Authorities in Zimbabwe are resorting to Robert Mugabe-style tactics of “clamping down on dissent” ahead of elections, a rights group warned yesterday, after a civil servant was reprimanded for supporting the opposition.
John Mahlabera, 36, a prison officer based in the town of Chiredzi, was arraigned for a disciplinary hearing by the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services after referring to opposition leader Nelson Chamisa as “my president” in a social media post, according to a statement by a local legal aid group.
The prisons’ association said Mahlabera’s post undermined President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from longtime leader Mugabe after a coup last year, according to the statement by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
Mnangagwa, known by his nickname “the Crocodile,” has promised to revitalise the country after years of misrule by Mugabe and has pledged elections free of intimidation.
ZLHR’s Blessing Nyamaropa told DPA the organisation is concerned that authorities are starting to “clamp down” ahead of the July ballot.
“Since 2010, (Zimbabwe) Lawyers for Human Rights have represented more than 200 people who were charged for undermining the authority of the president during the Robert Mugabe regime, and the Mnangagwa administration has now resorted to the same tactic of clamping down dissent,” he said.