Ten days ahead of planned mass protests against public sector corruption in Zimbabwe, award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was abducted by members of the country’s security apparatus. Opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume was also arrested.

The news came as the country faces a deepening economic crisis and the majority of citizens try to deal with indefinite Covid-19 lockdown regulations that have devastated their means of making a livelihood in a largely informal economy. Far from isolated, the arrests of Chin’ono and Ngarivhume are part of a deliberate campaign by a rapacious political and military elite to target oppositional voices at all costs...