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intending to assemble or convene a public
meeting or demonstration was required to
give the police seven days’ notice. However,
the police interpreted the law as imposing a
requirement to obtain prior authorization for
any public assembly to proceed. On 24
August, police dispersed a prayer meeting
convened to welcome Hakainde Hichilema’s
release from Mukobeko Maximum Security
Prison in Kabwe city where he had been held
for four months on charges of treason, which
were dropped.
On 10 January, UK lawyer Oliver Holland
was arrested and charged under the Public
Order Act with unlawful assembly for meeting
with a community in Chingola city who was
challenging in court environmental pollution
allegedly caused by a mining company. He
was released the same day and charges
against him were dropped; however, he was
later charged with conduct likely to breach
the peace and ordered to pay a USD5 fine.
Police frequently used unnecessary and
excessive force to disperse protesters.
In April, police stopped a UPND rally in
Kanyama Township in the capital, Lusaka, on
“security” grounds. Although the UPND had
notified the police in advance of the rally,
they unlawfully dispersed the rally, shooting
20-year-old Stephen Kalipa, one of the
protesters. He died later from gunshot
wounds at the hospital. An investigation was
opened, but no one had been arrested in
connection with the incident by the end of
the year. The police claimed that he died of
knife stab wounds at the hands of an
unidentified assailant.
On 23 June, police arrested senior UPND
officials on charges of unlawful assembly
alleging that they held a press briefing at
the UPND’s secretariat offices without
obtaining prior authorization. On 29
September, police arrested six human rights
defenders who gathered outside Parliament
and protested peacefully against the
government’s purchase, at the inflated cost of
USD42 million, of 42 fire engines; they were
charged with refusing to obey police orders.
The protesters were beaten during the protest
by members of the ruling Patriotic Front.
EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE
On 8 April, Hakainde Hichilema and other
UPND members − Lastone Mulilandumba,
Muleya Haachenda, Wallace Chakwa,
Pretorius Haloba and Hamusonde Hamaleka
− were arrested and charged with treason
and disobeying a lawful order following an
earlier incident in which Hakainde
Hichilema’s motorcade refused to give way to
President Lungu’s convoy. Police raided
Hakainde Hichilema’s house without a
warrant, using tear gas against him and his
family. On 28 April, his wife, Mutinta, was
threatened with arrest after she reported the
police’s use of excessive force. No charges
had been brought against the police in
connection with the incident by the end of
the year. On 15 August, the Director of Public
Prosecutions withdrew all charges against
Hakainde Hichilema and the other UPND
members.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Security forces and political activists affiliated
with the Patriotic Front subjected media
workers, political activists and others who
criticized the government to harassment and
intimidation.
Staff of the Law Association of Zambia were
harassed and intimidated because of their
work in defence of human rights. On 3
March, for example, Patriotic Front loyalists
stormed the Association’s offices demanding
the resignation of its president, Linda
Kasonde.
Later the same month, the Association
joined a High Court petition to prevent the
liquidation of Post Newspapers – known to be
highly critical of the government − in
proceedings in which the Zambia Revenue
Authority, among others, sought the
company’s liquidation, alleging that it had
failed to pay taxes.
On 3 August, police arrested Saviour
Chishimba, president of the United
Progressive People party on defamation
charges after he criticized President Lungu
for declaring a threatened state of
emergency. Saviour Chishimba was detained
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for seven days, without being brought before
a judge; he was released without charge.
In October, the Independent Broadcasting
Authority summoned Prime Television
Zambia’s management to answer allegations
that they had violated the provisions of their
broadcasting licence when they covered a
story about the UPND’s parliamentary
candidate for Kalulushi town, Everisto
Mwalilino, who had accused government
officials of electoral corruption. The station
had also highlighted corruption allegations
against former Information Minister,
Chishimba Kambwili.
JUSTICE SYSTEM
The government verbally attacked the
judiciary, which undermined the
independence of the institution. At the same
time, there was a growing public perception
of the judiciary as a polarized institution in
which some judges were not politically
independent. In September, while on a visit
to South Africa, Hakainde Hichilema accused
the judiciary of corruption and of being under
the control of the President. On 2 November,
President Lungu warned judges against
blocking him from running for President in
2021. In November, on a trip to Solwezi, he
warned judges against following Kenyan
judges who, in September, had ruled to annul
the results of Kenya’s presidential elections.
RIGHT TO FOOD
The 2017 Global Hunger Index reported that
food insecurity and undernourishment
remained alarmingly high. Many subsistence
farmers were affected because they were
denied access to their land due to ongoing
land disputes. In Mpande, Northern
Province, over 300 people were locked into a
legal dispute with the government after they
were forcibly evicted from their land to an
arid region where they could not produce
food. In Kaindu, Mumbwa District, the
owners and employees of a German-owned
safari company shot at, and verbally abused,
members of a 700-strong community,
preventing them from fishing in the Kafue
River and gathering food from the forest. The
community was not fully consulted over the
use of its land for safaris.
ZIMBABWE
Republic of Zimbabwe
Head of state and government: Emmerson Dambudzo
Mnangagwa (replaced Robert Gabriel Mugabe in
November)
Activists and human rights defenders
continued to mobilize to hold the
government to account through protests on
the streets and via social media. The state
continued to use the law to crack down on
dissenting voices. The authorities continued
with forced evictions despite constitutional
provisions prohibiting the practice.
Independence of the judiciary remained
under threat following amendments to the
Constitution.
BACKGROUND
The economic situation worsened with no
solution to the liquidity crisis in sight.
In October, the Ministry of Cyber Security,
Threat Detection and Mitigation was
established in response to social media
activism.
Factionalism and succession battles within
the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–
Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party intensified;
President Mugabe dismissed the then First
Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa on 6
November, for allegedly plotting against the
government and exhibiting “disloyalty,
deceitfulness, disrespect and unreliability”.
On 14 November, the military took power and
after public support for the military action,
and Parliament’s impeachment process,
Robert Mugabe resigned on 21 November.
Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as
President on 24 November.
FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND
ASSEMBLY
The police dispersed meetings or peaceful
protests using excessive force.