Has COVID-19 become a weapon to gag student activists?

2020 will go down in history as a year when life, work and study came to a virtual standstill. Zimbabwean students will remember hastily moving online, the termination of internships and struggles with power, network and data challenges – problems brought about by the pandemic – but they will also remember how they struggled for academic freedom.

The students’ attempts to raise their voices about the conditions during the pandemic resulted in the arrest and detention of more than 30 student leaders since June 2020, and have sparked condemnation from human rights and civil society organisations.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) has gone so far as to speak of the ‘weaponisation’ of the judiciary by the state to use judicial capture to persecute opposition and civil society activists.

The latest victim is Alan Moyo who, after spending about 50 days in prison, was denied bail again at the end of January, this time by High Court Judge Davison Foroma. He was finally granted bail on 19 February but has not been released yet.

The student leader was first denied bail in the Magistrate’s Court on 9 December 2020, but was granted leave to appeal. Foroma found that the grounds for appeal were “defective”.

In a recent statement, CiZC said that, given the continued persecution of pro-democracy activists, the coalition “will be mobilising civic society to petition against the continued capture of the judiciary in Zimbabwe”.

In an interview with University World News, Moyo’s lawyer, Obey Shava of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said: “I visited Alan soon after the bail hearing and told him the news. He is still in good spirits and remains hopeful.

"We discussed the way forward and the strategies we will be employing as we try to have him freed.”

In mid-February, Moyo remains in jail and voices calling for his freedom are becoming louder.

No grounds to deny bail

Shava said it was important to note that there are no legal grounds for denying Moyo’s bail appeal.

“He should have been given bail as far back as 10 December 2020. I see his incarceration as the state’s message to fellow student leaders and activists that you ‘shouldn’t try this at home’. The regime is taking advantage of the lockdown to terrorise activists,” he said.

This type of abuse has been widespread.

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 51 governments, including Zimbabwe, have used “COVID-19-related public health measures or laws pre-dating the pandemic to arbitrarily arrest, detain, or prosecute thousands of people expressing their opposition to the authorities’ responses to the pandemic or other government policies unrelated to COVID-19”.

Human Rights Watch reviewed government responses to COVID-19 across the world.

Indeed, Zimbabwean civil society’s dissatisfaction with the government and, in particular, the state of the country’s economy predates the arrival of the pandemic.

In the case of Moyo, the state alleges that he incited some commuters at Copacabana Bus Terminus in Harare on 3 July 2020 by telling them that the time was right to stage a revolt against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration because the president had failed the people of Zimbabwe.

Banned from assembling at the moment, citizens and activists are taking to social media to lobby for Moyo’s freedom, using the hashtag #FreeAlanMoyo, which has been trending on Twitter and Facebook over the past few weeks.

The main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance), has also joined calls for Moyo’s release.

The secretary general of the MDC Alliance’s student wing, Hither Mpambwa, told University World News that, “The prolonged detention of Alan Moyo is unconstitutional and unacceptable. His only crime was to express himself and being the voice of the voiceless students in Zimbabwe. We call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

Mpambwa said the oppression in Zimbabwe is now on another level.

“Alan Moyo is not the first student who has suffered after expressing himself. Takudzwa Ngadziore, Youngerson Matete, myself and many others went through that persecution last year. The Mnangagwa regime is eager to suppress the voices of the young through persecution by prosecution,” added Mpambwa.

In the first issue of their monthly newsletter released on 31 January 2021, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), like CiZC, raised a red flag about the judicial system.

“Alan Moyo, 23, a University of Zimbabwe student arrested on 7 December 2020, is still in detention ... ZimRights condemns the unnecessary pre-trial incarceration as it is an attack on fundamental freedoms, more-so during this COVID-19 pandemic as it exposes citizens to the virus,” the association said.

More students arrested

Although Moyo has been incarcerated the longest, his case has not been an isolated one.

In fact, when he was arrested on 7 December 2020, he was trying to deliver food to nine Morgan Zintec College student teachers who had been arrested for staging a demonstration against a government directive compelling them to repeat their courses in 2021.

The nine are Walter Muzamani, Steven Mariwo, Enoch Masasu, Chipo Ngirandi, Sarudzai Nkezana, Fortunate Mukondo, Monica Mutegude, Charity Chakona and Lucia Mafara.

They argued that the government was trying to take advantage of them in its pursuit of supplementing teachers in schools.

Many teachers had refused to go back to work when lockdown restrictions were temporarily relaxed late last year. Of all the nation’s students at various learning levels, only student teachers were asked to repeat their courses.

Another victim of persecution at the hands of the state in 2020 was the president of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Takudzwa Ngadziore, who spent more than 40 days in prison during the course of the year.

Ngadziore was first arrested in February 2020 for organising a protest to free activist Makomborero Haruzivishe.

In early September, as he left court at the start of his trial, he was re-arrested by armed police and charged with participating in a public gathering at Impala Car Rental’s head office. The company is accused of having aided in the abduction of Tawanda Muchehiwa, another student activist.

Ngadziore was held for four days and then released on bail with an order not to go within 100m of the Impala Car Rental offices.

Abducted at gunpoint

Ngadziore’s freedom was short-lived as he was arrested a third time after addressing a press conference against Muchehiwa’s abduction on 18 September about a kilometre from the car hire company.

On the day in question, Ngadziore was assaulted by unknown assailants in unmarked cars before being taken away by the police. He then spent more than 30 days in prison before being released on bail.

Tawanda Muchehiwa claims to have been abducted at gunpoint by five security force members on 30 July 2020 and tortured for at least three days.

After a habeas corpus application was made before the courts to determine whether the detention was lawful, he was dumped near the house of his uncle, Mduduzi Mathuthu, barely able to walk.

After his release, he experienced serious health complications, including renal failure, and was hospitalised.

Muchehiwa’s abduction, including the number plates of one of the vehicles used (which was later on traced to Impala Car Rental), was reportedly captured by CCTV cameras.

Muchehiwa has since absconded from university out of fear because he broke his abductors’ directive not to speak about his ordeal.

The prolonged incarceration of Ngadziore and the refusal of Impala Car Rental to follow a high court order that they release the information of Muchehiwa’s abductors prompted students to launch two campaigns dubbed #FreeTaku and #JusticeForTawanda.

These campaigns led to the arrest of more students, including Arnold Mazonde, Nancy Njenge, Talent Jinga, Mitchel Liyeto, Takudzwa Gwaze, Takudzwa Mukono, Donald Marevanhema, John Ncobo, Youngerson Matete and Zvikomborero Mumbirimi.

Students demand a better life

Speaking to University World News, ZINASU spokesperson Donald Marevanhema said: “Alan and other student leaders are being arrested for simply demanding a better Zimbabwe where the basic human fundamental rights are upheld.

“We are of opinion that the citizens’ demand for better quality life and democracy is justified. Students are demonstrating against the deteriorating economic environment that has a bearing on the quality of education as well as unemployment and the hopelessness of our society.”

On 23 June 2020, eight Chinhoyi University of Technology students were also arrested for allegedly protesting against the clampdown on human rights defenders in Zimbabwe and rising incidents of police brutality.

The eight are ZINASU vice-president Faustina Madava, together with Lionel Shayahama, Shamiso Whide, Nicola Makasu, Melody Madalamete, Ignatius Lochombo, Brian Mushakwe and Norman Makamanzi.

It has been reported that, on 22 June, the eight, during a lecture, raised and distributed placards with messages calling for the release of the three MDC Alliance youth leaders.

Although there has been no arrest in the past few weeks, the victimisation of politically vocal students is unlikely to be a thing of the past.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) said in a statement: “We are concerned about the arrest and prosecution of students in apparent retaliation for the nonviolent exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly — conduct that is expressly protected under international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a party.”

SAR is an organisation that investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities.

According to the statement, state authorities have an obligation to refrain from restricting expressive activity, “so long as it is non-violent and responsible”.

“In addition to harm to the immediate victims, detention intended to restrict non-violent, on-campus expressive activity undermines academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and democratic society generally,” it added.

In its statement on 29 January, CiZC said the state, through the judicial system, “has curtailed the right to liberty and this has resulted in opposition and civil society activists arrested on frivolous charges, spending lengthy periods in detention with the courts denying them bail despite the lack of compelling reasons”.

CiZC also accused the lower courts of frustrating bail applications by incarcerated activists saying, “In most of the cases involving the arrest of activists, the High Court has ruled that there are no compelling reasons to deny the activists bail and we implore the Magistrate’s Courts to uphold Section 50 (1) (d) of the constitution which prescribes that any person who is arrested ‘must be released unconditionally or on reasonable conditions, pending charge or trial, unless compelling reasons are justifying their continued detention’.

“In the case of Alan Moyo, the High Court, in mid-January 2021, dismissed his bail application because his court records from the Magistrate’s Courts were in shambles,” according to the statement.

As Moyo awaits the judicial system to move forward and consider his bail application again, student leaders and hashtag activists are unlikely to stand down and keep quiet.

Prince Gora is a student activist. He was arrested and detained during 2020.

This story was updated on 20 February 2021.