Zimbabwe claims a foreign diplomat is working with opposition to disrupt SADC summit

Zimbabwe is hosting the 44th ordinary SADC summit in Harare in August. (Timothy Marks/Getty)

• The Zimbabwean government will unleash its state security to deal with planned riots.
• Four civil society activists were jailed on Wednesday.
• A mother and her child have been in remand since 16 July.

The Zimbabwean government is accusing an unnamed foreign diplomat, religious leaders, civil society and opposition activists of an attempt to make the country ungovernable ahead of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit on 17 August.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Jenfan Muswere promised “the full might of the law will be deployed” in response.

The former Citizens Coalition legislator, Prince Dubeko Sibanda, has been openly calling on Zimbabweans to rise up during the SADC gathering. 

He is lobbying for the SADC to discuss the disputed elections of August 2023, which the regional bloc called flawed. 

Muswere said the government knew the people behind the plots.

“We are fully aware of futile machinations by failed opposition elements and archbishops of anarchy and despondency, who are disguising themselves as members of the clergy and working together with some rogue student activists,” he said.

Jail

On Wednesday, four civil society activists were forcibly removed from a domestic flight at the Robert Mugabe International Airport and held incommunicado for eight hours by state security agents.

Namatai Kwekweza, a recipient of the Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize, Robson Chere, of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Samuel Gwenzi, an opposition councillor, and Vusumuzi Moyo were taken in on allegations that they took part in a demonstration earlier on.

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According to Ostallos Siziba, an opposition politician, the four were later “dumped” at the Harare central police station after “they were brutally tortured and had their phones seized by regime agents at the airport”.

Their legal counsel, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said in a statement that Gwenzi was tortured and visibly in pain.

The lawyers said the four faced a charge of  “disorderly conduct”.

Earlier on Wednesday, the accused had picketed outside the Rotten Row Magistrate’s Court in Harare, where 78 opposition activists in detention were set to appear in court.

The 78 were arrested on 16 July for taking part in what police said was an illegal gathering.

The police claim the 78 were part of a suspected bigger opposition scheme to stage riots during the SADC summit in Harare on 17 and 18 August.

Toddler in detention

Among the detained is Maureen Danha, who was rounded up with her baby.

Since then, pictures of her carrying the baby on her back, while wearing prison garb, have gone viral. It sparked a public outcry.

But Virginia Mabiza, the country’s attorney-general, argued that the law provided for three ways to deal with mothers who were jailed and had to care for their children.

One, is for the mother to remain with the infant in jail.

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