Zimbabwe Now Under A Dictatorship Worse Than Mugabe, Says Fadzayi Mahere

Zimbabwe’s main opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said that the country is under a dictatorship that is worse than during the late former president Robert Mugabe’s reign.

Addressing a high-profile United Nations Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy 2023 in Switzerland on Tuesday, Mahere Zimbabwe has a governance crisis that can only be resolved through a free and fair election. She said:

Zimbabwe suffers under a dictatorship worse than Mugabe. Almost half the population suffers from extreme poverty because those in power would rather loot and persecute than lead.

Only a free, credible election can resolve the governance crisis. Political prisoners must be freed.

Mahere claimed that half of Zimbabwe’s population lives in extreme poverty while billions are being looted by the ruling elite. She said:

Half the population lives in extreme poverty, US$2.2 billion is lost to corruption annually and we have the highest hyperinflation rate in the world – all because those in power would rather loot and persecute than lead.

Mahere said the conviction of Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) president Jacob Ngarivhume for incitement to public violence is a warning by the ruling elite that participating in opposition politics is punishable. Said Mahere:

The government’s war against freedom and its weaponisation of the law against myself and other government critics such as Sikhala and Ngarivhume is calculated to send a chilling message to the rest of society – We’re watching you, even on Twitter and this is the punishment you get for participating in opposition politics.

Ngarivhume was recently sentenced to three years imprisonment, while another prominent opposition figure, Job Sikhala has been kept in pre-trial detention since June 2022 on allegations of incitement to public violence.

More: Pindula News