Opinion / Columnist
The fighting spirit of Honourable Joanne Mamombe deserves honour: Salute my girl-child
02 Apr 2021 at 13:20hrs | Views
After 2 minutes of watching a video in New Zimbabwe news media, Honourable Mamombe was narrating how they got attacked by a snake in the prison cell in the middle of the night, I did not finish watching to the end but was overcome by emotions. I wept bitterly for them. I confess I do not understand tears and emotions that crowded my brain: I developed a brain fog; I was desperate and helpless: unable to comprehend the source of despair? Why crying so uncontrollably, alone? I realized the helplessness of my situation: 7 thousand miles away from the crime's scene. To put in sober words: if I was in Zimbabwe today, what was I going to do to save my girl-children from the brutal Zanu government in Chikurubi Remind Prison, concretely?
She is not alone in this fight, together with Chimbiri these young women have seen hell on earth. Curiously, we have become so indifferent to their cause. We are not able to drum up, let the international community know that these girls are going through hell: there are in the hands of a brutal regime: Zanu PF. We seem to be saying to ourselves, if it is not me directly involved: then pangu pakanaka. Really! These young women need our sisterly and motherly assistance: Women in Zimbabwe are indeed found wanting. I do not understand the logic of women's organisation in Zimbabwe how they can be complacent with a serious case before them. What if these young women lost their lives; what if they were murdered by this brutal regime of Mnangagwa government? Have we ever thought about that possibility?
I was watching a video of Joanne Mamombe how the brutal regime set them up by letting a snake inside their sleeping room: a vicious snake meant to bite them while they slept. The evil Mnangagwa regime is deliberately exposing Joanne Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri to a snake bite to get rid of them. To say that this is a desperate act by the Zanu regime diabolic, is an underestimate. I cannot understand why our Zimbabwean women are dead silent about unspeakable act of barbarism.
Seeing the face of Mamombe narrating their experience with a deadly snake at night, she is not broken. This gave me hope. The regime is trying to eliminate them somehow or other. Zanu does not want a challenge that shows raw strength but weakness. Joanne Mamombe is demonstrating to the brutal regime an absolute courage that surpasses human endurance.
The Zanu regime has tried all it can to tell the world that these girls abducted themselves by producing a fake video that did not make sense right, left and centre. We know Zanu and its modus operandi; what they are doing to innocent citizens supposedly their children who are now smelling like goats, is what transpired during the liberation movements. There has never been peace in Zanu party since its inception. There have been killings and counter killings during the struggle. Strangely, during the struggle for independence, there were fierce inner fighting's inside the Shona ethnic groups. The Manyika, the Zezurus, the Karangas fought each other openly; were at loggerheads with one another fighting for leadership supremacy. Unpacking this past is to make the reader understand the psychology of Zanu, where does this coldness, ruthlessness, brutality and loss of reverence to life originate from.
We must trace the roots of violence in Zanu in the way it executed the liberation struggle in the early 1970s right up to the end of the war and the subsequent independence in 1980. There has never been peace in Zanu party and the government that followed the struggle. What they are doing to Honourable Johanne Mamombe, is by Zanu standards normal: they operated in the same way and was even worse because non accountability in the struggle.
Advocate Herbert Chitepo was assassinated because Zanu preferred a Zezuru leadership. It was not a matter of who was a capable leader to execute the liberation war. Many of those who were of Manyika tribe, Dr. Edgar Madekurozva were made to dig their own graves; by the same pick and shove he dug his grave, he was knocked down inside the grave. This is the hate Zanu nurtured and is nurturing as a party. Zanu can produce as many fake videos as possible to want to prove that these girls abducted themselves. The truth is we know that the girls were abducted by dark forces of Mnangagwa alone. It does not need rocket science to imagine how Itai Dzamara died in the hands of Mnangagwa and his criminal gang.
They preferred leadership of Robert Mugabe instead, a Zezuru and the jicksaw puzzle was complete. Instead of being grateful to those Zezurus who saw Mugabe rise to power, Rugare Gumbo, Wilfred Mhanda; even women were incarcerated in a Mozambique prison for flimsy reasons. The book written by Wilfred Mhanda summarizes the ultimate rudeness of politics: the struggle for independence cost thousands of lives some of which unnecessary deaths.
Zanu PF has not shaded its violent past but instead is refining the ruthlessness how it treats its opponents especially opposition parties.
Painful still it is how we see most prominent and most formidable opposition leaders crossing the floor surrendering their loyalty to Zanu PF. This is a development in our history that dents and undermines the goodness of an African revolution: Who, in their good senses would join a murderous Zanu PF? A Zanu party and government with no track record of good service since 1980? Some of them have learnt a lesson: the likes of Kembo Mohadi realizes now that it was virulent to sell your body and soul to a murderous Zanu.
If rumour is to be believed, Mohadi was kingmaker of the rise of Justice Sello Nare: He was carefully chosen to double down the Gukurahundi atrocities in Matabeleland. It should never escape the people of Matabeleland region the truth about Justice Sello Nare mission about NPCR and its mandate in the region. Justice Sello Nare and the group of commissioners are the voice of Mnangagwa with the assistance of the former Kembo Mohadi to put the people of the regions affected by Gukurahundi atrocities to silence and by threats. Since the NPRC inception, this commission has done little or nothing tangible regarding genocide atrocities in Matabeleland. Justice Nare is doing exactly what he was assigned to do by Mnangagwa, to drag the issue of genocide atrocities as far as they can get, deliberately feeding falsehood to the affected areas that there is arm of the government working on reconciliation. Now Obert Gutu is joining NPCR the gravy train of looting: the reason he joined the Zanu PF regime.
I pen off my article by asking a question I will never get answer from. How do people like Dr. Tracy Mutinhiri, Obert Gutu, Lilian Timveous, Blessing Chebundo and all of them who have recently crossed the carpet to Zanu PF feel when these young girls languish in prison with trumped up charges? Do we still have the conscience to lean on; where are our pronounced African virtues of UBUNTU/HUNHU if we think and act on the dictates and determines of the stomach than the revolutionary spirit to free us from the yoke of capitalistic dictates. Has our moral fibric sunk this low? Mamombe is not even 30 years old. She could be our daughter by African standards.
Mamombe and Chimbiri will be written in our textbooks as one of the young revolutionaries who fought the brutal regime with bare hands. The free world will honour and recognize your unparalleled sterling input. Your sacrifice is not in vain. Remember the moments of sorrow, of despair, of desperation in those cold and unsympathetic prison cells, we are with you; we are mourning your lost freedom. We are helpless to assist you anyhow; we cannot give you some practical assistance. However, the universe is looking on my dear and precious ladies. There is a purpose for this pain you must endure. You will be exalted from your pain in living and death, mark my words. You will be honoured tenfold for this ultimate sacrifice you are going through today.
I pray for your safety.
She is not alone in this fight, together with Chimbiri these young women have seen hell on earth. Curiously, we have become so indifferent to their cause. We are not able to drum up, let the international community know that these girls are going through hell: there are in the hands of a brutal regime: Zanu PF. We seem to be saying to ourselves, if it is not me directly involved: then pangu pakanaka. Really! These young women need our sisterly and motherly assistance: Women in Zimbabwe are indeed found wanting. I do not understand the logic of women's organisation in Zimbabwe how they can be complacent with a serious case before them. What if these young women lost their lives; what if they were murdered by this brutal regime of Mnangagwa government? Have we ever thought about that possibility?
I was watching a video of Joanne Mamombe how the brutal regime set them up by letting a snake inside their sleeping room: a vicious snake meant to bite them while they slept. The evil Mnangagwa regime is deliberately exposing Joanne Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri to a snake bite to get rid of them. To say that this is a desperate act by the Zanu regime diabolic, is an underestimate. I cannot understand why our Zimbabwean women are dead silent about unspeakable act of barbarism.
Seeing the face of Mamombe narrating their experience with a deadly snake at night, she is not broken. This gave me hope. The regime is trying to eliminate them somehow or other. Zanu does not want a challenge that shows raw strength but weakness. Joanne Mamombe is demonstrating to the brutal regime an absolute courage that surpasses human endurance.
The Zanu regime has tried all it can to tell the world that these girls abducted themselves by producing a fake video that did not make sense right, left and centre. We know Zanu and its modus operandi; what they are doing to innocent citizens supposedly their children who are now smelling like goats, is what transpired during the liberation movements. There has never been peace in Zanu party since its inception. There have been killings and counter killings during the struggle. Strangely, during the struggle for independence, there were fierce inner fighting's inside the Shona ethnic groups. The Manyika, the Zezurus, the Karangas fought each other openly; were at loggerheads with one another fighting for leadership supremacy. Unpacking this past is to make the reader understand the psychology of Zanu, where does this coldness, ruthlessness, brutality and loss of reverence to life originate from.
We must trace the roots of violence in Zanu in the way it executed the liberation struggle in the early 1970s right up to the end of the war and the subsequent independence in 1980. There has never been peace in Zanu party and the government that followed the struggle. What they are doing to Honourable Johanne Mamombe, is by Zanu standards normal: they operated in the same way and was even worse because non accountability in the struggle.
Advocate Herbert Chitepo was assassinated because Zanu preferred a Zezuru leadership. It was not a matter of who was a capable leader to execute the liberation war. Many of those who were of Manyika tribe, Dr. Edgar Madekurozva were made to dig their own graves; by the same pick and shove he dug his grave, he was knocked down inside the grave. This is the hate Zanu nurtured and is nurturing as a party. Zanu can produce as many fake videos as possible to want to prove that these girls abducted themselves. The truth is we know that the girls were abducted by dark forces of Mnangagwa alone. It does not need rocket science to imagine how Itai Dzamara died in the hands of Mnangagwa and his criminal gang.
They preferred leadership of Robert Mugabe instead, a Zezuru and the jicksaw puzzle was complete. Instead of being grateful to those Zezurus who saw Mugabe rise to power, Rugare Gumbo, Wilfred Mhanda; even women were incarcerated in a Mozambique prison for flimsy reasons. The book written by Wilfred Mhanda summarizes the ultimate rudeness of politics: the struggle for independence cost thousands of lives some of which unnecessary deaths.
Zanu PF has not shaded its violent past but instead is refining the ruthlessness how it treats its opponents especially opposition parties.
Painful still it is how we see most prominent and most formidable opposition leaders crossing the floor surrendering their loyalty to Zanu PF. This is a development in our history that dents and undermines the goodness of an African revolution: Who, in their good senses would join a murderous Zanu PF? A Zanu party and government with no track record of good service since 1980? Some of them have learnt a lesson: the likes of Kembo Mohadi realizes now that it was virulent to sell your body and soul to a murderous Zanu.
If rumour is to be believed, Mohadi was kingmaker of the rise of Justice Sello Nare: He was carefully chosen to double down the Gukurahundi atrocities in Matabeleland. It should never escape the people of Matabeleland region the truth about Justice Sello Nare mission about NPCR and its mandate in the region. Justice Sello Nare and the group of commissioners are the voice of Mnangagwa with the assistance of the former Kembo Mohadi to put the people of the regions affected by Gukurahundi atrocities to silence and by threats. Since the NPRC inception, this commission has done little or nothing tangible regarding genocide atrocities in Matabeleland. Justice Nare is doing exactly what he was assigned to do by Mnangagwa, to drag the issue of genocide atrocities as far as they can get, deliberately feeding falsehood to the affected areas that there is arm of the government working on reconciliation. Now Obert Gutu is joining NPCR the gravy train of looting: the reason he joined the Zanu PF regime.
I pen off my article by asking a question I will never get answer from. How do people like Dr. Tracy Mutinhiri, Obert Gutu, Lilian Timveous, Blessing Chebundo and all of them who have recently crossed the carpet to Zanu PF feel when these young girls languish in prison with trumped up charges? Do we still have the conscience to lean on; where are our pronounced African virtues of UBUNTU/HUNHU if we think and act on the dictates and determines of the stomach than the revolutionary spirit to free us from the yoke of capitalistic dictates. Has our moral fibric sunk this low? Mamombe is not even 30 years old. She could be our daughter by African standards.
Mamombe and Chimbiri will be written in our textbooks as one of the young revolutionaries who fought the brutal regime with bare hands. The free world will honour and recognize your unparalleled sterling input. Your sacrifice is not in vain. Remember the moments of sorrow, of despair, of desperation in those cold and unsympathetic prison cells, we are with you; we are mourning your lost freedom. We are helpless to assist you anyhow; we cannot give you some practical assistance. However, the universe is looking on my dear and precious ladies. There is a purpose for this pain you must endure. You will be exalted from your pain in living and death, mark my words. You will be honoured tenfold for this ultimate sacrifice you are going through today.
I pray for your safety.
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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