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Zimbabwe | Politics | Human Rights
Zimbabwe’s New ‘UnPatriotic Acts’ Bill is Scary as Hell & Explains Why American Ambassador Was Summoned
Thursday, 1 June 2023
By: TB Obwoge
The government of Zimbabwe which was mentioned heavily in the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary. Here is an explanation of the several issues occurring in the country which has caused this government to punish citizens for even speaking to political leaders from other countries.
Zimbabwe’s parliament has voted in favor of a controversial bill to punish citizens for “unpatriotic acts” , including imposing heavy fines or even the death penalty on them.
Critics have called it a dark day for democracy.
The so-called patriot clause of the Criminal Act targets those who harm the “national interest of Zimbabwe”.It includes any citizen who meets a representative of a foreign country with the aim of encouraging sanctions against Zimbabwe or overthrowing the government.
Many senior government officials and state-owned companies are under Western sanctions over alleged human rights abuses,They’ve long blamed the opposition for this and want to stop meetings between the opposition and foreign officials.
Parliament voted 99 to 17 in favor of the law — one of the most controversial of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidency.It will now go to the senate before it is signed into law.
Critics say the legislation is unconstitutional as it would violate freedom of association and the right to free speech.An opposition official told the BBC that the way to end sanctions is to uphold human rights, not to criminalize criticism.
The controversial changes were passed as part of a series of amendments to the Criminal Act.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
This possibly explains why the Herald News Paper Zimbabwe has been publishing articles which have xenophobic undertones. In a recent article where a young writer claimed Africans are smarter than any other people on earth. The writer also made several other false claims that…
