From The Zimbabwe Telegraph – By Rumbi Mundimba, 20th April, 2009
The commissioner of prisons Paradzai Zimondi has been fingered as a proponent cum-cog of the elimination axis that also targets co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa amid revelations that the recent Marondera road mishap that befell the minister was pay back for his earlier “outbursts” that he was eager to clip the wings of the former member of the notorious Joint Operation Command (JOC) as he was a stumbling block to national healing, Zimbabwe Telegraph has heard.
Following Mutsekwa’s public announcement that he wanted to tame Zimondi, other members of JOC notoriously known as the junta joined in the silent and subtle war and elevated his name to the top of the elimination list before he pounced his claws on their fellow soldier of misfortune.
Mutsekwa is included in the elimination list of senior MDC officials that include Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, among others.
A family member of the Mutsekwa stable has since said that the accident that befell the co-home affairs minister was suspicious.
Mutsekwa was alone in his official Mercedes Benz when the near-tragedy occurred.
Mutsekwa was not reachable for comment by the time of going to print. He is however credited for having facilitated for the freedom of human rights director Jestina Mukoko while his fellow co-home affairs minister Kembo Mohadi was in Zambia.
The powers of the Junta were partially clipped following Robert Mugabe’s signature of the national security council bill which created the National Security Council .
Meanwhile a political commentator has said that the all-inclusive government was heading for a brick-wall as ZANU PF has mooted a plan to express its sincerity for only a year and would change its game plan in the second half of the all-inclusive arrangement.
The second half of the all-inclusive government would be used as a build up of the campaign of retribution against the MDC and other perceived enemies of the state*
Apr 30, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
FRANK KUWANA, April 09, 2009
Co-Home Affairs minister Giles Mutsekwa has vowed to tame the controversial commissioner of prisons Paradzai Zimondi arguing that the former member of the notorious Joint Operation Command (JOC) is hindering the implementation of the rule of law, it has emerged. Mutsekwa assisted in setting free the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) and former broadcaster Jestina Mukoko while his fellow minister Kembo Mohadi was in Zambia has reportedly said that Zimondi should realise that JOC has been disbanded following the introduction of the National Security Authority.The ZANU PF leader Robert Mugabe eventually appended his signature to the National Security Authority Bill that abolished the absolute powers of the junta (JOC).
Although prisons do not fall under his ministry, Mutsekwa was said to have promised to ensure that all the outstanding cases of the human rights activists and MDC supporters that are reportedly behind bars are cleared to pave the way for the practical implementation of the 100 days of economic recovery in line with the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP) that was launched less than two weeks ago.
Mutsekwa was not reachable for comment to clarify his intentions.
A subsequent workshop was held in Victoria Falls to map the way forward for Zimbabwe’s socio-economic recovery.
Zimondi was one of the service chiefs who vowed never to salute Tsvangirai arguing that he did not have the so-called straight jacket.
Since his inauguration, Tsvangirai had been persistently arguing that he does not need to be saluted for him to perform his functions.
He said that the junta would one day realise that it is necessary for a change of mindset for Zimbabwe to rise from its ashes of impoverishment.
Tsvangirai enjoys the support of the security personnel ranging from prison wardens, police officers and junior army officers following his pledge to pay civil servants in foreign currency after dollarisation of the economy that eased their socio-economic plight.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was mobbed and given a hero’s reception when he visited Chikurubi Maximum prison to facilitate for the freedom of about 31 human rights and MDC activists that were languishing in the dungeons of solitary confinement*
Apr 10, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Zimbabwe Times – By Sibangani Sibanda, April 8, 2009
MORGAN Tsvangirayi, Tendai Biti and various other members of the former opposition movement in Zimbabwe, which is now part of the inclusive government, have spent time as enforced guests of the Zimbabwean prison system.
One must assume, therefore, that they have experienced first hand, the current conditions in our prisons. One assumes because, to the best of my knowledge, they have not disclosed, in public at least, the conditions under which they were incarcerated for various lengths of time.
When Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer and deputy Agriculture Minister designate, Roy Bennett, finally walked out of prison last month, he used an expression that has become something of a cliché. He said that he would not wish time in a Zimbabwean prison on his worst enemy.
I must admit that although I sympathized with the man, there was a part of me that thought that these were the sentiments of a white Zimbabwean failing to come to terms with the realities of prison system that thousands, including his own colleagues in the MDC, have endured in silence.
I owe Mr Bennett an apology.
This week, a South African Television channel ran a program on conditions in Zimbabwean prisons based, in part, on Bennett’s experiences. It was sobering and frightening, bringing into our homes, images that I would normally associate with black and white photographs of victims of the Holocaust and television pictures of the Ethiopian famine!
Even taking into account Zanu-PF’s grim record in government, this looked particularly horrific. Yes, they massacred people in Matebeleland in the name of flushing out dissidents. They have routinely abducted, tortured and killed opponents. They have allowed facilities that were once some of the best on the continent to deteriorate to a level where they are a danger to their supposed beneficiaries.
In short, they have been a callous, unfeeling, uncaring government. But to see live human beings living in the conditions that Zimbabwean saw in that documentary was beyond anything that I could have imagined in my county, in the 21st Century!
Now I seriously doubt Bennett will ever be sworn in as deputy minister.
It brought my opinion of Zanu-PF to a new low. Yet I was not completely surprised by this new revelation of the cruelty of a party that has always thrived on the total oppression of its people. What I found frightening was the fact that there had been so much silence on such serious violations of basic human rights at our very door step.
Prison officers who have presided over these death camps have remained silent, even when they have had to preserve the corpses of dead prisoners by covering them with sand onto which they pour water (as was described in the program); they have remained silent when there has not been enough food for the prisoners; doctors who have gone to prisons to attend to patients have said nothing. Even those close to prisoners have remained silent when their relatives have shown signs of emaciation or even told them (as they must have done) of the conditions they were living in.
Commissioner of Prisons, Paradzai Zimondi, has presided over this death and decay with such remarkable hard-heartedness that he thought nothing of dressing a few luck prisoners in bright yellow uniforms – all brand new – to go and sing “Happy 85th Birthday” to President Mugabe in Chinhoyi. At least they had more than a square meal on that day as compensation for the indignity. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had the audacity to suggest the emaciated figures appearing on TV screens last week were citizens of another African country.
Many almost believed them. The scenes depicted were just too terrible to be out of Zimbabwe.
And the politicians who have experienced the prison conditions for themselves have also remained silent. It is as if in Zimbabwe, nothing is too appalling. We accept whatever the government throws at us without question – as long as we are in situations that are less appalling.
Zanu-PF, if they were to be asked to account for the state of our prisons would probably blame “sanctions”, but I wonder if they will ever get asked now; now that they are part of a new “inclusive” government. In any case, what sanctions have been imposed on Zimbabwe that would account for such human suffering?
The MDC, who have the majority in Parliament but are the junior partner in the inclusive government have allowed themselves to become partly responsible for the state of our prisons – as they have allowed themselves to be identified with just about every failure of Zanu-PF. They, at least appear to still have some consciences. As they look at redressing all the other messes created by the old government, they should also look at the prisons.
Even those that society wishes to punish have some rights.
Apr 09, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
From The Harare Tribune – Monday, 06 April 2009
ZANU-PF appointee and card-carrying member, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, refused to grant bail to MDC activists and a independent journalist who were abducted by the CIO, ZRP, ZNA last year.
The State accuses the three of plotting to overthrow the illegal regime headed by Robert Mugabe last year.
Chidyausiku, a man with multiple farms siezed from their rightful owners, the same man who has benefited from the ZANU-PF corruption over the last ten years, refused to grant them bail saying an earlier High Court ruling was okay.
The three will likely spent more days and weeks in Zimbabwe’s notorious prisons.
Read below for more on the case:
MDC Pressroom–Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku today dismissed a bail application filed by two MDC officials and a journalist who are facing trumped up charges of banditry, insurgency and terrorism.
Chris Dhlamini, MDC head of security, Gandhi Mudzingwa, Prime Minister Hon. Morgan Tsvangirai’s former aide and freelance journalist Andrison Manyere have been in remand prison since December last year.
Justice Chidyausiku denied bail to the three arguing that there was no misdirection to an earlier ruling by High Court Judge Justice Yunus Omerjee.
However, MDC lawyers are going to file another urgent bail application at the High Court tomorrow applying for the immediate release of the three.
The new bail application is expected to be heard on Wednesday. The MDC views the continued detention of the three political detainees as going against the spirit and letter of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that was signed by the three main political parties last year.
The continued detention of MDC activists has nothing to do with the law but is a product of political machinations of the residual elements in Zanu PF and the securocrats who are waging a perpetual battle to scuttle change by undermining the inclusive government.
The MDC calls for the immediate release of the three prisoners and the scores of MDC activists who are being held in secret locations after they were abducted by State security agents last year.
Apr 07, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
10 Feb 2009
President Robert Mugabe’s regime has reneged on an agreement to release dozens of opposition activists, who have been abducted and severely tortured to extract false confessions of terrorism, before Wednesday’s swearing in of a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe.
Doctors’ affidavits seen by the Guardian reveal a pattern of torture of many of the 30 political and human rights activists held by the state for months. Nine of the prisoners seen by doctors were subjected to simulated drowning, being hung by their wrists in handcuffs and beaten, and high-voltage electric shocks.
One man was hung upside down from a tree and dumped into a water-filled drum until he passed out.
A 72-year-old man was held in a deep freeze before scalding water was poured on his genitals.
Human rights lawyers say the detainees have been tortured to force them to falsely confess to bomb attacks on police stations or plots to overthrow Mugabe, in an attempt by his regime to justify further state violence against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had demanded the release of the detainees, who include his own security chief and a former close aide, as a condition for being sworn in on Wednesday as prime minister in a power-sharing government with Mugabe.
A deal was reached between the MDC and Nicholas Goche, a senior negotiator in Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF, for 16 detainees to be released.
Some were to be taken to hospital last Friday and then quietly freed by a judge in order for the regime to save face. Eight were to appear in court on Monday on the understanding they would be freed.
But none of the detainees were produced after the prisons commissioner, Major-General Paradzai Zimondi, refused to hand them over.
Zimondi is a hardline member of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), which acts as Mugabe’s security cabinet. JOC organised the campaign of terror, beatings and killings against MDC supporters during last year’s elections. The general has threatened violence against the opposition, and recently he burst into a court and broke up a hearing on the release of some of the detainees.
The MDC is interpreting Zimondi’s intervention as evidence that the JOC intends to subvert the power-sharing administration by continuing the violence and intimidation against Tsvangirai’s officials and supporters.
Suspicion over Mugabe’s intent has been further reinforced by what the MDC says is false allegations of corruption laid against seven of its MPs last week in an attempt to overturn the party’s newly won majority in Parliament.
The tortured detainees include Kisimusi “Chris” Dhlamini, a former officer in the Central Intelligence Organisation, who became the MDC’s head of security.
According to an affidavit from a doctor who examined Dhlamini in Harare’s maximum security prison, he was repeatedly assaulted, including being subjected to simulated drowning, hung by his wrists in handcuffs, beaten and burned. The affidavit said there were injuries consistent with high-voltage electric shocks as well.
Gandi Mudzingwa, Tsvangirai’s former personal assistant, was severely beaten with sticks, kicked, subjected to simulated drowning and had his feet smashed with bricks.
Doctors’ affidavits on other prisoners show they were subjected to similar tortures, particularly having their heads forced underwater. A 72-year-old MDC activist, Fidelis Chiramba, was forced into a freezer, stripped naked and had his genitals burned with hot water.
Eight women are being held, including Jestina Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, who was abducted and tortured, and has been held in prison since last year, accused of training insurgents in Botswana to overthrow Mugabe. – guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009
Mar 26, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
Zim Online - by Nqobizitha Khumalo, Monday 12 May 2008
BULAWAYO – Zimbabwe prisons chief Paradzai Zimondi is funding and feeding ruling ZANU PF party militias terrorising and murdering opposition supporters in Mashonaland East province, a human rights group has said.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said Zimondi sheltered and fed the ZANU PF terror gangs at his piggery farm in Uzumba district in the province from where they unleashed violence against suspected members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
The group’s director Jestina Mukoko said: “We are aware of a high ranking officer Paradzai Zimondi who runs a piggery in Chidondo in Uzumba in Mashonaland East province who is feeding and funding the youths who are perpetrating the violence and are terrorising and beating villagers.”
Zimondi – who is among top security commanders loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s rule and who have publicly threatened to stage a military coup if the veteran leader was defeated in elections – was not immediately available for comment on the matter.
The ZPP and other human rights groups have long accused the army and other state security agencies of spearheading and directing a campaign of violence and murder by ZANU PF youths and war veterans that the MDC says has killed at least 24 of its members and displaced another 5 000, while 800 homesteads have been burnt down.
But this is the first time that a senior government security officer is being directly linked to political violence.
Mukoko, who was speaking at a workshop for journalists that ended in Bulawayo on Saturday, said her organisation had begun a campaign to name and shame all those involved in perpetrating violence against defenceless civilians.
“The masters of violence are ZANU PF, its supporters and state security agents and it is worrying and very sad for people to go to the extent of burning livestock and plucking out eyes of goats because the owner voted for the opposition, it is very sad,” said Mukoko.
Political violence broke out in many parts of Zimbabwe almost immediately it became clear that the MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had defeated Mugabe and his ZANU PF party in the March polls.
The MDC, Western governments and human rights groups have accused Mugabe of unleashing ZANU PF militias and the army to beat and torture Zimbabweans into backing him in a second round presidential ballot.
The run-off presidential election is due to be held at a yet unknown date after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe but failed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote needed to take power under the country’s electoral laws.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon, the United States and Zimbabwe’s former colonial power Britain have urged African leaders to do more to pressure Mugabe to end violence in Zimbabwe which is also battling unprecedented economic recession and food shortages.
The Zimbabwe government denies authorising violence and instead says it is the MDC that has carried out political violence to tarnish Mugabe’s name. – ZimOnline.
Mar 26, 2009 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »
