Editorial Comment

The Itai Dzamara disappearance has caused a lot of consternation within the country. The opposition forces blame the state which has a history of intolerance and abducting its political opponents. On the other hand some elements in the state and ruling party counter accuse the opposition for stage managing Dzamara’s disappearance for political opportunism.

Other voices such as Geoff Nyarota have weighed in discrediting Dzamara as a journalist of questionable integrity. The involvement of the opposition parties in the whole matter have given the state ammunition to allege that the disappearance of the journalist was a stage managed affair.

The seeming reluctance by the law enforcement agents to mount a search for the missing activist or investigate provided fodder for other observers to allege that the state knows something about Dzamara’s disappearance. It took a High Court order to spur the police into action.

What is worrying about this whole matter is that political rivalry between the two biggest political parties in the country has now distorted the manner in which the state ought to operate and conduct itself especially in providing security to its citizens.

The latest instalment of the Nathaniel Manheru column summarises the attitude of the state towards this whole matter considering that the author is believed to be civil servant, George Charamba.

He makes a lot of trivial points including the fact that life is certainly now better for Dzamara’s wife who is receiving attention and financial assistance. He assassinates Dzamara’s character and also points out the west’s role in all this as a part and parcel of a bigger agenda to create a crisis in the country.

That Dzamara is a questionable character and that the opposition may be involved in all this is neither here nor there. The police and other organs of the state are supposed to remain partisan and carry out their duties to protect every citizen professionally. If indeed the state has evidence that Dzamara and others stage managed this disappearance, why have they not taken criminal action against those they know to be involved?

What we are learning from this whole fiasco is that those who have an alleged history of dishonesty or those who oppose the state do not have the protection of the law. The state has a duty to investigate cases of possible criminality without fear, favour or preconceived prejudices based on political affiliations.

The underlying factor that Manheru is avoiding is that ultimately the state has a duty to protect all of its citizens despite their political affiliations. What is happening at the moment shows that those who dare oppose the government of President Mugabe do not enjoy the protection of state law enforcement agents.

State media must avoid peddling irresponsible statements that make dissenting political voices live in fear. People must be free to express their political views without fear of disappearing one day and the police failing to act. There is a human being missing, and this disappearance must not be trivialised on the basis of one’s political views or their past. The state ought to protect all of its citizens.