The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (The Forum) has voiced alarm about two extrajudicial killings that occurred in the country after the elections.
These two extrajudicial killings are among the 316 post-election related Organised Violence and Torture (OVT) cases reported by the Forum in its post-election report that captures post-electoral violations in Zimbabwe from August 24 to September 30, 2023.
According to the Forum, the two incidents of extra-judicial killings occurred in Bulawayo and Guruve North in Mashonaland Central.
“On 28 August 2023, reports emerged of the death of 14-year-old Mayibongwe Dube who was brutally murdered while at home. The teenager was targeted because his sister was a polling agent for the opposition political party, ZAPU. Mayibongwe was found strangled with a rope,” read the report.
“A tenant who rents in the same house in which Mayibongwe was murdered and who is a known Zanu PF activist was fingered as a suspect by the family.”
The Forum stated when the tenant was questioned by relatives of the “slain boy” he initially indicated that he was not in the house on the night Mayibongwe was murdered.
“However, upon being questioned a second time by the police, he (the suspect a Zanu PF activist) then later indicated that ZAPU people had killed the boy. The suspect has since disappeared and is nowhere to be found,” read the report.
Read: 14-year-old boy’s body mistakenly buried in Inyanga – #Asakhe – CITE
The other extrajudicial death occurred on September 15, 2023, in Kachuta Village Guruve North, which is when the Forum received an alert.
“The circumstances are that on the night of 15 September 2023, four officers -one of whom was 14 driving, invaded the home of the now deceased Persuade Mandara (27). Three detectives who were armed with pistols disembarked from the vehicle and barged into Mandara’s home at around 8pm,” read the report.
“At the time, there was a fire going in the home as Mandara’s wife was in the process of preparing a family meal.”
The police detectives alleged they had been looking for Mandara in connection with a grain (wheat) theft case at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
“They did not announce themselves and only discharged a firearm. They then broke down the door to gain entry and without even attempting to interrogate Mandara, began assaulting him indiscriminately with the burning logs that were being used for cooking. They also fired two more shots,” read the report.
The Forum said Mandara’s wife, who was carrying their two-year-old son on her back, was forced to flee the homestead when she realised that her pleas for her husband’s life were ignored.
“The detectives then took Mandara, who was still alive but barely so to the (Guruve) Charge Office. Mandara died in police custody,” said the Forum who stepped in to provide legal assistance to the affected family.
However, the Forum said when their lawyer went to report Mandara’s death at Guruve Charge Office, the police would not open a docket as they indicated the death had already been reported by the police who brought in his body.
“Mandara’s corpse remains in a mortuary in Guruve despite pleas by the family for the body’s release for burial. The police claim the case is an SDD – Sudden Death Docket and that they are still finalising on the docket. Mandara’s wife has since relocated from Guruve and is now in Mvurwi following the death of her husband as she now fears for her life and that of her two-year-old child,” read the report.
