In the light of an unjustified onslaught and calls by ZANU PF functionaries among them; Nick Mangwana, Energy Mutodi, Sengezo Tshabangu, Owen Mudha Ncube and Zanupf Varakashi (Destroyers) for the arrest and further persecution of the National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) Chairman and Facilitator Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala following his address at the UN 16th Human Rights and Democracy Summit held in Geneva, Switzerland on 15 May 2024, it has become imperative for our NDWG Consultative Movement to set the record straight on this matter.
The NDWG stands in solidarity with the statement made by Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights and Democracy Summit held in Geneva, Switzerland on 15 May 2024.
The National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) is proud to be associated with a leader who is consistent, brave and undeterred in his resolve to see a just and prosperous Zimbabwe.
The statement made by Hon. Advocate Sikhala in the brief 13-minutes was precise in its articulation of the Human Rights and Democracy miscarriages in Zimbabwe. We are therefore not alarmed, moved or fazed by the Zanupf regime members’ attack on our Chairman and Facilitator for telling the world about his experiences during his latest political imprisonment.
We are here to set the record straight and therefore would like to bring attention to the following issues:
1) Human Rights violations, including abductions, are an everyday ever present threat and reality to people in politics and civil society in Zimbabwe.
2) The systematic intimidation can now be evidenced from the reaction of the Zanupf government officials with threats of arrests and open hate speech following Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala’s presentation on the Human Rights and Democracy Summit, testifies to the absence of a genuinely plural competitive democracy anchored on free speech in 2 Zimbabwe.
By the same threats, the Zanu PF regime intends to send fear into the entire NDWG leadership and its grassroots consultative structures.
However, we are fearless.
3) From the days of the bombing of the Daily News in Harare, the abduction of Jestina Mukoko who eventually won her abduction case in the courts, the murder of Morememories Chawira who was shot at close range at University of Zimbabwe in1997during a peaceful demonstration by students, and the murder of Batanai Hadzizi in a similar peaceful student demonstration all speak of heavy handed dictatorship that is pre- disposed to force and abductions is what Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala was re-affirming at the Geneva Summit.
4) Moreblessing Ali was chopped into pieces and stashed into an open well by a Zanu PF thug Pius Jamba.
5) The still unknown whereabouts and fate of Itai Dzamara resonates with a culture of abductions as is the abduction of Tafadzwa Ngadziore and murder of a cleric Bishop Tapfumaneyi Masaya in Mabvuku-Tafara constituency in a by-election which saw the seat ceded to Zanu PF in mysterious circumstances.
6) The interference of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in Zimbabwe’s 23 August 2023 bogus general elections through shadowy organisations such as Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ) only demonstrates how the Zanu PF regime’s so-called democracy is a farce.
7) The takeover of power through the military in 2017 to protect Zanu PF also reveals the extent to which security institutions are involved in perpetuating Zanu Pf hegemony at the expense of an express civilian mandate which should be given in free, fair and credible democratic elections by all Zimbabwean voters, including those in the Diaspora.
8) It is therefore our position that Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala correctly captured and agonized over the realities of Zimbabwe’s truthful human rights and political situation.
9) The National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) defends Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala’s right to speak freely both in and outside Zimbabwe in furthering the interests of justice, human rights and democracy.
We believe in a transparent and open society where people should challenge the government openly and bring it to respect the rights of its citizens.
10) The 595 days pre–trial incarceration was a violation of Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala’s bail rights. We believe that the length of time Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala was imprisoned without trial was politically motivated. He was deliberately punished for standing up to the Zanu PF regime’s violation of human rights in Zimbabwe.
11) In a country that has no respect for human rights, that does things that are extrajudicial, whose courts and overall justice system is captured, all of the things narrated by Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala happened during his political detention were not an exaggeration.
Our worry, as indeed is for many Zimbabweans, is how other less prominent prisoners are treated in the appalling prison conditions.
12) The Zanu PF government has enacted a raft of laws including the Patriotic Act whose sole purpose is to limit democratic freedoms and thereby entrench a totalitarian system of governance in which people are subjected to all kinds of political, social and economic abuses.
13) We refuse to be coerced and bullied into silence through the usual historic Rhodesian tactics and use of repressive laws. We are all Zimbabweans.
This is our country together. We will not be swept under or pushed outside our nation by a club of greedy self centred Zanu PF individuals.
14) We have just received disturbing media reports that the Zanu PF regime agents have gone to the extent of creating a fake X account in the name of our Chairman and Facilitator to justify his arrest.
Yesterday, the bogus account called for action on 25 May 2024 attributing it to Hon. Advocate Job Sikhala, which is wholly mischievous, nonsensical and absolute hogwash.
The fictitious X account is being run with a sinister agenda, and we call upon all good Zimbabweans to report that bogus account to the X management for its erasure.
15) The National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) is calling upon all Zimbabweans to assert their rights as citizens and refuse to be manipulated or intimidated into silence.
16) Zimbabwe will be free and the people shall govern, peacefully and democratically.
Dr. Wurayayi Zembe NDWG ACTING CHAIRMAN AND HEAD OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT Harare, Zimbabwe
