasts were fondled and one of them was christened ‘Dolly Paton’ as she was being body shamed. Another one of them was violated with a maize stalk thrust up her a**s. They were made to sing and dance by their perpetrators. As if to add salt to their wounds, the three young women were hauled before the courts for reporting that they had been arrested initially and then disappeared. The three were to endure a traumatic experience of prolonged criminal proceedings in which they being victims, were now being charged for allegedly faking their abductions. Your Excellency I sat through court proceedings where there was an effort to prove the three were seen at a shopping centre at the time the abductions occurred. Sadly, it was a case of clutching at straws as the video footage from several outlets at Harare’s Belgravia Shopping Centre did not show any of the young ladies were where they were alleged to have been. In the case of communicating falsehoods in relation to their abduction and torture the three young ladies have since been acquitted by the High Court. How are these three expected to heal when their encounter is not even acknowledged, and instead of being seen as victims are treated as criminals? Healing cannot take place where the truth is not known, realities are distorted and victims are further traumatised.
A call to healing is effective when it is accompanied by all necessary processes and resources to alleviate the harm incurred. Thus, truth needs to be told, assailants held to account and relevant institutions ought to take a stand in deterring enforced disappearances and guaranteeing non-recurrence. More so, victims, survivors and their loved ones deserve to go through a State sponsored rehabilitation process to deal with their living traumas.
Your Excellency, the family of the late Moreblessing Ali are desperate for healing but they cannot even begin to think about this process, while still trying to come to terms with reeling memories of her brutal murder and dismembered body. Similarly, many people who have suffered at the hands of the State and its actors are suffocating with trauma. Some have individually facilitated their healing process through self-sponsored therapy. These initiatives are expensive, hence my appeal to you to facilitate for government establishment and supported rehabilitation centres where victims and survivors alike can benefit.
In the aftermath of the August 2023 elections, opposition activists and Members of Parliament have added to the number of those subjected to enforced and involuntary disappearance. Former Mabvuku-Tafara MP James Chidakwa was reportedly abducted while he waited for his wife in the Harare Central Business District. He was taken away in a Toyota Fortuner, his clothes were torn, had his leg run over twice by the vehicle. Additionally, his dreadlocks were shaved, and he was injected with an unknown substance. Womberai Nhende an opposition Citizens Coalition for Change activist and a colleague of his were allegedly waylaid by a Toyota Fortuner and Toyota Belta in the Milton Park area in Harare and were subjected to severe torture including being injected with an unknown substance. Youth quota MP for the CCC Takudzwa Ngadziore realising he was under threat from armed men went live on Facebook to reveal the identity of his assailants. They have been identified and the State’s action to hold them to account has not been forthcoming. Takudzwa had his clothes torn, he was severely tortured, and injected with an unknown substance before being dumped in the Mazowe area. He was also taken away in a Toyota Fortuner by people who claimed to be officers of the law, were armed and were positively identified in the short video recorded.
Clearly, enforced disappearances are a vicious cancer eroding the dignity of our people. Yet these and other cases of abductions and torture continue to be denied by the State without any meaningful investigation. It is such actions of denial in the face of pain that harbours trauma among victims and survivors, further delaying their healing process. Those who were injected with an unknown substance are not able to heal as they do not know what was induced in their bodies and its potential effects.
The cases that I have highlighted in this letter are just but a small number of those that have come to the public domain. Many more cases occur away from media attention. The issues pertaining to enforced and involuntary disappearance go back several years to pre-independent Zimbabwe and there are many people who were also disappeared during the Gukurahundi era. When I speak about healing as a survivor myself, I want to reiterate that it is not an event that one experiences once and it is done. Healing for victims and survivors of enforced disappearances and their families is a life long journey that carries many painful memories that can be easily triggered by reliving the anniversary of the encounter or receiving news of another abduction.
For the last 15 years since my abduction by State security agents I have dreaded December 3. It always turns out to be a sad day as it evokes the torture I endured on the day. Two men took turns to beat the soles of my feet. I suffered excruciating pain for several years. My family members are affected the same way considering what they had to go through in search of a loved one who had disappeared. Believing I had been killed as I was incommunicado for three weeks, my brother had to search mortuaries rummaging through unknown bodies. The support that is needed by victims and survivors of enforced disappearances has to be continuous hence the need for the State to be involved to ensure easy access and affordability. The support should not be limited to direct victims and survivors but their families as well. If victims and survivors of enforced disappearances and their families are not deliberately and genuinely rehabilitated there is a danger of intergenerational trauma which could be more devastating for future generations as is being experienced by those affected by Gukurahundi.
The risk of enforced and involuntary disappearances on targeted citizens is that, during the time they are disappeared they are outside the protection of the law which provides the assailants the liberty to do as they wish. This explains why some victims have been dumped hours after being disappeared while others are dumped days later, and others are dumped in police stations with spurious charges hanging over their heads. A large group of opposition and civil society activists including two of my colleagues from the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Pascal Gonzo and Broderick Takawira, suffered the same fate as I did only for the criminal charges against them to be permanently stayed. Sadly for some, dead bodies are dumped and others have never been recovered per the account above.
The African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights has since May 2022 adopted Guidelines on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances in Africa. These guidelines are meant to encourage African Union member states to ratify and sign international treaties for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances. The UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances is concerned about under reporting of cases in Africa. In their 2021 report, of the 46 490 cases reported, 4 765 are from Africa.
It is my respectful hope, Your Excellency, that you will consider the issues that I have raised in this letter. Unless the State which is the guarantor of citizens’ rights does the needful and prevent enforced and involuntary disappearances of all citizens and thoroughly investigate when citizens make such reports, healing will not materialise. It is of utmost importance that processes commence to deal with physical, psychological, emotional and other impacts of enforced disappearances, abductions and torture that could affect the functionality and productivity of citizens.
A victim and survivor, your fellow Zimbabwean and compatriot,
Jestina Mukoko
Founder and President of the Jestina Mukoko Foundation
