Opinion / Letters
Paul Siwela's letter to President Mnangagwa - Buying chiefs not just nor sustainable to resolve Matabele grievances
16 Aug 2024 at 07:15hrs | Views
The President of Zimbabwe
Munhumutapa Building
Harare
Zimbabwe
28th July 2024
Ref: PresZim/07/28/24
Attention: Emmerson D. Mnangagwa
Dear Mr President
Good day, I hope I find you well.
Once again I am writing to you in my capacity as the President of the Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO), a political organization whose ultimate objective is to achieve full national sovereignty for Matabeleland, a country which is currently under Zimbabwe's colonial occupation since 1980 by virtue of the British legacy of Rule by Conquest promulgated on 26 July, 1918 by the Privy Council and inherited by Zimbabwe upon its attainment of independence.
In my previous communication with you as the newly installed President of Zimbabwe in 2018, which communication you have not yet formally responded to, I sought to alert you and your Government about the existence of a letter I had written to your predecessor, the late President Robert Mugabe, on 24th October 2015, in which I made categorical demands regarding the need for him as the then Head of State, to facilitate a dialogue process that would eventually culminate with Matabeleland being granted her sovereignty as was the case before its colonization by Britain on 4 December, 1893. I impressed upon you, in that letter, as the new President of Zimbabwe, to attend to the restoration of Matabeleland's sovereignty expeditiously as the freedom of our people is an urgent matter which can no longer be delayed any further. I am still awaiting your response on that matter.
Today I am writing to you on the subject of the Matabele Genocide which your Government elects to call the ‘Gukurahundi Disturbances”, an apparent attempt to blame the victims for having ‘disturbed’ your government as well as downgrade the killings from being a genocide to something of lower intensity and magnitude. The use of the word ‘Gukurahundi’, which we understand is a Shona word for ‘chaff’ is an insult to our people whom your Government still regards as an inconvenience that must be airbrushed from national memory. We are therefore not surprised that your government has practically commandeered traditional chiefs, through a unilateral process championed by the perpetrator himself, to facilitate what it fancies to be the permanent erasure of the Matabele Genocide from national memory so as to ease, soothe and massage your own guilty consciences. Mr President, this is totally unacceptable.
In my last communication to you I had stated that the compensation for the Matabele Genocide is US$100 billion in addition to the restoration of Matabele Sovereignty. I write this letter to reiterate that position and register our utmost rejection of the sinister process you have commissioned and led by Chief Fortune Charumbira from a Shona speaking province that was never affected. We do not have to remind you about how the people of Matabeleland suffered a genocide which was executed against them at an industrial scale by the Government of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 under which you served as the Minister of State Security during that material time. We do not have to remind you that as the Minister of State Security, you actively played a direct role in the execution of the genocide which accounted for tens of thousands of civilian lives. We do not have to remind you either, how the Government which you actively served, deployed an exclusively Shona army to wantonly kill, maim and terrorize unarmed Matabele civilians for no other reason except that they were Ndebele and ZAPU supporters. This resulted with over 40 000 civilians being massacred, over 100 000 women being raped, over 100 000 homes burnt and destroyed, over 300 000 men beaten and maimed, while over 1 000 000 were displaced and pushed out of the country into neighbouring countries with the remaining 3 000 000 or so being traumatised. These are people who are still suffering abuse and discrimination in Zimbabwe in all spheres of life including for the cause of which you dismissed one of your own MPs from Matabeleland, Mr Simelisizwe Sibanda, who was also the Deputy Minister of Higher Education. Although you have since reappointed him, your reaction was quite instructive in exposing your vicious disposition to a Matabele who had dared touch a Shona deployee in Matabeleland. Under both President Robert Mugabe's and your administrations, Matabele genocide in a bloodless form has been thriving long after the signing of the so-called Unity Accord in 1987. The continued exclusion of our people from meaningful participation in the country’s mainstream political, cultural and economic activities is extension of Matabele Genocide in bloodless form and those chiefs you have assembled to do your selfish and manipulative bidding will not stop it. Many of our people both within and without Zanu-PF have tried to raise their disquiet and concerns over these issues but the Zimbabwe government, including you Mr President, always responds with viciousness as you continue to implement your wicked agenda of ethnic domination against us the Matabele's. I do not need to remind you of how your government hounded me out of the country when I stood up against the sinister Matabele ethnic cleansing programmes of your government.
We would therefore, like to register our total rejection of the chiefs led process in trying to resolve the Matabele Genocide because it is calculated to deceive and manipulate victims into forgiveness while sanitizing the perpetrator who is not even repentant. Please be reminded that the perpetrators of the Matabele Genocide are/were in the Zimbabwe Government and they have never been held accountable for their actions. These include, among others, the following:
1.0 Zimbabwe's Prime Minister at the time, Robert Mugabe since 1980 who later became the country's executive President in 1987 until 2017 when he was deposed from power.
1.1 The current State President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa who was, during that material time, the Minister of State Security responsible for some of the most horrendous crimes against humanity.
1.2 The then Minister of Political Education Ernest Kadungure (late) who was responsible for directing and funding Zanu-PF’s atrocities against the people of Matabeleland through the party’s women and youth leagues.
1.3 The Sydney Sekeramayi, who also served as the Minister of State Security and later National Defence, now a Zanu-PF Politburo member
1.4 The current Vice President Constantine Chiwenga a.k.a Dominic Chinenge who was the commander of 1st Brigade stationed in Bulawayo who provided logistical support to the operations of the 5th Brigade.
1.5 Perrence Shiri the late former Air Marshall and later Minister of Agriculture after Mugabe’s departure, who was the Commander of the Five Brigate at the material time
Your Government has chosen to embark on this process without first doing the most basic gestures, which is to acknowledge and apologise to the victims of the Genocide. Because the perpetrator has neither admitted guilt nor apologized or even held to account , he may repeat the offense in future. You have decided to carry out an expedient operation of "reconciliation" by involving the predominantly illiterate traditional chiefs at the exclusion of political players
This is an ill-advised attempt by your Government which is a mere public relations gimmick to mislead both the victims and survivors of the the genocide on one hand and members of the diplomatic and international community, into believing that the Government is committed to finding a lasting closure on the issue. We consider this as a heartless deception endeavour on our people which must be condemned outrightly.
Why are you afraid to engage Matabeleland Liberation Organisation ie MLO leadership to discuss and resolve Matabele genocide and other Matabele political grievances ?. Mr President that is the right thing to do.
The people of Matabeleland, including those from parts of Midlands which were affected, have lived under deplorable conditions for far too long to be sold a dummy now under insincere guises of reconciliatory programs that are only aimed at airbrushing the issue and enhancing Zimbabwe's international image and facilitate its readmission into international credit lines that it lost over the past twenty years due to its undemocratic culture and abuse of human rights.
Under the current approach, it is impossible for victims and the survivors to get the kind of justice they deserve since the process is championed by the perpetrator for nefarious reasons. The traditional chiefs in Zimbabwe should never be trusted to handle such politically sensitive matters as they do not possess the sufficient sense of independence and political sophistication required to handle such an issue. They are in fact, recipients of government salaries, perks and pensions, who during election times also double up as political commissars of your party Zanu-pf. As such, they should never be allowed anywhere near politically sensitive projects that require both political impartiality and clear understanding of restitutive justice systems. They are literally being used to sweep the issue under the carpet for the political benefit of Zanu-PF and its genocidal leaders who wish to undeservedly harvest votes from Matabeleland while dousing the flames of growing calls for the region's secession from Zimbabwe.
Mr President, whatever it is that you are trying to achieve through the chiefs led process, it is our belief that it is neither just nor sustainable. The issue of the genocide is beyond the jurisdiction and technical competence of the chiefs. It's a political matter that must be settled with political players such as MLO. Those chiefs are government civil servants who only implement government projects; they do not represent anyone. Your ill-advised process does not guarantee the non-recurrence of the genocide against the people of Matabeleland in future even after the chiefs have accepted to be bribed through different forms of trinkets. As such only political players who understand the operations of power and politics can negotiate the terms of resolving the Matabele Genocide issue, not the chiefs. There is every reason to be apprehensive about this process because the Matabele Genocide is still an on going phenomenon in a bloodless form as the people still experience ethnic cleansing, political suffocation and economic strangulation under your Government as the author of their condition.
MLO is ready to engage with the Zimbabwe government over this matter under the mediation of a neutral arbiter at a venue agreed to by both parties so that we could resolve all other political issues in order to avert the costly and painful consequences of conflict. As such we choose and prefer peaceful engagement with the Zimbabwe Government in order to reach a mutually acceptable political resolution. While you ponder over the contents of this communication we take this opportunity to remind you about the MLO demands that were submitted to the late President Robert Mugabe on 24 October 2015 and to you as his successor on August, 2018. The demands are as follows:
1.1 Zimbabwe government must engage MLO leadership and discuss arrangements for the restoration of Matabeleland 's statehood based on the pre-colonial borders of December, 1893 as detailed in the Jameson Line.
1.2 Zimbabwe government to remain liable to pay US$100Billion + Interest for reparations of the Matabele Genocide with interest calculated from 1981 until the debt has been extinguished.
1.3 Zimbabwe government to cancel treason charges against Paul Siwela the leader of Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO) and other political crimes for all the Matabele activists within the country and in exile.
P. Siwela
President
Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO)
Munhumutapa Building
Harare
Zimbabwe
28th July 2024
Ref: PresZim/07/28/24
Attention: Emmerson D. Mnangagwa
Dear Mr President
Good day, I hope I find you well.
Once again I am writing to you in my capacity as the President of the Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO), a political organization whose ultimate objective is to achieve full national sovereignty for Matabeleland, a country which is currently under Zimbabwe's colonial occupation since 1980 by virtue of the British legacy of Rule by Conquest promulgated on 26 July, 1918 by the Privy Council and inherited by Zimbabwe upon its attainment of independence.
In my previous communication with you as the newly installed President of Zimbabwe in 2018, which communication you have not yet formally responded to, I sought to alert you and your Government about the existence of a letter I had written to your predecessor, the late President Robert Mugabe, on 24th October 2015, in which I made categorical demands regarding the need for him as the then Head of State, to facilitate a dialogue process that would eventually culminate with Matabeleland being granted her sovereignty as was the case before its colonization by Britain on 4 December, 1893. I impressed upon you, in that letter, as the new President of Zimbabwe, to attend to the restoration of Matabeleland's sovereignty expeditiously as the freedom of our people is an urgent matter which can no longer be delayed any further. I am still awaiting your response on that matter.
Today I am writing to you on the subject of the Matabele Genocide which your Government elects to call the ‘Gukurahundi Disturbances”, an apparent attempt to blame the victims for having ‘disturbed’ your government as well as downgrade the killings from being a genocide to something of lower intensity and magnitude. The use of the word ‘Gukurahundi’, which we understand is a Shona word for ‘chaff’ is an insult to our people whom your Government still regards as an inconvenience that must be airbrushed from national memory. We are therefore not surprised that your government has practically commandeered traditional chiefs, through a unilateral process championed by the perpetrator himself, to facilitate what it fancies to be the permanent erasure of the Matabele Genocide from national memory so as to ease, soothe and massage your own guilty consciences. Mr President, this is totally unacceptable.
In my last communication to you I had stated that the compensation for the Matabele Genocide is US$100 billion in addition to the restoration of Matabele Sovereignty. I write this letter to reiterate that position and register our utmost rejection of the sinister process you have commissioned and led by Chief Fortune Charumbira from a Shona speaking province that was never affected. We do not have to remind you about how the people of Matabeleland suffered a genocide which was executed against them at an industrial scale by the Government of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 under which you served as the Minister of State Security during that material time. We do not have to remind you that as the Minister of State Security, you actively played a direct role in the execution of the genocide which accounted for tens of thousands of civilian lives. We do not have to remind you either, how the Government which you actively served, deployed an exclusively Shona army to wantonly kill, maim and terrorize unarmed Matabele civilians for no other reason except that they were Ndebele and ZAPU supporters. This resulted with over 40 000 civilians being massacred, over 100 000 women being raped, over 100 000 homes burnt and destroyed, over 300 000 men beaten and maimed, while over 1 000 000 were displaced and pushed out of the country into neighbouring countries with the remaining 3 000 000 or so being traumatised. These are people who are still suffering abuse and discrimination in Zimbabwe in all spheres of life including for the cause of which you dismissed one of your own MPs from Matabeleland, Mr Simelisizwe Sibanda, who was also the Deputy Minister of Higher Education. Although you have since reappointed him, your reaction was quite instructive in exposing your vicious disposition to a Matabele who had dared touch a Shona deployee in Matabeleland. Under both President Robert Mugabe's and your administrations, Matabele genocide in a bloodless form has been thriving long after the signing of the so-called Unity Accord in 1987. The continued exclusion of our people from meaningful participation in the country’s mainstream political, cultural and economic activities is extension of Matabele Genocide in bloodless form and those chiefs you have assembled to do your selfish and manipulative bidding will not stop it. Many of our people both within and without Zanu-PF have tried to raise their disquiet and concerns over these issues but the Zimbabwe government, including you Mr President, always responds with viciousness as you continue to implement your wicked agenda of ethnic domination against us the Matabele's. I do not need to remind you of how your government hounded me out of the country when I stood up against the sinister Matabele ethnic cleansing programmes of your government.
We would therefore, like to register our total rejection of the chiefs led process in trying to resolve the Matabele Genocide because it is calculated to deceive and manipulate victims into forgiveness while sanitizing the perpetrator who is not even repentant. Please be reminded that the perpetrators of the Matabele Genocide are/were in the Zimbabwe Government and they have never been held accountable for their actions. These include, among others, the following:
1.0 Zimbabwe's Prime Minister at the time, Robert Mugabe since 1980 who later became the country's executive President in 1987 until 2017 when he was deposed from power.
1.1 The current State President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa who was, during that material time, the Minister of State Security responsible for some of the most horrendous crimes against humanity.
1.2 The then Minister of Political Education Ernest Kadungure (late) who was responsible for directing and funding Zanu-PF’s atrocities against the people of Matabeleland through the party’s women and youth leagues.
1.3 The Sydney Sekeramayi, who also served as the Minister of State Security and later National Defence, now a Zanu-PF Politburo member
1.5 Perrence Shiri the late former Air Marshall and later Minister of Agriculture after Mugabe’s departure, who was the Commander of the Five Brigate at the material time
Your Government has chosen to embark on this process without first doing the most basic gestures, which is to acknowledge and apologise to the victims of the Genocide. Because the perpetrator has neither admitted guilt nor apologized or even held to account , he may repeat the offense in future. You have decided to carry out an expedient operation of "reconciliation" by involving the predominantly illiterate traditional chiefs at the exclusion of political players
This is an ill-advised attempt by your Government which is a mere public relations gimmick to mislead both the victims and survivors of the the genocide on one hand and members of the diplomatic and international community, into believing that the Government is committed to finding a lasting closure on the issue. We consider this as a heartless deception endeavour on our people which must be condemned outrightly.
Why are you afraid to engage Matabeleland Liberation Organisation ie MLO leadership to discuss and resolve Matabele genocide and other Matabele political grievances ?. Mr President that is the right thing to do.
The people of Matabeleland, including those from parts of Midlands which were affected, have lived under deplorable conditions for far too long to be sold a dummy now under insincere guises of reconciliatory programs that are only aimed at airbrushing the issue and enhancing Zimbabwe's international image and facilitate its readmission into international credit lines that it lost over the past twenty years due to its undemocratic culture and abuse of human rights.
Under the current approach, it is impossible for victims and the survivors to get the kind of justice they deserve since the process is championed by the perpetrator for nefarious reasons. The traditional chiefs in Zimbabwe should never be trusted to handle such politically sensitive matters as they do not possess the sufficient sense of independence and political sophistication required to handle such an issue. They are in fact, recipients of government salaries, perks and pensions, who during election times also double up as political commissars of your party Zanu-pf. As such, they should never be allowed anywhere near politically sensitive projects that require both political impartiality and clear understanding of restitutive justice systems. They are literally being used to sweep the issue under the carpet for the political benefit of Zanu-PF and its genocidal leaders who wish to undeservedly harvest votes from Matabeleland while dousing the flames of growing calls for the region's secession from Zimbabwe.
Mr President, whatever it is that you are trying to achieve through the chiefs led process, it is our belief that it is neither just nor sustainable. The issue of the genocide is beyond the jurisdiction and technical competence of the chiefs. It's a political matter that must be settled with political players such as MLO. Those chiefs are government civil servants who only implement government projects; they do not represent anyone. Your ill-advised process does not guarantee the non-recurrence of the genocide against the people of Matabeleland in future even after the chiefs have accepted to be bribed through different forms of trinkets. As such only political players who understand the operations of power and politics can negotiate the terms of resolving the Matabele Genocide issue, not the chiefs. There is every reason to be apprehensive about this process because the Matabele Genocide is still an on going phenomenon in a bloodless form as the people still experience ethnic cleansing, political suffocation and economic strangulation under your Government as the author of their condition.
MLO is ready to engage with the Zimbabwe government over this matter under the mediation of a neutral arbiter at a venue agreed to by both parties so that we could resolve all other political issues in order to avert the costly and painful consequences of conflict. As such we choose and prefer peaceful engagement with the Zimbabwe Government in order to reach a mutually acceptable political resolution. While you ponder over the contents of this communication we take this opportunity to remind you about the MLO demands that were submitted to the late President Robert Mugabe on 24 October 2015 and to you as his successor on August, 2018. The demands are as follows:
1.1 Zimbabwe government must engage MLO leadership and discuss arrangements for the restoration of Matabeleland 's statehood based on the pre-colonial borders of December, 1893 as detailed in the Jameson Line.
1.2 Zimbabwe government to remain liable to pay US$100Billion + Interest for reparations of the Matabele Genocide with interest calculated from 1981 until the debt has been extinguished.
1.3 Zimbabwe government to cancel treason charges against Paul Siwela the leader of Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO) and other political crimes for all the Matabele activists within the country and in exile.
P. Siwela
President
Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO)
Source - Paul Siwela
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