Accusations of police brutality after arrest of 44 students

Zimbabwean police arrested 44 students after breaking up their meeting at which they discussed education policies, leaving some with injuries after alleged severe beatings.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has recently warned opposition parties and the country’s citizens that any protests ahead of the 44th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit in Harare in August will not be tolerated.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) president, Emmanuel Sitima, spent a night in police custody and appeared in court the next day, while others were fined following the events of 24 July at the Zesa Training Centre in Harare where the students were meeting.

Sitima was granted US$100 bail by Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi on 25 July. The magistrate also ordered him to report at a police station once a week as part of his bail conditions and return to court on July 31.

In an interview with University World News, Sitima said he was charged with “criminal nuisance”.

“They say l chanted provocative statements against the state regarding the long pre-trial detention of Senator Jameson Timba and all the young people who were arrested while commemorating the Day of the African Child, a historical day when students rose against the authoritarian former apartheid regime [in South Africa],” said Sitima.

Timba, a Zimbabwean opposition leader, and 78 others, were arrested at his Harare house while commemorating the Day of the African Child on 16 June this year.

They have been in prison as the country’s courts denied them bail in what human rights activists have criticised as another example of how Zimbabwe’s government violates citizens’ rights to freedoms of assembly, association and expression.

Sitima said he was detained under inhumane conditions.

“I was detained at Harare Central police cells which are filthy, infested with lice, and ever smelly. These cells are really dehumanising,” he added.

Police response

However, the police, in a statement, said they were called to the meeting place after complaints that students were allegedly destroying property.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said the students had been breaking the law as they fought each other.

“The police were only called after violence erupted among the ZINASU group. The violence led to the destruction of ZESA and state property. As a result, police were called in to come and maintain law and order,” said Nyathi.

“The Zimbabwe Republic Police, therefore, dismisses a statement by human rights lawyers and civic organisations as well as social media postings alleging that it was the Zimbabwe Republic Police that caused the violence.”

Human rights activists’ statements

However, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights posted on X, formerly Twitter, that police had deployed a truckload of police officers at the training centre where the students were gathered and “disrupted” the meeting.

The rights group said it had dispatched its lawyers to represent the students.

Tatenda Kutsirayi, ZINASU’s Harare province spokesperson, who attended the meeting and was later fined after the arrests, said police were lying in their statement. Kutsirayi said each student was fined US$15.

He said when police pounced on them, they were holding a ZINASU general council meeting and were supposed to come up with resolutions on “pro-poor education policy”.

He accused Nyathi of lying, saying: “We never even planned any demonstrations ...” He said a number of students had been injured in a case of police brutality.

Amnesty International Zimbabwe said in a post on X that the government must respect the freedoms of assembly and association.

It also said police must investigate allegations of beatings and injuries sustained at the hands of authorities.

The incident comes a month after study findings released by a Zimbabwean research organisation, the Research and Advocacy Unit, that found President Mnangagwa’s administration has made curtailment of freedoms of association and assembly its distinctive governing style, helping to earn Zimbabwe the most polarised country tag in Southern Africa.

The study of 16 countries in the Southern African Development Community countries said limitations on freedom of assembly and association are common in autocracies.

“Zimbabwe, eSwatini and Madagascar are the countries most likely to prevent or disrupt peaceful assembly,” added the report, titled Freedom in SADC Countries (2013 to 2023).