No forced relocation for Matobo Community: Earning to VP Mnangagwa

No sooner had Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa finished announcing that he plans to rebury ‘his' Gukurahundi victims than he is sited at ARDA in Matobo district angling for some fresh victims. Not to kill them this time round but to toy with them by displacing them from their ancestral homes to unfamiliar territory.

The man has no shame. Now he is victimizing the same people who were affected mostly by the Gukurahundi genocide. He has ordered them to vacate their communities and pave way for the Trek farm expansion. Rumour has it that he is a key shareholder in the company. Some believe that he does not own shares but is connected and regularly gets his palm greased. Small wonder why he has to enforce this order on the poor peasants of Matobo District.

The VP must be grappling with his conscience as the Liberation War was waged to empower the same people. Displacing local black people by the white colonialists was the reason the war was fought in order to ensure the people lived off the land of their choice. Done by fellow blacks it should be viewed as resettlement which will result in more gains for the wider community. Believe this and you are sure to believe anything.

Zapu makes its position clear on this issue. It regards  this as a blatant violation of human rights and belittling of the people of Matobo District and Matabeleland as a whole. This is not only a betrayal of the Liberation Struggle but also a display of arrogance by Mnangagwa and his business partners.  No proper consultation with people involved.

This shows disrespect of the highest order. Trvelling all the way from Bambazonke to Matobo could they not locate other ARDA projects nearer their capital. Have these people not suffered enough. First they annihilated during the Gukurahundi era. Then the mutilated bodies of their relatives were dumped in unmarked mass graves and still awaiting reburial as promised by one of the key architects of Gukurahundi, the said VP himself.

As if that was not enough, the people of Matobo District together with the rest of Matebeleland and Midlands are still experiencing government driven regional sanctions.  Economic opportunities have been reduced to near zero for these people. Then there is the cultural genocide of Shonalising schools and other public services in these areas. Being forcibly removed from their homes is the last straw.

 Zapu will not stand by and watch the rights of people being trampled upon. Whether it is in Matobo, Maboleni or Murambinda, Zapu will always support the people's  resistance to such inhuman treatment by state authorities and those entrusted to govern. Zapu stands by the people of Matobo. Zapu will be guided by what the local residents consider to be the best course of action.  

The people of Matobo need to stand up and do what they did to that CIO Mashingaidze at Maleme when he tried to evict Mr Cunningham. This time it is the Chief of Sinners himself, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Butcher of our people. Let us resist his latest overtures which are disguised as an innocent business project. People must be fearless and put up a noble resistance against this re-colonisation of a different nature.  Mnangagwa and his neo-Napoleon strategies must fail.

# we need devolution of power,  Matobo must survive, Mnangagwa and ZANU must fall.

Sikhumbuzo Moyo is an activist in the ZAPU RSA province. He can be contacted at sikhumbuzomoyo82@gmail.com

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