Open letter to Prof Jonathan Moyo

The San populations in Tsholotsho North: they face extinction!

Dear Honourable Professor Dr. Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo,

I am writing on your capacity as an active Member of Parliament for Tsholotsho North. I am personally very concerned about the San population living in your area. Please, correct me if it is not the case, that the San populations are habitants in your area.

The remaining San populations in Zimbabwe are now less than 2000 in number, have their livelihoods destroyed by many activities taking place in Matabeleland North. The San People are disempowered and face prejudice from the rest of the populations in Zimbabwe. The San populations are trapped they cannot practice hallmark of their mixed economy, that of hunting and gathering, farming and trading. Hunting has been declared illegal in most parts of their dwelling spaces. The loss of their special stability has resulted in extreme poverty. They are an underclass, institutionally dis-privileged population even in Tsholotsho. Public institutions have looked down at the San populations in Zimbabwe, evidenced with the speech made by the President Mugabe at the funeral burial of VP. Landa John Nkomo. "They resist civilisation," he said. (Whatever that means!)

The systematic shutting out of the San populations in Tsholotsho from the government of Zimbabwe has lead to the San populations to live in extreme poverty and food insecurities. The San people have become vulnerable and disadvantaged in all socio- and economic transformations taking place in Matabeleland North. They do not have the capacity to live autonomously, a life of foraging and hunting they are used. Foraging and hunting has been removed from them and are forced to accede to local government authority in the region, a government that is visibly not doing anything meaningful in their lives-transformations. This had lead to institutionalised dependency on handouts from benevolent NGOs who are aware of their plight, becoming dependent institutionally.

The San people are still seen as socially inferior because they are different in their culture, they are very poor (by our measurement of poverty) are different in the way they use the land. This structural "poverty" in their lives is wholly man-made and they are systematically disempowered due to social prejudice from the local populations and the authorities. Their way of life, their social behaviour is strictly regulated and managed by the current government thus weakening their rich traditions and San models of social organisation ever to have survived this long, this population faces extinction if we are not careful, Honourable MP.

Dear Professor Moyo, MP for Tsholotsho North, I kindly ask you to intervene and assist these populations of San people in your jurisdiction, populations visibly declining numerically, only 2000 of them are left. Assistance will be in the form of removing and eliminating institutionalized and structural poverty, address directly the main cause of their marginalization from the societies, introduce empowerment programs leading meaningful participation at all levels of socio- and economic development that is taking place in your constituency. If they have to assimilate into the mainstream societies, could it be done possibly without losing the cultural identity and their beliefs? I ask you dear Honourable MP. To establish some framework for dealing with their plight on long term programs appropriate to meet their socio- and economic needs. I ask you in a nutshell to approach the San population with a sense of inclusivity to develop at their own pace and giving them relative security in their lives. The San population is indeed known for their mobility, it is therefore not a wonder there is widespread and general insecurity in their lives, resulting in apathy, boredom and depression in some cases, resulting from the loss of their own land- Southern Africa.

The San populations are special populations to us because they fall under the UN Indigenous Minorities Group subject to international conventions and covenants agreements. Again historically they are the owners of these lands of Southern Africa. They were here centuries ago, long before us.

Dear Professor Moyo, I confess that I am a fierce critic of you, Honourable MP. I wrote articles critiquing your participation in a rogue government of Zanu PF. You campaigned your parliamentary post in Tsholotsho North by inviting VP. Emerson Munangagwa to Tsholotsho and you paraded residents of Tsholotsho to a man who was a perpetrator of genocide in Matabeleland knowing too well that VP man is detested in that part of Matabeleland, the Gugurahundi atrocities and Munangagwa still not repented. All the same I still followed you on your twitter account because I thought you are now a very important person in that region by virtue of you being an Tsholotsho North MP. When I saw my twitter account removed from yours as a follower, I did not begrudge you considering my radical views about you as a politician in Zanu PF. It could be that my removal as your follower from twitter was by default, I don't know.

I kindly ask you to bury these animosities, malume (my mother is Moyo). The plight of the San peoples in Tsholotsho is much bigger than me. I am genuinely asking you to do something about the San people in your area of jurisdiction. I couldn't ask for more.
Ngiyabonga.
Regards

Nomazulu Thata
Nomazulu.thata(at)hotmil.com