I condemn the illegal arrest of Mthwakazi Liberation Front Leaders and the false charges of treason laid on Paul Siwela

Posted on | maart 6, 2011 | 1 Comment

Meanwhile, I fully and firmly condemn and denounce the illegal arrest of the Mthwakazi Liberation Front Leaders by the Mugabe regime. And as one great French Philosopher and Enlightenment thinker, Voltaire, would say, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”. So that means, whilst I dont necessarily agree with their demands for secession, I do believe that they have the legitimate right to be heard and to express themselves without being illegally and arbitrarily arrested like this.

In any case, it is these kinds of abuse of the Mthwakazi leaders and their people that only serve to give them more justification to demand secession and therefor this move by the Mugabe regime is ill-advised, ill-conceived, ill-intended and illegal. I therefore demand the immediate and unconditional release of all the Mthwakazi Liberation Front leaders. It must also be made clear that these demands of the Mthwakazi Liberation Front, like the demands of all our people can never be solved through arrests, violence or persecution. Rather, these issues can only be solved by open dialogue and engagement, and as President of Zimbabwe, I look foward to this kind of open dialogue with the Mthwakazi Liberation Front Leaders on how best can their demands be addressed.

In the meantime, I would like to clarify and state once again where I stand in regard to these demands for secession that are being made by the Mthwakazi Liberation Front. Whilst I understand and empathize with their cause, I don’t think that to take the path of secession is the right thing to do at this particular moment. This is the extreme and last option which can and must only be taken when all has failed. So right now, demands for secession are ill timed if not ill conceived.

And like I said before, I think that whilst I personally understand and empathize with those Mthwakazians in their feeling that they have been somehow marginalized for too long, however I have reservations with taking the extremist and absolutist approach to this whole issue. There are some like MLF leaders who talk as if the whole of Zimbabwe denied Mathwakazians the opportunity to be Zimbabweans. This is not the true. The failure of a few Zimbabweans who were in power then and upto now (that is the Mugabe and ZANU PF minority)are the ones who have failed and who are failing to uphold equality, diversity, national fellowship and inclusion, but not all of us.

So I think that we must bear that in mind when we look at this issue. The failure of a few Zimbabweans to uphold equality,inclusion and diversity is not sufficient, and enough cause and justification for secession. Lets give things another chance and try at unity rather than going for the extreme option of separation. So this is something that must be understood by those folks who are pushing for a separate and independent Mthwakazian State.

Besides, I do think and believe that we are all better off being united and equally belonging to one state,one nation, the Republic of Zimbabwe, with probably many states and nations within that one nation.-There is but one Republic of Zimbabwe and we must try to keep together, and this is what I have always strived for, and which I am striving for right now and will strive for as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

For far too long, the leaders gave their backs to the majority of our people. They lost it. They forgot to know that they are leaders so that they serve everybody equally and nationally. But I believe we can do better than what they did. I believe these issues will be solved not through division, separation, secession or divorce, but through a sacred union and marriage of understanding, unity in diversity and diversity with unity, fellowship, democracy and devolution of powers. And I believe our common interests can be best met and addressed if we are united and working together in equality, unity and diversity than when and if we are to be separated and divided..

So, let me be clear about this issue of secession. The failure of the Mugabe and ZANU PF minority to attend to the legitimate needs and interests of our broad and diverse society and population is not the failure of all of Zimbabweans and must not be the failure of all Zimbabweans. And if anything, one thing we now know from the tragic Mugabe and ZANU PF reign, is that no man can and must be ever entirely trusted with the reigns of power and authority.

Now, we must make sure that there is always necessary checks and balances to limit the power of those in power. And there are many ways of doing that. Of course, we must not just preach about the doctrine of the “separation, dilution, democratization and devolution of powers” but we must practice it, live and lead by it. Right now, there is a serious and disturbing lack of practice of that, and this is something that we must address in this generation. And that also means we can rely upon a strong and vibrant civil society as the FOURTH ARM OF THE STATE through which the legitimate interests and rights of various groups in our society are represented and articulated.

A democratic and devolved Government is yet another solution among others and one which I am fully in pursuit of, but as for total secession, that’s the extreme last option when we have tried all those other options and solutions.

Let’s reach out to each other and dialogue about these issues and that way we can be able to attain a common understanding and perhaps a broad, more beneficial consensus on this and other issues.

AUTHOR: Jones Musara
URL: http://spindocter.blogspot.com and http://zadp.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: jnsmusara [at] gmail.com

Category: opinion, Sub-Saharan Africa
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Comments

One Response to “I condemn the illegal arrest of Mthwakazi Liberation Front Leaders and the false charges of treason laid on Paul Siwela”

  1. fortune
    mei 27th, 2011 @ 18:04

    may i put it clear that mlf want the restoration of our state which was not part of the shona state.we talk of the boundary which
    is called the jameson line.mlf does not ask someone govern us well,instead we want to govern ourselves so that we can determine our destiny.The issue of marginalisation,gugurahundi are the results or consequences that we are bearing due to the mistake that was made by the British in 1923 without consulting us.In 1890 the Shona state was colonised by the British Emperor and in 1891 a boundary was drawn through an ageement between King Lobengula and Jameson and the boundary was named after jameson and called the Jameson line.1893 the Ndebele state was colonised and ruled by the BRITISH SOUTHAFRICA COMPANY (BSA COMPANY).We were ruled seperately until 1923 when the BSA Company sold us .1923 through memorandum in which only whites were to paticipate we were brought together with shonas.since 1980 the shona have taken a chance to colonise us.we therefore find ourselves being colonised by the shonas now.why should we suffer like this 187 years of colonizaion.the current generation of mthwakazi has a responsibility to liberate itsself.

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