Shadowy group asks International Criminal Court to arrest Mnangagwa over 1 August violence

A shadowy group, Team Pachedu, has asked the International Criminal Court to arrest President Emmerson Mnangagwa over the 1 August 2018 killings by the military but this could be nothing more than just a publicity stunt.

The ICC has no jurisdiction over Zimbabwe as it is not a signatory of the Rome Statute that formed the organisation.

Six people were killed during the violence which erupted two days after the 2018 harmonised elections.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa set up a commission of inquiry into the violence which ruled that the people were killed by the military. No one had been brought to book over the killings yet.

The only way to have Zimbabwe brought to the ICC is by way of a Security Council resolution which would require the consent of Zimbabwe’s close allies, Russia and China.

According to Voice of America’s Studio 7, a propaganda radio station that was established in 2003 as a surrogate station for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and broadcasts from Washington in Zimbabwe’s three main languages, the ICC confirmed receiving papers from Team Pachedu asking the court to arrest Mnangagwa.

Arnold Tsunga, the director of the Africa Regional Programme of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), told VOA that the case had no merit as Zimbabwe was not a member of the ICC.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi described those who reported the case to the ICC as fools.

Team Pachedu describes itself on its twitter handle as: “We are a network of Zimbabwean citizens that strive to inculcate the spirit of transparency, responsibility & accountability by ALL public officials w/o fear or favour.”

Below is to Ziyambi Ziyambi’s response.

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