A Nehanda Radio Citizen Reporter captured these two pictures of a group of soldiers beating up civilians on top of a Harare building on the 20th of August 2013 at around 3:05pm. The old building used to carry out the beatings is opposite Fidelity House near the Zanu PF offices in the city.
According to the Citizen Reporter “I was working in the office and saw the soldiers from afar beating up some guys with belts. There was also one lady who was being beaten up,” he told us. We have been unable find out why these citizens were being beaten up and whether it was linked to any political activity or activism.
But a day before in the same area, a group of soldiers beat up people at the Fourth Street bus terminus in Harare. This was allegedly in retaliation at an earlier incident when a soldier was beaten up by rank marshals, most likely for refusing to pay bus fare and insisting on getting a free ride.
According to one Citizen Reporter “The soldiers ran around the rank, beating up commuters, members of the general public with bare hands, army belts and other things in a classic display of lawlessness, basic human rights violations and intimidation, in a so-called free country.
“People were running in all directions, completely blocking traffic along Kenneth Kaunda Avenue. The beatings only stopped after the intervention of the military police who were conspicuous by their sudden arrival as if they knew that their counterparts where going on this terror campaign.”
Soldiers in the country are notorious for their indiscipline and regularly take the law into their own hands. Commentators say this is a reflection of the general culture of impunity and lawless employed over the years by President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF regime in an effort to retain power.
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