Lawfare: the new normal in Zimbabwe as the Harare regime clamps down on dissenting voices.

By Prince Gora 

In a 1946 post-war confessional prose, the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) wrote a touching poem about the silence of German intellectuals and certain clergy—including, by his own admission, Niemöller himself—following the Nazi's rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The poem deals with themes of persecution, guilt, repentance, and personal responsibility. It reads as follows;

First they came for the Communists,

And I did not speak out,

Because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Socialists,

And I did not speak out,

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

And I did not speak out,

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews 

And I did not speak out,

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me,

And there was no one left.

To speak out for me!

Convict, Convict, Convict... is the new chorus in town.

1946 is a very long time ago and evils of the Nazi regime seem very divorced from any of the modern day leaders and rulers. Thus, at face value, Martin Niemöller's poem seem to have no practical applications to countries like, er, Zimbabwe. 

But let's take a closer look.

Let's begin by testing your memory and how closely you have been following the news over the past year or so.

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Julie Barnes, Makomborero Haruzivishe, Jacob Ngarivhume, Fadzayi Mahere, Job Sikhala, to name but just a few.

Anything in common amongst these people? Yes. They are Zimbabweans. 

Anything else? Again, yes. They are Zimbabweans who believe in a better future for the country.

Most importantly though is the fact that all the aforementioned citizens of my beloved country are people who have been convicted by the courts in the past few months. 

Criminals right? Well, let's not rush there - just yet. Let's take a closer look at the crimes they have been convicted for. 

Tsitsi and Julie? Holding placards demanding human rights. 

Mako? Blowing a whistle in a restaurant.

Ngarivhume? Calling for a peaceful demonstration. 

Fadzayi? Non existent law that was declared so by the High Court of Zimbabwe. 

Job Sikhala? Demanding justice for slain opposition activist, Moreblessing Ali.

For comparison, let us examine the case of Henrietta Rushwaya who was caught with 5kgs of gold in a hand bag at Harare International Airport some 2 years ago. Nothing has been heard of the case ever since. Or should we take a look at Obadiah Moyo's case of emblazoning Covid 19 funds or Prisca Mupfumira's scandal at NASA or Justice Mayor Wadyajena's COTTCO fiasco. All theses cases have a grand total of zero convictions.

Conviction is the jaganault, the chorus of the song. Verses of the song include unwarranted arrests, pre-trial detention, intimidation, abductions and censorship of everyone including creatives like the popular Winky D.

Lawfare.

Writing in his weekly bulletin, the Big Saturday Read, in August 2020, the late Dr. Alex Magaisa (MHSRIP) explained that, "There is a war that takes place without guns and ammunition, a war in which the law is the  primary weapon. This kind of war is referred to as lawfare."

Dr. Magaisa further explained that dictatorships rely on a combination of guns and the law but mostly the law because guns are too visible and too gory. They produce blood on the streets and create evidence of tortured bodies. The sight of thousands of gun-wielding soldiers and riot police on streets also gives away evidence of a severe crackdown and heavy-handedness.

So, alternatively, Dr. Magaisa explained, they engage in lawfare against dissenting voices instead. Dictatorships arrest and detain dissenters based on spurious charges and are kept in jail for a few days, sometimes weeks before they are released on bail.

A case of Job Sikhala.

What Dr. Magaisa wrote about, a kind of lawfare where dissenters are released from jail after being given bail in a few weeks is, perhaps, lawfare of the 'old'. 

In the 'new' lawfare, dissenters are kept in prison without bail for a year and then sentenced to a finable six months in prison. If this sounds like fiction, then you are not paying attention because this is exactly what happened to Zengeza West Legislator, Job Sikhala.

Something similar also happened to Makomborero Haruzivishe in 2021 in a case where Mako has since been proven to be innocent of the charges for which he spent 10 months in prison for.

It is important to point out that many years ago, in colonial Zimbabwe, similar scenarios were also recorded. The case of Mudzimbamuto, a freedom fighter who spent years in detention based on emergency powers is a good reference point.

Shrinking civic space and the silencing of society.

Empirical evidence clearly show that human rights defenders, opposition activists, civil society players and the likes are being targeted.

If you don't believe my theory, you may need to also take a look at proposed laws or laws that have been enacted in Zimbabwe in recent times. The PVO Bill, MOPA, the Cyber Security and Data Protection Act, the Patriotic Bill and etcetera will tell you everything you need to know about the intentions of the Harare regime. 

Conclusion 

As free human beings,  we have an option to either follow in Martin Niemöller's footsteps of doing nothing and regretting later - or not. But we also have an option to take a cue from his lessons and act now! It is however important for us to realize that if we keep quite now, they may be no one left to speak for us!

Coming Soon: Social Commentary

For the next several months, I  will be publishing a fictional short story on my blog every Sunday.

How it all started

I was attending my first ever writers` retreat in July last year when I declared, on the night of arrival, that a third generation descendent of mine would write on the golden anniversary of the retreat on 13 July 1972 that, “When they gathered for the writers` retreat on that Wednesday evening, I wonder if they knew that what they were about to do would change the course of history and inspire generations.”

The truth is that I didn't even have a solid reason for saying what I said that night. I  probably only did because I was asked to say something along those lines.

Little did I know that the retreat would unlock a side of me that had been locked for years; fictional writing.

I not only wrote a short story during the retreat but went on to write a couple of more short stories with the intention of publishing a short stories collection. 

I even contacted a publisher but owing to a number of issues; things like work, the power crisis, social media and outright laziness, I have failed to do so in almost a year.

Just this week though, to my pleasant surprise, I found myself writing a 1000 words long article with Blogger on my mobile phone. I had somehow forgot that I write better there than I do on WPS or even, in a way, on my PC.

That gave me ideas. What if I start publishing my short stories once every week, on a Sunday, until every short story has been completed?

In a flash, that is exactly what I have decided to do. Every Sunday, right here, I will post a short story as part of the Social Commentary Series. The longer ones can run for 2-3 weeks or more if need be.

When all is done, I will then compile everything and formally publish. 

Posts for the next five weeks, from Sunday, May 14th have already been uploaded and scheduled so stay tuned.

What is the Social Commentary all about?

Social Commentary is a compilation of mostly fictional short stories. I say mostly fictional because the stories in there borrow heavily from what I know, what I have heard and my surroundings which some people may relate to.

This may and will most likely touch some nerves and upset a few people but I am not really worried about that.

One of my writing inspirations, the writer Dambudzo Marechera (MHSRIP) often said that he wasn`t inspired by any writer but by the surroundings in which he grew up in. That is me a lot of times and especially in this short stories series. 

Social Commentary had another inspiration though besides my surroundings, a certain writer who wrote a short story she gave the title of Olikoye. I believe that her name is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Olikoye was part of the retreat assignments but I hadn`t even read it when I made my declaration. When I did, later that evening, a beast in me was awakened. I was deeply struck by how Chimamanda told a very interesting story while putting across some powerful lessons and brave ideas and when we had to do a writing assignment the following afternoon, her style of telling a story was all that I could think of and so, Mavhura Bridge, was born and so was Social Commentary.

I didn`t quite follow the same style in the rest of the stories though. I couldn`t possibly have done so because, well I first wrote one of them back in 2015 but had never had the courage to finish nor publish it. I still saw it fit to include it here because I realized that it is social commentary all the same.

More importantly to state though is the fact that I didn`t start writing any of the stories that I am going to publish in the series with the end in mind. Each story came out the way it wanted to and not the way I wanted it to. I merely allowed my thoughts and my pen to be swayed and mesmerized by my chosen characters.

To those of you who will enjoy reading the series, just one story told from different angles and by different characters, please do but to those of you who will take offense and be upset, tough luck but I am not sorry.

Social Commentary is simply me telling the stories of my life: the stories I have lived, the stories I have seen others live and the stories I have read and heard; both fact and fiction.

From the earliest days of childhood and my formative years as a writer, I have always wanted to tell these stories to the whole world and I am so relieved that I am finally going to do it!

Creating a Caring Campus Culture

By Prince Gora

Campus culture is the combination of language, behavior, values, and philosophy or outlook that are part of a college education. It's the "rules," usually unspoken, that college students learn to fit into a college.

It is a powerful source of socialization. Students are socialized through their perception of the institution’s norms, including peer norms, and their habitual participation in routine practices and communal events. 

There has been a recent spike in cases of mental health and suicide among tertiary students in the country. What's interesting to note is that while some institutions have recorded several cases of suicide over the past few years, others have recorded none. Obviously, some institutions are bigger than others, but one can't help but wonder if some institutions are more caring about their student's mental health issues than others. Institutions need to start doing more to safeguard the mental health of students. Below are 7 ways on how this can be done;

1. Teach life skills

Providing life-skills education for incoming students is valuable in teaching healthy ways to cope with the stress of college life especially in the Zimbabwean higher education environment where students sometimes struggle with the basics like food. Among important life skills are managing friendships and relationships, problem-solving, decision-making, identifying and managing emotions, healthy living, and finding life purpose and identity.

2. Promote connectedness

Loneliness and isolation are risk factors for mental health problems and suicidal ideation. Supportive social relationships and feeling connected to the campus community, family, and friends can help lower risk. A good example to follow could be the MindHandHeart initiative used to promote student connections at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Every semester, the institute hosts Random Acts of Kindness Week (RAK), a weeklong series of events aimed at helping people connect through small acts of kindness. To encourage acts of kindness, MIT libraries provide stationery, postage, and paper so students can write kind notes to other students.

3. Train key leaders

It is crucial to identify students at risk for mental health problems and suicidal behavior and to promote emotional health awareness among select staff such as residence hall staff, academic advisors, faculty, and student leaders. These key people need to recognize and refer students in distress.

4. Encourage students to get help

Students who need help may be reluctant or unsure of how to seek it out. Obstacles to seeking help include lack of awareness of mental health services, skepticism about the effectiveness of treatment, prejudices associated with mental illness, and uncertainty about costs or insurance coverage. Institutions should consider implementing activities or programs on campus designed to increase the likelihood that a student in need will seek help.

5. Provide mental health and substance abuse services

It is essential for universities and colleges to offer accessible, consistent, and high-quality mental health services to students. Programs should be comprehensive and include strong and flexible services, adequate staffing and staff diversity, flexibility in treatment approaches, and clinic hours that reflect student schedules. Institutions' wellness centers must facilitate communication between health and counseling services. The blending of these services will enable institutions to provide comprehensive, holistic care to their students.

6. Follow crisis management procedures

Campuses should have a well-publicized, 24/7 crisis phone line either through campus resources or local/national services. Additionally, there should be a process in place to share information between local hospitals and school health and counseling services. One way to do this is to create a Crisis Text Line (CTL) to provide students with immediate mental health support and to increase help-seeking behavior. Toolkits and web pages must also be developed, shared, and adopted. The toolkits and web pages can provide resources for campus community members to spread awareness and information about CTL. In addition, all student ID cards must include CTL information so that the resources are readily available for students who may be in crisis.

7. Use telehealth services

Virtual mental health services can make a significant impact on college campuses. One such example is TimelyMD which provides immediate emotional support for students dealing with stress. It also has 24/7 care that expands after-hours support, eliminates wait time, and provides support for critical situations.

In conclusion, encouraging students to access mental health services positively reinforces that the student’s ability to participate in the full college experience is valued. Support for emotional well-being must be considered a campus-wide responsibility and prioritized similarly to physical health. Senior leadership must also acknowledge the importance of student mental health and well-being and nurture a shared value across the campus community. 

How college leaders create a caring campus culture will play a critical role in campus success. Creating a caring campus culture is attractive to prospective students and can nurture deeper learning.