Behind Zanu-PF’s brutal crackdown
A journalist’s account of last week’s election in Zimbabwe and the violence, misinformation and divisions that have bedevilled the country since then
How many "political" people are in detention or were kidnapped in Zimbabwe last week? How many were beaten, attacked or injured, and by whom? And how many are in hiding? The short answer: we don’t know. Expecting some answers, journalists gathered for what was supposed to be a midday joint press conference on Sunday — almost a week after that country’s presidential election — with the police and the army. But after we had waited for 90 minutes it was clear that no-one was going to show up. Was the message we received calling us to the conference fake? Some of the news that has been circulating certainly is. And so are some of the pictures that have been sent to journalists’ phones. On the positive front, one reporter noted that at least the failed press conference was not invaded by the police. Two days earlier the riot squad had burst into the garden of a hotel where journalists were about to hear from Nelson Chamisa, the opposition presidential candidate who very nearly beat Emmer...
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