Open letter to President Ramaphosa, Mnangagwa and HH

Open Letter from Dr Vusumuzi Sibanda a Constitutional and Human Rights law Practitioner and African Diaspora Global Network CEO


The President of Zimbabwe: Mr E. D Mnangangwa, The President of South Africa: Mr C M Ramaphosa,
The President of Zambia,
The SADC,
The AU Commission Chairperson: Moussan Faki,
The Parliament of Zimbabwe,
The Parliament of South Africa,

I do not claim any special privileges by writing this letter and addressing it to so important people and organisations in relations to African Politics and affairs. I write as the President of a miniscule organisation that has fought hard for the rights of people living in the Diaspora and also driven by the realisation of the great fallibility of human nature, all of us. Mine is a lived experience, and I do not speak of a life that I have read of in the books, but my daily experience, and of many migrants living in countries that are not of their origin mainly because of push political factors, causing them suffering beyond measure, treated like dirty, denied justice even when grossly wronged, exploited, abused and bruised, neglected, pushed beyond limits and above all dehumanised and mainly by the governments who should shield them and who feed off their suffering and hard earned meagre earnings.

We need not forget governments have no fields to plough and reap from, but they reap from where they neither sowed nor toiled, from the very poor they despise and exploit.

I have been in the South African courts for close to five years, I know the plight, I will not exaggerate, I have seen justice being done to migrants albeit in some cases with more extra-ordinary fights than if it were natives. As a migrant, one is ever on the defensive and has a burden to prove more than the normal threshold and has more hurdles despite the biggest hurdle of fleeing one's country and settling in another.

I must start by appreciating South Africa and South Africans for their generosity in accommodating many migrant families from various African and Asian countries. I know and understand the burden, despite the public spats on xenophobia and the extreme cases of right-wing nationalists, South Africa has become and is a home and has nursed and nurtured many of us who have lost the real sense of a native home due to the political situation in our countries of origin.

There is today the question of ZEPs, it is a sad scenario, but it is obtaining nonetheless. I have fought the South African government in court I must confess where I felt that a public official has failed in executing their duties lawfully and I am glad for the opportunity to do so. I am not ashamed to have done so because as a global citizen I must exercise the right to be a good and diligent citizen and hold to account those in government. The fights or disputes have always been fairly fought and the courts adjudicated in terms of the law, no clandestine or funny business. I must salute the South Africans who today feel their constitution is too bad for them, but I must state it has allowed every person to at least approach the courts and hold leaders to account including sending leaders and politicians to prison, proving no one is above the law. The trias politica does indeed work in RSA and the ZEP appeal case shows that. In many cases the executive always trumps over the other institutions and not that in RSA there are no such attempts. The appeal in the ZEP case is a fight stating that the Judiciary overstepped but we shall see, and the Judiciary ordinarily must adjudicate without favour nor fear, that is commendable. RSA is an example of a functional democracy albeit young.

Many might be saying I pride myself in the attempts in the RSA courts only, that will be far from the truth. I have gone to court if I believed there is a wrong and that the Judiciary must therefore come in. I have done same in Zimbabwe. I lamented at the top of my voice the November 2017 incident and in the evening of November the 15th 2017. I called Professor Welshman Ncube after Calling Mr Biti for about an hour trying to advise that there was a need to properly address the SADC Ministers who were due to arrive on Friday and distance themselves from the Coup as the main opposition party and rather at best call for a civilian intervention to keep the status quo of the deposition of Mr Mugabe but call the army to the barracks and get a civilian solution that involved an apolitical transitional period led by the clergy or people with no interest to lead the country while reforms were being put in place to level the political playing field, but they both told me they believed in the coup and were aware of it for a long time and they were part of the discussions and it was going to work.

When everyone celebrated, I was crying, because that set a wrong precedent in a modern society. I and a few of my friends went to court on the 1st of March of 2018 and filed a court case at the Constitutional Court under case number CCZ10/18 challenging the actions and subsequent events that followed and citing the Current President of Zimbabwe for the coup and the army generals and the ZANU dominated parliament for being complicity.

Needless to say, something I never came across in a South Africa court happened, to make matters worse at the Apex court in the land. Of the five Applicants, two were organisations represented by two of the three applicants who were not juristic persons. At all material times I was with the 5th respondent between South Africa and Zimbabwe and the 4th Respondent actual went to court to the Registrar to query the purported withdrawal of the case. None of us withdrew the case but we were told it was withdrawn and there was nothing we could do, and the case was no longer on the roll but to our dismay the case proceeded on the day in question when we had thrown the towel after frantic attempts to get the matter back on the roll but told it was not on the roll anymore and nothing could be done about it. You can read between the lines and there was even a full judgment in the case under case CCZ7/18 to ensure the matter never came back to court.

My point is that we never believed in the process and manner in which President Mr Mugabe was deposed and the whole world knows what happened but chose to look the other way. Mr Mnangagwa was lucky because he had army generals and access to the military hardware and equipment to flood the streets and do so solely because he was unhappy for being fired by ZANU PF. The question is how does a ZANU matter become a national issue to be resolved by the army? Does the army belong to ZANU PF? Interestingly soon after that, many of the then military leaders were re-deployed to government and more like rewarded. What does that say?

My letter is addressed to the above because they are aware of these events, and they all chose to endorse it. One of my major questions to the democratic society that we have today where a fired member of a party can even go to court if he is unlawfully removed or aggrieved as we have seen in Mr Magashule and many others, why did Mr Mnangangwa not do that but rather used the army? Is that procedurally correct? If that is correct can then an ordinary member who has no access to the national army bring his private military army if he is unhappy about any political issue, like Mr Mnangangwa, and hold him hostage like what happened to Mr Mugabe? Will that be correct and if not so what is the difference with what Mr Mnangangwa did?

This letter raises these questions mainly also because of the ZEP holders in the country whose lives face uncertainty and we also saw Mr Mnangangwa fleeing Zimbabwe, we hear via Mozambique into South Africa. What danger was his life in that we are unaware of? What is the difference between him and many Zimbabweans who are fleeing or have fled Zimbabwe and hold ZEPs in South Africa?

Your Excellences, Presidents here addressed, my question is how much confidence do we have in the electoral process unfolding in Zimbabwe now? We know many of the rallies of the CCC have been banned by the police and the President of Zimbabwe came out saying they should not be banned but addressed the Apostolic Christian faith referring himself and his government as ‘varakashi' (thrashers or destroyers), this is not a laughing matter because that statement hits closer to home if you know Gukurahundi and the 1 August 2018. The President went on to say they needed to be in Church to be prayed for them, to assist them, to use his words, "isu tinorakasha, kuti tasa, tinoku kusvasvambura".

"Motitonodza pfungwa dzedu nokuti pfungwa dzedu dzinopota dzichiva wild" meaning as for us, our brains occasionally go wild and we need the church to pray for us so that we can cool down a bit.

The words mean if you wrong us, we thrash you so hard to straighten you up, emphasized thrashing. What does that mean and which law is that? How does the thrashing happen and in which criminal codification or sentencing is that found, and we see many videos of people being thrashed in Zimbabwe, is there a need to wonder now?

In another rally he said, let all those that will vote for ZANU PF lift up their hands, then he prayed saying, ‘God you have seen your people saying they will vote for ZANU PF, God you know their hearts, may those who will have lied all fall sick!' ….. What does that mean to people? Is that a free voting environment especially coming from the President? Are people not free to vote as they wish and are those not the tenets of democracy? Should any elected leader have ill feelings or threaten those who vote against him? Is that befitting of a public servant who even spoke of ruling forever when the Constitution talks of two terms?

Personally, I believe that any election has a threshold that it must meet to be declared free, fair and credible. When the President was saying that, can that not be viewed as a threat to those who go against him even threatening voters if they do not vote for him? The voting process alone, not talking about banned rallies, then threats, the queried voter's roll that is not easily accessible to all as requested by parties participating in the election, how do these contribute to fairness, credibility and freeness?

The question is to-date, there are questions about voter registration centres, about accreditation of observers and on the day of election there shall be questions about reporting of results, I hope note so, voting agents access and posting of results at all the voting centres and already we are told of organisations called FAZ that have emerged during this election period, how do these assist the minimum threshold for transparency, fairness, credibility and freeness?

The question is, is this our universal idea of free, fair and credible elections? If the Children of Zimbabwe who suffer so much in the diaspora including those now facing uncertainty over the ZEP issue are disgruntled like Mr Mnangangwa in 2017, what recourse do they have? He did not go to court then. Why? But he went to court before being sworn in to have one former military man, then a Judge preside over his case to ensure that he could not be challenged for his ascension? Why did he not do it before deposing Mr Mugabe? Was the judiciary not captured and biased  towards him already at that stage seeing the country had been taken using the military and this being a military man turned Judge? The same Judge has since been promoted steps higher ever since. What does that say?

My question remains? Is the threshold of free, fair and credible at this stage in sight? Can we stand by these elections considering what has been happening this far? How should the Zimbabwean people react to ensure that the elections are according to everyone, free, fair, credible and transparent in the face of beatings, banning rallies, voters roll in shambles, threats by the number 1 citizen of the country, and above all not a single person arrested for the Gold Mafia? South Africa has moved swiftly to freeze many accounts of those involved but in Zimbabwe the man on the front of all the shenanigans bringing together number one and those with dirty cash, has gone a step further to be an Ambassador of Interfaith at the AU's Pan African Parliament. Incredulous!

South Africa and all other member states have not said anything about this appointment. Is this not rubber stamping whatever is happening in Zimbabwe and saying Zimbabwe is sovereign and can do as she pleases, and the people don't matter so long the rulers are okay? Can South Africa speak about the election process in Zimbabwe and the killings in 2018 which were swept under the carpet? What is the parliament of RSA saying in view of the 178 000 with their families especially now that parliament wants them gone back to Zimbabwe? During JJ Tabane's show ANC was very clear about its position on migrants in RSA, can it be clear about the welfair of Africans and the governance in Zimbabwe as the ruling party?

The President of Zambia might understand what it means to have an unfair playing field. What is the Position President HH? Is an injury to one African not an injury to all Africans? Can we not working together restore the dignity of every African by speaking with the same voice on democracy and despotic leadership across Africa?  All hear addressed bear the title honourable, is it honourable to let the defenceless suffer, starve, be prayed for to fall sick by their own President? Be thrashed? What about to be displaced because the money and resources are looted by those who are supposed to be protecting the resources and are supposed to oversee the fair usage and distribution to all?

What about those who have fled into the diaspora and consistently are also being jeered at for being cowards, but they face being thrashed should they go back and wrong those in the echelons of power?

Your Excellencies! Honourable Presidents, Ministers and MPs, AU Chairperson! Is this the African Dream? Is this what it means to be African? That if people do not agree, we kill and maim and silence them? Is this the African legacy that our forebearers and freedom fighters shade so much blood for to remove the shackles of colonialism and apartheid, that their descendants should abandon their homes for other countries under their kin and kith's rule? Am I proud to be an African? Are you proud to be an African? Are you doing justice to the African name and continent?

What if the elections in Zimbabwe (23/08/2023) do not meet the minimum threshold especially considering the past disputed elections? Just what then? For how long? Should this be risked?

Humbly, African and troubled.