Silenced: The Strong Voice of Jestina Mukoko

Sophie Shaw, Harare

The terrifying ordeal of Jestina Mukoko, a television news anchor turned human rights activist, began at 5am on December 3 when seven men and one woman forced their way into her house at gunpoint in Norton, a quiet, leafy town 25 miles west of Harare.

The intruders were not in uniform, although one of the men claimed to be a police officer. They refused to let her dress, find her spectacles or pick up the blood pressure pills that she is supposed to take three times a day.

Her 17-year-old son Takudzwa and a six-year-old niece, Tofara, who was in her care, were left shocked and alone after seeing her led away in her nightdress.

Mukoko, 51, who was widowed 13 years ago, has not been seen since by family, friends or lawyers. The regime of President Robert Mugabe has said nothing about her whereabouts or her condition. Fears for her safety are growing.


Last week supporters assembled in Zimbabwe’s capital to turn a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights into a demonstration for her release.

Lawyers marched through the streets in their robes calling for an end to “extrajudicial abductions”. But even among activists there is no consensus about who has taken Mukoko.
Some believe it is the work of the secret police – the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). Others speculate that she was kidnapped on the orders of a leading figure in Zanu-PF, the ruling party, irritated by her criticism of the regime.

Certainly Mukoko has been a thorn in Mugabe’s flesh. She resigned from state television to become director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, a human rights monitoring network, and has been one of the regime’s most intelligent, influential and informed critics.

She has collected evidence of tens of thousands of abuses in the past decade. Her monthly reports have detailed the routine tyranny of violence, the shortage of food and the denial of free speech that characterise Zimbabwean life today, particularly in rural areas.

Mukoko pioneered the use of information technology to map Zanu-PF’s attacks on its opponents. Before elections last March she presented her findings publicly in a Harare hotel. She knew her audience included members of the CIO but nevertheless set out patterns of violence in the 2002 and 2005 elections and predicted where trouble would occur in 2008.

The places she identified – such as Manicaland and Masvingo provinces – were indeed subjected to Zanu-PF campaigns of mass eviction, communal beating and murder. Opposition figures believe much of Zimbabwe’s current tragedy might have been avoided if international observers had followed her advice and gone to such trouble spots.

Mukoko has been an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe’s system of supplying food. Her analysis shows food is supplied to those showing loyalty to the ruling party and is denied to opposition supporters.

While activists still hope for the best, many fear that Mukoko has already been murdered. Lawyers have visited police stations in Norton and Harare to search for her.

The High Court stalled for five days before hearing an urgent application for her release. On Tuesday a judge, Anne-Marie Gorowa, ordered the police “to dispatch a team . . . to search for Jestina Mukoko”. The authorities simply ignored the ruling. Police said they had no jurisdiction to search military or intelligence premises.

Other members of the Zimbabwe Peace Project have also been targeted. Three were arrested for photographing uncollected refuse, bank queues and cholera victims. Their lawyers say they were released after three days when the police conceded that they could not bring any charges.
Nobody knows exactly why Mugabe chose this moment to silence Mukoko; but the abduction is seen as a sign of his desperation and a reflection of the mounting pressure on him.

Mugabe demonstrated in a rambling speech last Thursday that he is infuriated by television coverage of the cholera epidemic, which his officials have blamed on “biological warfare” waged by Britain. The United Nations estimate the death toll at nearly 1,000, but it may be twice as high. His claim that cholera has been eradicated backfired as local commentators queued up to refute it.

Cholera is by no means the only serious threat to life. The UN estimates that 5m people will soon need food aid. The economy is in freefall. Four months after launching a new currency, the central bank has bowed to hyperinflationary pressure and issued Zim $500m notes.

The prospect of a unity government seems further away than ever. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, won elections in March but has been unable to take power. Fifteen MDC members were snatched from their homes in Mashonaland in late October. Two senior party officials were arrested in Bindura in November; last week Gandhi Mudzingwa, Tsvangirai’s former personal assistant, was abducted. Nothing has been heard of them since.

Many in the MDC believe the regime is moving onto a war footing. Mugabe has been shocked by calls from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, for him to be removed, if necessary by force.

Eddie Cross, an MDC MP, has suggested that the regime is fuelling an expectation of conflict by planting stories on the internet alleging that the Zam-bian army is building up forces on Zimbabwe’s northern border. Cross thinks the CIO has also circulated neighbouring governments with a dossier of fabricated evidence that Bot-swana is training a guerrilla army to invade Zimbabwe.

Mugabe may hope that by exaggerating the threat of invasion he can justify the crackdown on opposition groups. Activists argue that if a woman of Mukoko’s prominence can be made to disappear with impunity, there is no limit to the regime’s readiness to destroy its critics.

Catalogue of tyranny

Jestina Mukoko recorded 20,143 incidents between January and September 2008 including:
- 202 murders
- 463 abductions
- 41 rapes
- 411 cases of torture
- 3,942 assaults
- 907 cases of malicious damage to property
- 444 cases of unlawful detention
- 10,795 cases of harassment/intimidation
- 73% of victims are said to be supporters of the opposition MDC
- 80% of perpetrators of violence are claimed to be Zanu-PF supporters
Source: Zimbabwe Peace Project