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- Written by: Richard Gandari
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Gukurahundi victims deserve justice in their living years
When the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished by Britain in 1807 with the United States following suit in 1808, many former slaves were alive and lived to see a new dawn of freedom. Though the slave trade continued illegally well into the 1860s at least it had been outlawed formally with many former slaves rising to not only be free but to actually beat the odds in academia, business and sport championships. Some former slaves were even assisted by Uncle Sam to sail back to Africa to establish their own colony in Liberia. Others remained in America and used their freedom to fight for civil liberties. To them, liberty was a secondary issue. Freedom was the first step towards justice for the trans-Atlantic slave trade that had spanned across 400 years.
History also records that when Soviet soldiers poured into Auschwitz in January 1945, they found some survivors of the Holocaust, left behind by the Nazis to die. They were still alive, albeit emaciated and on the brink of death but their liberation gave them a fighting chance. To the Jews liberated by the Red Army, freedom meant the dawn of a new era. They could finally find their own place in the world as free men and women.
Even those that perished shortly afterwards died knowing that freedom had finally come even within moments of their final days on earth. They had tasted freedom even for a fleeting moment. Those who made it went on to beat the odds and thrive in the world of business, espionage, media and political influence.
The above examples, plucked from a large volume of human history, clearly prove the African adage that says there is no night so long that it does not end with dawn. It goes without saying that there are many who perished during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Holocaust. Estimates peg the death tolls in the millions. Exact figures vary according to source and context but every death caused by the oppression of a man by another is one too many. Yet humanity has shown sustained resistance to learn from history. Every single day a new tyrant is born. Pol Pot, Idi Amin Dada, and Robert Gabriel Mugabe penned their own chapters in the blood of their own kinsmen. Without absolving the likes of Adolf Hitler who committed atrocities against Jewish people in Nazi Germany, no one expected Zimbabweans to perish at the hands of their own kith and kin, Robert Mugabe.
The Gukurahundi Genocide of Ndebele Zimbabweans between 1982 and 1987 is Mugabe’s greatest blemish and makes it regrettable that he was born at all. It is debatable but there was something inherently evil about Robert Mugabe. He was an eloquent anglophile with excellent table manners but his heart emitted darkness that only the devil could admire. It was Sir Robert Mugabe who singlehandedly masterminded Gukurahundi and deployed his legion of minions to execute his evil plan to the letter. Anyone who opposed Mugabe or tried to reason with him about the demerits of annihilating a whole tribe from existential memory might as well have slapped the dictator for good measure. Mugabe reserved his deluxe packages in hate for those who commiserated with his victims. There were many willing foot soldiers no doubt, but a good number of Gukurahundi perpetrators were too afraid to disobey Mugabe’s orders.
When the atrocities stopped with the signing of the Unity Accord on 22 December 1987, Mugabe made it the remainder of his life’s mission to evade accountability let alone punishment for his Gukurahundi bloodbath. In his warped thinking, Gukurahundi was a closed chapter. Victims of Gukurahundi had to endure decades of watching a free Mugabe enjoying all the standard perks of a tin pot dictator. Under his iron dorm of a heavily armed security detail, nothing uncomfortable ever happened to Robert Mugabe, except the time he tripped and fell on arrival at Harare International Airport due to a badly laid carpet – not old age, you! Mugabe’s demise only came on 15 November 2017, when his own disgruntled army generals deposed him in a coup d’état supported worldwide.
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- Written by: Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo
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The disastrous reign of ZANU PF in Zimbabwe is now a regional crisis affecting the whole of SADC. Fearing peer review and the regional call for accountability, the Rogue Regime in Harare is now fomenting chaos by actively participating in the rigging of elections across the SADC region.
So politically radioactive is ZANU PF that everything it touches turns to chaos.
A short while ago, SADC and the world witnessed ZANU PF members casting ballots for Mozambique's FRELIMO in broad daylight. Such blatant vote rigging and other glaring irregularities have sparked a wave of violent protests by opposition parties and their supporters in Mozambique.
Unsurprisingly, Zimbabwe the current SADC Chair, led by President Mnangagwa, has hurried to prematurely congratulate FRELIMO on its electoral victory while the country burns. Heavily armed soldiers in Mozambique have indiscriminately opened fire on protesters, killing some and wounding many.
The army's response is reminiscent of the August 1, 2018 killing of Zimbabwean civilians during the post-electoral protests that followed the disputed outcome of general elections that gave President Mnangagwa his first illegitimate term in office.
- There is diminishing hope for stability in Mozambique and other SADC member states where ZANU PF contamination has been reported.
- Recent reports of Namibia awarding ballot printing to a ZANU PF apparatchik are worrisome.
- Botswana's former President, Ian Khama has raised alarm, pointing to possible rigging by ZANU PF in favour of incumbent President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
- South Africa's watershed elections in May this year were also reportedly massaged by ZANU PF, the self-made Regional Rigging Consultancy.
For ZANU PF, these regional shenanigans are an existential necessity as SADC standards on free elections are too high for the rogue regime to uphold. The greatest goal for ZANU PF since its formation as a breakaway from ZAPU in 1963, is power retention, preferably in a one-party state. Inspired by the likes of Khmer Rouge and the Taliban, ZANU PF is now a regional cancer that will corrupt the whole SADC region if left unchecked.
Zimbabweans tortured by economic collapse and repressive rule will continue fleeing from Zimbabwe to settle in other parts of the SADC region where conditions are relatively normal. The economic ruin bedevilling Zimbabwe will soon spread to other parts of SADC as economic refugees from Zimbabwe multiply.
As for the populace in Zimbabwe, the greatest impact of ZANU PF misrule will remain in the form of terrifying maternal and infant mortality rates. Independently verified statistics on Zimbabwe's institutional maternity challenges paint a grim picture of a country precariously on the brink.
{This article has been written in support of the two Petitions being presented in London on the 24th October 2024 to the Prime Minister, the FCDO and the UK Government in General. All {opposition parties and Other Human Rights Groups will be delivering these to the door of 10 Downing Street at 13:30 and 14:30. Details and updates of these petitions can be found at this link - including the ability to read and download them after the 24th. https://zexit.org/zexit/24th-october-petitions } All involved are extremely grateful to President Nkomo for taking the time to to write this lucid article.
Read more: The Rogue Regime in Harare now a Regional threat to SADC.
