Opinion / Letters
Paul Siwela pens letter to Mnangagwa, Demands immediate restoration of Matabeleland State
18 Sep 2018 at 05:57hrs | Views
Dear President ED Mnangagwa,
Ref: Demand for Immediate Restoration of Matabeleland State
Your Excellency, I am writing to you in my capacity as the leader of the Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO), an organization whose ultimate objective is to achieve full political independence for the peoples of Matabeleland whose country is currently under Zimbabwe's inherited colonial occupation since 1893.
Mr President, right from the outset I wish to categorically state that although I am averse to acts of injustice and inhumanity being perpetrated against innocent people in Zimbabwe by military elements loyal to you, I don't wish to get myself entangled in your present domestic feuds with your Zimbabwean compatriots as that has nothing to do with the liberation of my country, Matabeleland. Even as I congratulate you and your party on your electoral victory in the just concluded harmonised elections in Zimbabwe whose aftermath was characteristised by bloodshed which is synonimous with Zimbabwean political traditions, I wish to state that the Matabeleland Nation we wish to reconstruct will be radically different from the chaos and disorder which define Zimbabwe including the means and methods you adopted to replace your mentor and predecessor, Mr Robert Mugabe.
First and foremost, Your Excellency, I write this letter to alert you to the existence of fundamental demands we made to your predecessor, Mr Robert Mugabe, regarding the urgent need for him as President of Zimbabwe by then, to facilitate a dialogue process that would eventually culminate with Matabeleland gaining her independence from Zimbabwe. The restoration of Matabeleland's sovereignty is an extremely urgent matter we had hoped your predecessor would expeditiously act upon during his incumbency but unfortunately he was retired before he could find time to resolve it. As the new President of your country it is our hope that you will find time to study our demands as articulated in our correspondences with your predecessor and accordingly act upon them without further delay. As you would know, the people of Matabeleland have never willingly placed themselves under Rhodesia and its successor colonial construct called Zimbabwe and as such we demand to revert to our country's pre-colonial status of self governance as was the case in 1893. Details of this demand are found in the correspondences made with your predecessor, Mr Robert Mugabe which should be in your office..
Your Excellency, kindly note that the Notice for the Restoration of Matebeleland Sovereignty was served to your predecessor on the 7th December, 2015. I am sure you will agree with MLO that it's been quite a long time since then and our people are becoming more and more agitated by the passage of each day. As MLO we still commit ourselves to meeting the Zimbabwe colonial government to peacefully resolve this urgent matter to the satisfaction of all concerned through peaceful means.
Your Excellency, the second demand made to the Government of Zimbabwe through your predecessor but now under your leadership, was that Matabeleland be paid a compensation sum of US$100 billion for the multiple level damages suffered under successive Zimbabwe administrations since 18 April, 1980 and the rapacious exploitation of her resources to benefit Zimbabwe and its people at the exclusion of Matabeles. The US$100 billion compensation covers the Matabeleland Genocide committed between 1980 and 1988 by the Zanu PF led government in which you played a leading role, the loss of property, the needless subjection of Matabele people to economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West for Zimbabwe's political indiscretions, the marginalisation of our citizens and their loss of dignity which has caused them to be displaced, dehumanized, traumatised and dispersed across the globe as economic refugees.
Your Excellency, we are delighted to note that as someone who participated in Zimbabwe's struggle for national independence against the white colonial regimes, you fully understand the value of cooperation on matters like these in order to avoid unnecessary suffering. We also note that as someone who rose to power through unothordox means when your predecessor could not open sufficient political space for you and your faction within the ruling Zanu PF, you will fully understand the consequences of trying to delay the inevitable.
Mr President, we are also delighted to note that as a leader of the military government in Zimbabwe, you have committed yourself to restorative justice to the demands of white farmers who lost their farms under the previous regime. We therefore believe that as a genuine reformist siezed with rectifying the aftermath of the chaotic Land Reform Programme that savagely affected white people, you are the best disposed man to resolve a more serious African grievance through the peaceful methods that you have publicly laid claim to as your trademark. Your recent interventions in Mr Tendayi Biti's fugitive dilemma in Zambia and commitment to resolving major national questions of the day peacefully gives us hope that you will also handle the Matabeleland Question with the utmost probity and empathy it deserves.
Mr President, Zimbabwe as a confirmed failed state should not be allowed to go down with Matabeleland which has not benefited anything from the frightful acts of corruption and plunder of the national fiscus. Zimbabwe is a country in which the distribution of power, resources and opportunities is skewed against Matabeles which is intolerable to the Matebeles and can no longer afford to carry on under the circumstances. This is a country in which Matabeles cannot produce a genuine national leader on democratic terms because the antagonistic non-Matabele population uses its majority status not only to undermine Matabele leadership but also to invade Matabele political space and subjugate them to Shona tribal supremacy.
The logical path left to resolve this impasse is a painless, costless and bloodless one which will allow Matebeleland to regain her independence and full sovereignty whilst retaining Zimbabwe as a preferred and natural major trading partner and neighbour. In this arrangement Zimbabwe has nothing to fear or lose as full diplomatic relations, free movement of people and trade between the two neighbouring countries will be maintained.
Mr President, we hope that you will not allow these demands to take any other direction but dialogue guided by wisedom, genuine and sincere cooperation through peaceful means.
Mr President, as you will appreciate it based on your own personal experiences last November when you had to briefly flee the country before retuning home to overturn the tables against your predecessor with military help, Zimbabwe is a very undemocratic country to live in and Matabeles do not wish to be holed up in it any longer. Over 3 million of our people live in abject poverty in what is supposed to be their home whilst a further 3 million lives in exile due to the operation of an ongoing bloodless genocide, marginalisation and state sponsored psychological and physical abuse. They now need to come back home, a home which Zimbabwe cannot and will never provide and guarantee.
Mr President, I don't need to remind you of how the Government of Zimbabwe you served as a Security Minister under Predident Robert Mugabe arrested and detained George Mkhwanazi and I at Khami Maximum Prison in 2002 and charged us with subversion for condemning the ongoing ethnic cleansing programme against Matebeles as articulated in the Zanupf Anti-Matabele Grand Plan of 1979 and reviewed in 2010, a charge that is still hanging over our heads.
I also don't have to remind you of how in 2011/12 the Government you served under as a Minister of Justice once again arrested and detained John Gazi, Charles Thomas Gumpo and myself at Khami Maximum Prison and charged us with treason, a charge that is still hanging over my head. Since 1893 upto date we are conscious and aware of selective justice system that is applied on us and note that our grievaces and Demands can not be resolved by the judicial system buy buy the political dialogue.
After relentless persecution of my person and family ,I was eventually hounded out of the country for my beliefs and convitctions , which are shared by the majority Matebeles in their diversity and can not be exchanged for anything but the Restoration of Matebeleland Independence and Sovereignity.
Looking forward to an urgent peaceful resolution of the Matabeleland Demand
Izenzo kungemazwi
Yours sincerely
Paul Siwela
(President of Matabeleland Liberation Organisation)
Ref: Demand for Immediate Restoration of Matabeleland State
Your Excellency, I am writing to you in my capacity as the leader of the Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO), an organization whose ultimate objective is to achieve full political independence for the peoples of Matabeleland whose country is currently under Zimbabwe's inherited colonial occupation since 1893.
Mr President, right from the outset I wish to categorically state that although I am averse to acts of injustice and inhumanity being perpetrated against innocent people in Zimbabwe by military elements loyal to you, I don't wish to get myself entangled in your present domestic feuds with your Zimbabwean compatriots as that has nothing to do with the liberation of my country, Matabeleland. Even as I congratulate you and your party on your electoral victory in the just concluded harmonised elections in Zimbabwe whose aftermath was characteristised by bloodshed which is synonimous with Zimbabwean political traditions, I wish to state that the Matabeleland Nation we wish to reconstruct will be radically different from the chaos and disorder which define Zimbabwe including the means and methods you adopted to replace your mentor and predecessor, Mr Robert Mugabe.
First and foremost, Your Excellency, I write this letter to alert you to the existence of fundamental demands we made to your predecessor, Mr Robert Mugabe, regarding the urgent need for him as President of Zimbabwe by then, to facilitate a dialogue process that would eventually culminate with Matabeleland gaining her independence from Zimbabwe. The restoration of Matabeleland's sovereignty is an extremely urgent matter we had hoped your predecessor would expeditiously act upon during his incumbency but unfortunately he was retired before he could find time to resolve it. As the new President of your country it is our hope that you will find time to study our demands as articulated in our correspondences with your predecessor and accordingly act upon them without further delay. As you would know, the people of Matabeleland have never willingly placed themselves under Rhodesia and its successor colonial construct called Zimbabwe and as such we demand to revert to our country's pre-colonial status of self governance as was the case in 1893. Details of this demand are found in the correspondences made with your predecessor, Mr Robert Mugabe which should be in your office..
Your Excellency, kindly note that the Notice for the Restoration of Matebeleland Sovereignty was served to your predecessor on the 7th December, 2015. I am sure you will agree with MLO that it's been quite a long time since then and our people are becoming more and more agitated by the passage of each day. As MLO we still commit ourselves to meeting the Zimbabwe colonial government to peacefully resolve this urgent matter to the satisfaction of all concerned through peaceful means.
Your Excellency, the second demand made to the Government of Zimbabwe through your predecessor but now under your leadership, was that Matabeleland be paid a compensation sum of US$100 billion for the multiple level damages suffered under successive Zimbabwe administrations since 18 April, 1980 and the rapacious exploitation of her resources to benefit Zimbabwe and its people at the exclusion of Matabeles. The US$100 billion compensation covers the Matabeleland Genocide committed between 1980 and 1988 by the Zanu PF led government in which you played a leading role, the loss of property, the needless subjection of Matabele people to economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West for Zimbabwe's political indiscretions, the marginalisation of our citizens and their loss of dignity which has caused them to be displaced, dehumanized, traumatised and dispersed across the globe as economic refugees.
Your Excellency, we are delighted to note that as someone who participated in Zimbabwe's struggle for national independence against the white colonial regimes, you fully understand the value of cooperation on matters like these in order to avoid unnecessary suffering. We also note that as someone who rose to power through unothordox means when your predecessor could not open sufficient political space for you and your faction within the ruling Zanu PF, you will fully understand the consequences of trying to delay the inevitable.
Mr President, we are also delighted to note that as a leader of the military government in Zimbabwe, you have committed yourself to restorative justice to the demands of white farmers who lost their farms under the previous regime. We therefore believe that as a genuine reformist siezed with rectifying the aftermath of the chaotic Land Reform Programme that savagely affected white people, you are the best disposed man to resolve a more serious African grievance through the peaceful methods that you have publicly laid claim to as your trademark. Your recent interventions in Mr Tendayi Biti's fugitive dilemma in Zambia and commitment to resolving major national questions of the day peacefully gives us hope that you will also handle the Matabeleland Question with the utmost probity and empathy it deserves.
Mr President, Zimbabwe as a confirmed failed state should not be allowed to go down with Matabeleland which has not benefited anything from the frightful acts of corruption and plunder of the national fiscus. Zimbabwe is a country in which the distribution of power, resources and opportunities is skewed against Matabeles which is intolerable to the Matebeles and can no longer afford to carry on under the circumstances. This is a country in which Matabeles cannot produce a genuine national leader on democratic terms because the antagonistic non-Matabele population uses its majority status not only to undermine Matabele leadership but also to invade Matabele political space and subjugate them to Shona tribal supremacy.
The logical path left to resolve this impasse is a painless, costless and bloodless one which will allow Matebeleland to regain her independence and full sovereignty whilst retaining Zimbabwe as a preferred and natural major trading partner and neighbour. In this arrangement Zimbabwe has nothing to fear or lose as full diplomatic relations, free movement of people and trade between the two neighbouring countries will be maintained.
Mr President, we hope that you will not allow these demands to take any other direction but dialogue guided by wisedom, genuine and sincere cooperation through peaceful means.
Mr President, as you will appreciate it based on your own personal experiences last November when you had to briefly flee the country before retuning home to overturn the tables against your predecessor with military help, Zimbabwe is a very undemocratic country to live in and Matabeles do not wish to be holed up in it any longer. Over 3 million of our people live in abject poverty in what is supposed to be their home whilst a further 3 million lives in exile due to the operation of an ongoing bloodless genocide, marginalisation and state sponsored psychological and physical abuse. They now need to come back home, a home which Zimbabwe cannot and will never provide and guarantee.
Mr President, I don't need to remind you of how the Government of Zimbabwe you served as a Security Minister under Predident Robert Mugabe arrested and detained George Mkhwanazi and I at Khami Maximum Prison in 2002 and charged us with subversion for condemning the ongoing ethnic cleansing programme against Matebeles as articulated in the Zanupf Anti-Matabele Grand Plan of 1979 and reviewed in 2010, a charge that is still hanging over our heads.
I also don't have to remind you of how in 2011/12 the Government you served under as a Minister of Justice once again arrested and detained John Gazi, Charles Thomas Gumpo and myself at Khami Maximum Prison and charged us with treason, a charge that is still hanging over my head. Since 1893 upto date we are conscious and aware of selective justice system that is applied on us and note that our grievaces and Demands can not be resolved by the judicial system buy buy the political dialogue.
After relentless persecution of my person and family ,I was eventually hounded out of the country for my beliefs and convitctions , which are shared by the majority Matebeles in their diversity and can not be exchanged for anything but the Restoration of Matebeleland Independence and Sovereignity.
Looking forward to an urgent peaceful resolution of the Matabeleland Demand
Izenzo kungemazwi
Yours sincerely
Paul Siwela
(President of Matabeleland Liberation Organisation)
Source - Paul Siwela
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