Nigeria Human Rights Activist and lead campaigner for #EndSARS, Segun Awosanya popularly known as Segalink has joined a growing number of popular people calling for an end to government impunity in Zimbabwe.
Segalink in a tweet shared on his official twitter handle, said “distinguished citizens of Zimbabwe, when brothers fight to the death over vanity, strangers are bound to inherit their land. It is time you wake up from this trance & value humanity regardless of your diversity. Stop subjugating press freedom & freedom of expression! #EndImpunity”
The BBC had reported that over the last few days, in response to a particularly brutal, public, widespread, and on-going clampdown by security forces, the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter has gone viral, globally.
The report said, “Celebrities like rappers Ice Cube, AKA and Lecrae and actresses Thandie Newton and Pearl Thusi have expressed support for – or at least interest in – what appears to be an exploding grassroots campaign against the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man who took over from former leader Robert Mugabe.”
President Emmerson government had been accused by Human rights groups of using measures that were ostensibly imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus to quash political dissent and prevent street protests.
Amnesty International in an email statement by Muleya Mwananyanda, the human rights organisation’s deputy director for southern Africa, published by Bloomberg, criticised the Zimbabwean authorities’ arrest of several human-rights activists who took part in protests Friday against state corruption.
“The thwarting of the protest illustrates the Zimbabwean authorities’ total intolerance of criticism.” He described the arrests as a “witch hunt.”
The Human Right Watch, also called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union to urgently and publicly speak out against the Zimbabwe government’s crackdown on peaceful anti-corruption protests on July 31, 2020.
It said, “Zimbabwe authorities have arrested at least 60 people, including the novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and the opposition MDC Alliance spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, in connection with the protests. Sixteen people were injured and required medical attention. Dangarembga was released on bail the next day.”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa in a national address in response to the growing outcry and as local and international pressure mounted on his administration over the allegations of human rights abuses on Monday said that there were “dark forces” within and outside the country undermining the economic recovery.
“We will overcome attempts at the destabilization of our society by a few rogue Zimbabweans acting in league with foreign detractors,” he said, warning that “bad apples who have attempted to divide our people and to weaken our systems will be flushed out. … Enough is enough,” he said.
“Security services will carry out their duties with appropriate astuteness and resolve. The protection of the right to life is paramount, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and machinations by the destructive terrorist opposition groupings,” he said.
In his address, he further pledged to fight corruption and fix the collapsing economy, whose poor performance he blamed on “divisive politics of some opposition elements, illegal economic sanctions, cyclones, droughts and more recently the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.”
