Remedies for Unlawful Interference with Personal Liberty in Zimbabwe

Abstract

In all democratic societies individual people are afforded protection against unlawful interference with their personal liberty and freedom, and in Zimbabwe there are extensive safeguards against unlawful encroachment on personal liberty, as well as various remedies available in the event of unlawful intrusion upon liberty. However, since the attainment of Zimbabwe’s hard-won Independence, there have been internal and external elements bent on undermining and subverting the new order. Government has had to take action to try to counteract, for instance, a sustained campaign of sabotage and destabilization orchestrated from Pretoria. The law enforcement agencies have been called on to take all necessary steps to prevent such activities from occurring and, when they have occurred, to detect and apprehend the culprits as expeditiously as possible. Such a security situation tends, inevitably to create an environment where 'individual rights are subordinated to the paramount concern for the protection of national security.