ZIMBABWE has been scored 30 out of 100 by human rights watchdog CIVICUS and described as a repressed country in its latest report.
The country, which has struggled to rid itself of the pariah State tag, is only better than Angola (28) and troubled Eswatini, which scored nine in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
The CIVICUS report was introduced in 2017 to track the state of freedoms that include association, assembly and expression in 198 countries.
The countries are scored based on data collected through the year.
Zimbabwe’s lowly human rights score was blamed on the Zanu PF led government’s decision to round up human rights defenders, opposition politicians, student leaders, labour activists and journalists ahead of last August’s SADC Heads of State and Government Summit.
The Summit, held in Harare saw State security agencies abducting, torturing and then delivering the abused activists to police officers for arrest, in a clampdown that virtually suspended certain freedoms.
The report, available on the CIVICUS website, ranks Zimbabwe equal to Uganda where opposition politics and human rights are under siege and the DRC, which is widely regarded as Africa’s Heart of Darkness because of atrocities that have remained consistent.
“Authorities have also used arrests and prosecutions. In Zimbabwe, over 160 people, including political figures, elected officials, opposition members, union leaders, students and journalists, were detained ahead of the SADC summit, which took place in the capital, Harare, in August 2024,” reads part of the report.
Some of those arrested, who include opposition veteran Jameson Timba.
Activists such as Robson Chere were forced to limp to court after their dramatic arrest and torture. Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) described it as disappointing.
CIVICUS’s last report on the Zimbabwean situation was equally damning.
It focused on Zimbabwe’s general elections, describing them as a ceremonial process that sought to just legitimise President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s autocratic government.
“President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the Zanu PF party, had another term confirmed through an election in which he used every trick in the book to ensure a favourable result,” read its report.
Despite repeated efforts to paint a picture of reform, Mnangagwa remains tainted.
Although most Western countries, which had sanctioned individuals associated with late President Robert Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s regimes, seem to have softened their stance, they are still to openly declare a willingness to have Zimbabwe and its President in their circles of influence.
