In a shocking and disturbing development, the recent arrest of Zimbabwean lawyers Doug Coltart and Tawanda Muchineripi has sent waves of outrage across the nation and beyond. The two were taken into custody while performing their professional duties—offering legal counsel to abducted and tortured victims, Womberai Nhende and Sanele Mkuhlani, at a private hospital in Harare. Their only crime was doing their job. Their arrest is yet another brutal assault on justice, human rights, and the legal profession in Zimbabwe.
Human rights lawyer Jeremiah Bamu has rightly called this what it is: an attack not just on individual lawyers, but on the very foundation of justice and the rule of law in Zimbabwe. By criminalizing the legal profession, the Mnangagwa regime is sending a chilling message: those who defend victims of state violence may themselves become the next victims.
This is not just a rogue incident. It is part of a larger, dangerous trend. Lawyers who represent opposition members, human rights defenders, and ordinary citizens abused by the state are being hunted, harassed, and punished. Zimbabwe’s security forces, acting more like a rogue militia than protectors of the people, are now operating as enforcers of fear, and the courts are becoming complicit by failing to stop it.
Nhende and Mkuhlani, the two victims whom Coltart and Muchineripi were assisting, had just survived abduction and torture—acts allegedly carried out by state security agents. Instead of investigating those crimes, the police arrested the lawyers who went to help. What kind of justice system rewards torturers and punishes defenders? This is not law and order. It is lawlessness backed by government power.
The silence from state institutions like the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the National Prosecuting Authority is deafening. It shows how far the regime is willing to go to protect its thugs and punish its critics. The same silence was heard when other lawyers like Obey Shava, Alec Muchadehama, and Beatrice Mtetwa were harassed for representing activists. Zimbabwe is fast becoming a state where legal protection is a threat and silence is the only safety.
The international community must not stay quiet. The United Nations, African Union, and SADC must condemn this direct attack on lawyers and demand the immediate release of Coltart and Muchineripi. International legal bodies and bar associations must show solidarity and hold Zimbabwe to account. If the global legal fraternity cannot protect its own, then justice is under threat everywhere.
Locally, civil society, churches, students, and every ordinary citizen who believes in justice must rise. Today it is Doug and Tawanda. Tomorrow, it will be you. When lawyers are jailed for defending victims of abduction, we all lose our rights. If we fail to act, we will wake up in a country where due process no longer exists, and where justice is replaced by fear.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his security forces are dismantling the legal safeguards that protect Zimbabwe’s democracy. The arrest of these two brave lawyers is not just an isolated case. It is a flashing red light—a warning that tyranny is growing bolder. If we allow this to pass without resistance, Zimbabwe will descend deeper into dictatorship.
In conclusion, the arrest of Coltart and Muchineripi marks a dark chapter in Zimbabwe’s already fragile democracy. Their courage must be met with solidarity. Their persecution must be met with pressure. And their release must be demanded by all who value justice. The rule of law is dying in Zimbabwe, and if we don’t act now, it might be gone forever.