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- Written by: John Burke
- Category: UK
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Leeds Walk for Freedom Demonstrates Continued Solidarity with Zimbabwe's Struggle
12 July 2025, Leeds, United Kingdom
The spirit of liberation that once united freedom fighters across Southern Africa found renewed expression on the streets, parks and woods of Leeds this past Saturday, as the Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation (ZHRO) led a well-attended "Walk for Freedom" through the University Quarter. The peaceful demonstration, which drew participants from across the UK's Zimbabwean diaspora and their British allies, served as a powerful reminder that the struggle for true freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe continues.
The march, which began at the Statue of the Mayor of Leeds {in 1878 - H R Marsden} and proceeded through Leeds' Meanwood Valley Trail to the Meanwood public Park, saw participants carrying banners calling for constitutional reform, the release of political prisoners, and an end to the systematic violations of human rights that have characterized Zimbabwe's post-independence era. Speakers at the event emphasized that the vision of liberation that Joshua Nkomo and ZAPU championed in the 1960s and 1970s remains unfulfilled. {See the Photo and video Log of the day's event CLICK HERE to see Flickr Album}
"Today we walk not just for ourselves, but for every Zimbabwean who dares to dream of a country where freedom of expression, association, and political participation are not privileges to be granted, but rights to be protected," said [Melody Magejo and Josephine Jenje - as a co-organisers], addressing the crowd gathered in solidarity. {Listen to the Live Speeches as they are uploaded Click Here}
The demonstration comes at a critical time when Zimbabwe faces mounting economic challenges, continued restrictions on civic space, and an increasingly polarized political environment. For ZAPU, a party that has weathered decades of political marginalization since the unity accord of 1987, the Leeds march represents the kind of grassroots activism that has long been central to the party's identity.
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- Written by: John Burke
- Category: UK
- Hits: 312
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Click on the image to see a larger version in a new window: Venue: Church of the Martyrs, 19 Westcotes Drive, Leicester; LE3 0QT |
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- Written by: Diaspora Collaboration with ZAPU
- Category: UK
- Hits: 356
####-- Collaborative Press Release
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| Link to PDF Press Release The 3 ZAPU Members on the left. |
20th March 2025 3:30pm
Thursday, 20th March 2025, our ‘diaspora collaborative group’ held a face-to-face meeting with three important members of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, (FCDO) at their offices in King Charles Street, London: SW1A 2AH. We were also unexpectedly joined by British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Peter Vowles, who devoted 15 minutes from his busy schedule to be with us in the meeting.
There will be further joint statements about this welcome development very shortly.
Initiated by the FCDO, in requesting such an event, their initiative was as a result of a subtle change in focus by FCDO plus the 12 joint petitions delivered to the PM and the FCDO by our ‘diaspora collective group’ over the last 30 months. Summarised at the web link below;
Web Link to Petition Summary: 30-months-of-petitions
MyR2Vote/Z-DC.com {Zimbabwe Diaspora Coalition} was represented by Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Felix Ndiweni; ROHR Zimbabwe were represented by Panyika Karimanzira (ROHR Zimbabwe Spokesperson) and Renee Brenda Langa (UK Chapter Deputy Information & Publicity Secretary), ZHRO was represented by John Burke (Founder) and Rashiwe Bayisayi, ZAPU was represented by Christopher Maphosa (PEC Europe Province Chairperson), Cannicious Nkala (Admin Sec. Europe) and Mlindelwa Vundhla (NPC Europe Chair) and with CCC Southend-on -Sea represented by Tatenda Changambika (standing in for Stanford Biti).
Ends --###
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- Written by: Cannicious Nkala, Chief Ndiweni and John Burke
- Category: UK
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Another great day to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister! An Update to Our 4th December Article {HERE}
We congregated outside the newly "secured" Zimbabwe Embassy - they have got some grim looking metal security gated fabrications at the side and front entrances - to make the Embassy even less friendly or appealing to the Zimbabwean Diaspora - security concerns or Guilt? - we have to ask why these new gates - {photo on Flickr - click to see for yourself SIDE DOOR - 429 CORNER DOOR }.
True to form the guilty inside locked their doors - simply as we were there. Indeed they sent out a CIO to sit in his new BMW X6 to "observe us" - so we took their photos too - again on our Flickr Album of the day. {CLICK HERE TO SEE THE DAYS PHOTO ALBUM} Please note that due to technical constraints, the videos recorded today will take some considerable time to be 'compressed' in order to be displayed upon our Flickr Platform - so expect videos to be appearing by the weekend please.
We took some more photos with our "Zanu PF Must Go" banner and by 13:30 we sidled off towards Trafalgar Square and onto Whitehall. by 13:45 we were arranged opposite Downing Street - under the gaze of "Monty" at his commemorative statue. By the time we have said our hellos to the new supporters opposite Downing Street it was time to present our band of 6 petitioners to the Diplomatic Police Unit in control of Downing Street. Ronald T Mutumbi, was due to be the Organiser of the 6 of us today - but had 'last minute' travel problems which prevented his attendance.
So we 6 lined up at the solid security gates {making the Zimbabwean Embassy gates looking a little flimsy!} at the entrance to Downing Street. Our Police Diplomatic Unit Escort - was a friendly as any tourist guide - calling us in by our first names! As some may know within those gates we have to go through Air Port Quality X-Ray machines to check all our bags, mobile phones or any metal objects.
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- Written by: Richard Gandari, M S Nkomo and other Groups in the UK
- Category: UK
- Hits: 543
5th December 2024 at 14:00 to the Office of the UK Prime Minister, {READ or DOWNLOAD the Delivered Petition CLICK HERE}
Also by e-mail and post to The FCDO, the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and UN (OHCHR) Geneva
Some may know this as the Gukurahundi Genocide - but the Shona word of 'Gukurahundi' cannot ever convey the horrors and 'pure psychotic outrage' conducted sometime from 1983 (approx.) to 1987 when - due to this violent and heartless pressure the leader of ZAPU at that time Dr Joshua Nkomo, reluctantly agreed to subsume ZAPU into the newly created ZANU PF - laughingly termed the "UNITY ACCORD".
A lesson in violence and deceit that still haunts Zimbabwe to this day - as well as being an ongoing strategy of the Zanu PF regime ever since - and now continued by the complicit (in the genocide} E D Mnangagwa.
But returning to the word "GUKURAHUNDI" - the literal meaning, which loosely translates to "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains". However this can never represent the inhuman genocide which took place - instigated by Mugabe to enforce a one-party State.
The Beginnings
Identifying as a member or supporter of ZAPU became a death wish.
Under the then Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, a caveat was promulgated, outlawing ZAPU and forfeiting all its properties to the State. Some of the properties belonged to ZPRA, the armed wing of ZAPU during the liberation struggle. Everything was seized and forfeited to the state. Dr Joshua Nkomo was persecuted and hounded into exile. His lieutenants, the late Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and the late Commander Lookout Masuku were thrown into Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on trumped up charges.
Just like in East Germany in 1990, it has been four decades of denial and deafening silence.
The Evidence Slowly Emerging {Still}
But now, the new light is being shed on these days of horror. Thousands of historical documents that appear to expose the perpetrators are now becoming available in a raft of foreign archival collections. The documents are wide-ranging and include, among others, diplomatic correspondence, intelligence assessments and raw intelligence garnered by spies recruited from within the Zimbabwean government. These papers—augmented by the testimony of Zimbabwean witnesses finding courage in old age—appear to substantiate what survivors and scholars have always suspected but never been able to validate: Mugabe, then Prime Minister, was the prime architect of mass killings that were well-planned and systematically executed.
