Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law

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"I have been beaten up from time to time and harassed but that's part of the terrain." It's shocking to hear this kind of coolness from Beatrice against the images of her covered in bruises and welts from a police beating. However, her bravery does not go unnoticed. She is one of only two Africans to have won the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, the other being Nelson Mandela. Having suffered great economic and social privations under Mugabe, Beatrice hopes for a better future for Zimbabwe. "All of us want a basic education for our children, we want basic health facilities for our children, we want basic amenities in our home for our children", she says. Her belief is that through trying to uphold the rule of law she can achieve these desires. So she takes on all cases where she feels the rule of law has been violated. From Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project who was detained for 89 days, for investigating human rights abuses, "I thought I had moved out of my body and I was watching this suffering woman from somewhere else. That's what the pain did to me". To Roy Bennett, an exiled political activist and White farmer. "If it wasn't for Beatrice, I'm sure they would have killed me in that prison." The Mugabe regime is aware of her fight and seeks to slander her at every turn. "I can tell you Beatrice Mtetwa is not a stickler for the law, she uses the law to push her political agenda." Jonathan Moyo from the Zanu PF party tells us. In fact the vitriol is so intense that after clearing Beatrice's client, foreign journalist Andrew Meldrum, the judge launched an extraordinary personal attack on her: "He read his verdict which was an hour long. It was 59 minutes of guilty... and half of the verdict was a character assassination of Beatrice." Here is an inspiring story that breeds hope for Zimbabwe and yet Beatrice remains inspiringly modest: "This has to be done. Somebody's got to do it, and why shouldn't it be you?"