‘SADC should speak out’: Zimbabwe activists face crackdown ahead of summit

Police flood Harare’s streets in anticipation of protests on the eve of Southern African Development Community meeting.

On the morning of August 7, four masked men tried to break into the offices of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC), a network of groups fighting for democratic freedom in a country where it is often deadly to dissent.

Inside the Harare building, three staff members scampered to hide as the men smashed a security camera outside the gate and tried to force their way in. It was only after neighbours who witnessed the attempted break-in assured the staff that the men had left after triggering an alarm that they came out of hiding. Staff members have since avoided the office.

“No one wants to go there. It was a very traumatic experience for them, and they feel unsafe,” Peter Mutasa, chairperson of the coalition, told Al Jazeera. The intruders, he said, were likely government operatives as the incident followed a government-owned newspaper accusing Mutasa of planning demonstrations.

“It has been their modus operandi, and there have been threats issued by the president’s spokesperson,” he said. Al Jazeera contacted Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Home Affairs, which made remarks this month about agitators seeking to unleash civil disobedience, to comment on the claims but did not receive a response.

The incident at CiZC comes during crackdowns on pro-democracy activists and opposition members as Zimbabwe gears up to host a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Saturday in Harare.