Opinion / Columnist
Letter to the people of Zimbabwe
22 Jul 2021 at 04:36hrs | Views
Pamusoroi Dzimbabwe.
Allow me on behalf of my president, the NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT, and the nation of Zimbabwe, to convey our deepest of sympathies and apology, to the Ndebele nation, and all others of our people who are victims of GUKURAHUNDI.
We hang our heads in shame, not for what we did, but for what we failed to do when our people needed us most.
May we be forgiven, may the nation be forgiven.
It is with out doubt that the souls of our innocent people who were butchered without cause ,are crying to the Lord our God himself for vengeance. The Bible assures us of that.
It is also without doubt that we are guilty, as a movement, as a nation, guilty of the fact that we stood aside and watched our people get slaughtered without lifting a hand to help.
For he who knows what is right to do and does not do it, he shall be guilty of sin. The Bible assures us of that.
We could have made noise, we could have helped in any other way or even die together with our people ,but we didn't. And the nation is paying for it.
We have become a country of perennial crises whose end is nowhere in sight and until we ask for forgiveness and are forgiven, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow morning our problems won't end.
The story of Gukurahundi must be told in its entirety ,our people must be allowed to tell this story in their own voice, our children must be taught about its truth, and we must build a huge memorial as an honour to our people who perished, and as an everlasting reminder to future generations of this dark hour in our history, as a lesson that it must never be repeated.
We must put together systems and institutions that are tasked to make sure such evil will never be repeated in Zimbabwe.
But it is not enough to be forgiven.
We should recompense our people for all that they have gone through.
The government of the Republic of Zimbabwe has billions of money to recompense white people whose properties were siezed in land reform, land which their ancestors wrested from our forefathers through brutal force and murder, but the same government can only promise death certificates and reburial for our own people who perished in that senseless and unprovoked bout of ethnic cleansing known as Gukurahundi.
That is totally unacceptable.
We demand that our people be recompensed for all the suffering that they went through. The government should pay reparations to all the victims of that dark hour ,which is arguably our nation's darkest.
We also demand that all those who actively participated in that horror show , or bore any other form of responsibility, political or otherwise, be brought before a WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL and be adequately prosecuted for what they did.
There must be no mercy for him who has shown none.
The greatest compensation that we can pay our people with is to remove Zanu-PF from power, if only for the sole reason that the party has become nothing more than a congregation of thieves, hoodlums and murderers, masquerading as a liberation movement.
Unlike the MDC and all others we do not believe in voting Zanu-PF out of power, because that will never work.
Zanu-PF must be forced out of power by the people of Zimbabwe. No party or government is stronger than the people it governs.
My president always says that times have changed and we have many more weapons at our disposal than the forefathers of our liberation had when they fought for our freedom , that violence should always be our last resort, but also that NO NATION IN PURSUIT OF TRUE FREEDOM CAN AFFORD TO DISCOUNT THE OPTION OF VIOLENT ARMED STRUGGLE.
After-all we are the sons and daughters of our forefathers.
Our people have had enough of all this suffering, it is time , as a nation we did something drastic before we wake up soon and realise we are about to bequeath to our grandchildren a country in shambles. There is no time to waste.
However liberation is not a destination.it is a journey and Zanu-PF is only one of the obstacles we have to face on our way to true freedom.
We must spread our focus to cover all , everything and everyone from whom we must be freed.
Therefore we have a huge task ahead of us, a task far bigger than just removing one political party and replace it with another.
It is up to to us today to decide how we want to go about this task. Are we going to start by focusing on removing Zanu-PF first then attend to everything and everyone else after wards ? Or are we going to declare war on anything and everyone who is standing in the way of our true freedom?
Whatever it is that we decide must be done yesterday. We are far behind time and we need to act and act now.
It's time ZIMBABWE.
Let's do this.
NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT.
Allow me on behalf of my president, the NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT, and the nation of Zimbabwe, to convey our deepest of sympathies and apology, to the Ndebele nation, and all others of our people who are victims of GUKURAHUNDI.
We hang our heads in shame, not for what we did, but for what we failed to do when our people needed us most.
May we be forgiven, may the nation be forgiven.
It is with out doubt that the souls of our innocent people who were butchered without cause ,are crying to the Lord our God himself for vengeance. The Bible assures us of that.
It is also without doubt that we are guilty, as a movement, as a nation, guilty of the fact that we stood aside and watched our people get slaughtered without lifting a hand to help.
For he who knows what is right to do and does not do it, he shall be guilty of sin. The Bible assures us of that.
We could have made noise, we could have helped in any other way or even die together with our people ,but we didn't. And the nation is paying for it.
We have become a country of perennial crises whose end is nowhere in sight and until we ask for forgiveness and are forgiven, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow morning our problems won't end.
The story of Gukurahundi must be told in its entirety ,our people must be allowed to tell this story in their own voice, our children must be taught about its truth, and we must build a huge memorial as an honour to our people who perished, and as an everlasting reminder to future generations of this dark hour in our history, as a lesson that it must never be repeated.
We must put together systems and institutions that are tasked to make sure such evil will never be repeated in Zimbabwe.
But it is not enough to be forgiven.
We should recompense our people for all that they have gone through.
The government of the Republic of Zimbabwe has billions of money to recompense white people whose properties were siezed in land reform, land which their ancestors wrested from our forefathers through brutal force and murder, but the same government can only promise death certificates and reburial for our own people who perished in that senseless and unprovoked bout of ethnic cleansing known as Gukurahundi.
That is totally unacceptable.
We demand that our people be recompensed for all the suffering that they went through. The government should pay reparations to all the victims of that dark hour ,which is arguably our nation's darkest.
We also demand that all those who actively participated in that horror show , or bore any other form of responsibility, political or otherwise, be brought before a WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL and be adequately prosecuted for what they did.
There must be no mercy for him who has shown none.
The greatest compensation that we can pay our people with is to remove Zanu-PF from power, if only for the sole reason that the party has become nothing more than a congregation of thieves, hoodlums and murderers, masquerading as a liberation movement.
Unlike the MDC and all others we do not believe in voting Zanu-PF out of power, because that will never work.
Zanu-PF must be forced out of power by the people of Zimbabwe. No party or government is stronger than the people it governs.
My president always says that times have changed and we have many more weapons at our disposal than the forefathers of our liberation had when they fought for our freedom , that violence should always be our last resort, but also that NO NATION IN PURSUIT OF TRUE FREEDOM CAN AFFORD TO DISCOUNT THE OPTION OF VIOLENT ARMED STRUGGLE.
After-all we are the sons and daughters of our forefathers.
Our people have had enough of all this suffering, it is time , as a nation we did something drastic before we wake up soon and realise we are about to bequeath to our grandchildren a country in shambles. There is no time to waste.
However liberation is not a destination.it is a journey and Zanu-PF is only one of the obstacles we have to face on our way to true freedom.
We must spread our focus to cover all , everything and everyone from whom we must be freed.
Therefore we have a huge task ahead of us, a task far bigger than just removing one political party and replace it with another.
It is up to to us today to decide how we want to go about this task. Are we going to start by focusing on removing Zanu-PF first then attend to everything and everyone else after wards ? Or are we going to declare war on anything and everyone who is standing in the way of our true freedom?
Whatever it is that we decide must be done yesterday. We are far behind time and we need to act and act now.
It's time ZIMBABWE.
Let's do this.
NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT.
Source - Julius Machingura
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
