Zimbabwe has been engulfed with protests over the past week,in corruption allegations within the government’s perimeters, human rights violations and the weak economy in the country. Civil rights activists have been fighting the growing violations of human rights, as a result 60 people have been arrested so far.
The right to freedom of speech and expression have suppressed, as ‘whistle blower’ and investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested for exposing corruption scandals from Personal protective equipment(PPEs) and other Covid-19 corruption scandals. Award winning Author Tsitsi Dangarembga was among those arrested in the protest,and Lawyer and spokesperson of the opposition party MDC Fedzayi Mahere was also arrested for voicing out the injustices of the government system.Some were targeted for their views expressed using social platforms.
This has raised a global outcry to save the lives of Zimbabweans, the #Zimbabweanlivesmatter is trending worldwide and has reached more than 1 Million posts. EFF leader Julius Malema took to social media and urged the South Africa Government to halt the Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa until resolution of Human rights violation. The EFF has been vocal on the issues happening in Zimbabwe, a week ago Julius Malema questioned where will Zimbabwe get the funds to compensate the 4,000 white farmers whose land was expropriated by the previous leadership, this follows reports that The Zimbabwean Government has sought to compensate the farmers with funds amounting to $3.6 Billion (R 500 Billion). The Zimbabwean Embassy has responded with outrage to Malema’s comments, Zimbabwe’s permanent secretary in the information ministry has said Harare would not be lectured by Malema.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe is faced with a surge in hunger crisis as they have been under a Four Months Covid-19 lockdown, and most have been immensely impacted by the lockdown period. The country has however been suffering from food security before the virus outbreak, Zimbabwe has been struggling to meet demand in food supply due to less yielding. Only 1.1 Million tones of Maize and staple cereal have been harvested, a decrease from the previous year’s harvest of 2.4 Million. Agencies like the World Food Program (WFP) are looking at ways to help stimulate the crisis by seeking for international funding.The WFP will only reach 700 000 less from the 1.8 Million intended recipients due to shortages of funds, and the organisation is warning that the crisis will worsen by 2021.
