I think when he came to power in 1980; I was still very young at the time. I was only leaving primary school on my way to high school. And I remember that all these years, he’s been a charismatic leader. I remember as a young girl, probably that’s when my interest in broadcasting was developing. I remember sitting around the radio whenever he was addressing, because a lot of us really enjoyed the manner in which he spoke. And obviously, in those early years, he was really everyone’s hero. We had just come from a protracted liberation struggle, and he came out as a hero of that struggle. And in those early years, I think we were really basking in the euphoria of getting our independence.
But I think for me, it took a bit of a while for me to really see the man that he was. And it took a bit of time after I had left the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Initially when I left, I worked in public relations for a shopping mall. And then, I think because I missed broadcasting so much, when I got the opportunity to do broadcasting again with a group of journalists who anticipated to be Zimbabwe’s first alternative station – because at the time there was a lot of talk about the liberalization of the airwaves – so I became part of that team. And part of my duties involved going out into the communities to go and gather news – not really the current, but also to talk about things that just affect communities as a whole.
I remember going to the southern part of the country, where I spoke to a number of people in Matabeleland, a number of people who were bitter about what happened to them in the early 1980s, when an estimated 20,000 people are thought to have died in the massacres. And I think it was the stories that I heard from these people right at the local level that really affected me. And I remember asking that to a lot of these people, what would really make them move on with their life. And the response was the same for a lot of them. And the majority of the people that I spoke to were women who had lost their husbands in the massacres.
Some of them had even experienced their husbands being buried alive. I remember one woman saying to me she listened until the screams from her husband disappeared as he was buried. And a lot of these women said to me they would really appreciate getting an apology. And obviously what they were saying was there was no way anyone would apologize without stating what they were apologizing for. And to date, I don’t think I have witnessed that apology. And I think this is what really got me getting into human rights. And I think, as a leader, President Robert Mugabe, you will find him saying the right things at the right fora in some instances, especially when we talk about the disparities between developing countries and developed countries.
But I think, for me, I would say I had a different view altogether in 2008 when I was abducted, tortured, and was not protected by the law, and I was accused of wanting to overthrow a constitutionally elected government, which is something that never crossed my mind. If I had been accused of being a human rights activist, I would have accepted that with both my hands. And looking at Zimbabwe’s constitution, I was supposed to be protected so that I would not be taken in the manner that I was taken from my home, kept incommunicado away from my family for a long time when they actually thought that I had died, and then continually being kept in a maximum-security prison and held like a dangerous criminal, which I am not.
I think there should have been a way of protecting me as a citizen, but that was long in coming. And I am not sure what really demonstrated that I was a threat to the security of the country, because what I know is I was just involved in my work. I’m not a political activist. Even up to now, I don’t belong to any political party. And I think in that sense, I really feel that I should have been protected a lot more than the manner that I was protected. And if I go back to 1980, I remember that President Mugabe took an oath that he would ensure that he follows the constitution. But I think in my case that was not followed. And the constitutional court actually ruled that my rights had been violated by the state through its agents.
Jestina M. Mukoko is the National Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, a nonprofit organization that monitors and documents political violence in Zimbabwe. As Zimbabwe’s premier monitoring body, the organization maintains a strong network throughout the country that is able to bring widespread attention to occurrences of political violence.
A long-time leader in the human rights and activist communities in Zimbabwe, Ms. Mukoko was abducted from her home on December 3, 2008, by state security agents for her work monitoring the brutality of the Robert Mugabe government. During her 21-day abduction, she was tortured, beaten, and forced to confess to a crime she did not commit. She remained detained until a court granted her bail on March 2, 2009.
For her steadfastness on issues related to human rights, Jestina Mukoko was named the 2009 Laureate of the City of Weimar (Germany) Human Rights Prize and a 2010 recipient of the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award. In 2009, Ms. Mukoko was awarded the NANGO (National Association of Nongovernmental Organizations) Peace Award. For her commitment and perseverance, she received the French National Order of the Legion of Honor award in 2011.
She serves on several boards, including those of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, and the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for Zimbabwe. A former news anchor for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, she is also mentoring with the Female Students Network, a youth organization.
A peace and human rights campaigner, Jestina Mukoko is also a mother. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Politics and Administration from the University of Zimbabwe. Ms. Mukoko was the 2010 Fellow at the Oak Institute for International Human Rights at Colby College in Maine. In 2012, she joined other mid-career professionals as a Draper Hills Summer Fellow on Democracy and Development Program at Stanford University.
Mugabe’s social and economic policies have been disastrous. An estimated one-fifth of the population is infected with HIV. Life expectancy has declined dramatically since 1990. Land redistribution in the 1990s cut food production and led to hunger and disease. The government’s mismanagement of the economy led to hyperinflation in the 2000s, reaching an estimated peak of 13 billion percent in November 2008.
Mugabe has stifled democracy and human rights since coming to power. The government cracks down on opposition political parties and civil society groups. Basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly are not respected. Violence surrounding the 2008 elections led to a power-sharing agreement between ZANU and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Freedom House rates Zimbabwe as not free in political rights and civil liberties, noting Mugabe’s frequent abuses of power, corruption, regime-sponsored political violence, the lack of independent media, and flawed electoral processes.