Press Conference 16th Feb 2024
Today 10am Harare {8:00 am GMT} LIVE LINK - Click the image of the flyer below. After the LIVE Press Conference is over, this Link will still take you to the video of this confernece on the 16th February 2024 by The Rt Honourable President MS Nkomo For those withour Facebook - see the video at this LINK {Click Link} Follow the "Read More" for a Full Transcript of the day's Press Conference:
From right to left in order on the live link/video The ZAPU vice President Derrick Katsenga , ZAPU President Sibangilizwe Micheal Nkomo, The ZAPU National chairperson John Zolani Dlamini ,The Party National Spokesperson Richard Gandari. Vidoe Here: https://www.facebook.com/MediaCentreZw/videos/1071597544099000 Follow the "Read More" for a Full Transcript of the day's Press Conference:
Full Transcript of the Press Conference:
ZIMBABWE AFRICAN PEOPLE’S UNION
16 February 2024
Press Statement delivered by ZAPU President Michael S. Nkomo
Compatriots, members of the 4th Estate, members of the Diplomatic Corps and fellow Zimbabweans.
We gather today to reflect on the direction our beloved country has taken since the results of the disputed 23 August, 2023 harmonized elections. Throughout the world, national elections are a means through which political contestation is an avenue to seek a mandate to improve the lives of citizens. Unfortunately, and sadly, in Zimbabwe, national elections have been reduced to a pre-determined ritual to reaffirm who is a better imposter. They are nothing but a clash of egos, pitting shameless adults and facilitated by captured statutory bodies. This, at the expense of the suffering majority of Zimbabweans.
OUR DEMOCRACY
The democracy we were supposed to enjoy today, was born out of the sacrifices of our armed liberation movements with the support of the silent majority in our villages, farms and townships. Our war of liberation sought to deliver to our people universal suffrage. Today, the right to vote is an overpriced commodity, only acquired through silver and gold. Lawfare and the high cost of democratic participation, disqualified us and many other candidates from contesting the 2023 harmonized elections. We witnessed in horror, as some candidates abused their offices and incumbency, to raid the national treasury for buying votes, in total disregard of electoral laws.
When ZEC announced the election results, many of us thought that the election season was finally over and those entrusted with governance would focus their attention on socio-economic development. Instead, the beneficiaries of the ZEC ‘benevolence’ chose vengeance and retribution. They embarked on a systematic decimation of the Citizens Coalition for Change, the only opposition party that managed to field candidates across Zimbabwe, matching the ruling party man for man.
So vindictive were the surrogates used by the rogue regime in Harare, that the founding President of the CCC, Advocate Nelson Chamisa was forced to abandon the party he formed, hardly a year ago. By-elections orchestrated by arbitrary recalls initiated by Mr Sengezo Tshabangu, not only cost the Zimbabwean taxpayer millions of dollars, but have handed ZANU-PF a two-thirds parliamentary majority on a silver platter. Needless to mention the high risk of our constitution getting shredded, to suit the narrow interests of the ruling party.
Fellow Citizens, nobody who supported the 2017 coup that deposed President Robert Mugabe ever anticipated the unprecedented criminal collusion between state institutions and the ruling party, whose incestuous relationship has resulted in the mutilation of our democracy. Never in the history of elections has Zimbabwe experienced the carnage we are experiencing today. From capturing the judiciary, voter intimidation via shadowy organizations like Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ) and nocturnal voting in opposition strongholds, ZANU PF has destroyed the tenets of democracy in Zimbabwe.
Compatriots, as ZAPU, we understand the pains of birthing a democracy. It is for this reason that we have decided to appeal to the collective conscience of our colleagues in all their different political persuasions, to STOP and reflect now. Lenzani libadala? Hamunyari? Is this what Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, Josiah Magama Tongogara, Samuel Tichafa Parirenyatwa, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo and others sacrificed their lives for? Did our children who died at Freedom Camps Nyadzonya, Chimoio and Mkushi die for this senseless bloodletting by adults trying to prove a point while our people continue suffering?
Are we not ashamed of this toxicity in our politics? Why do we major in politics while neglecting governance? Even younger democracies in the region are conducting their politics better than us. My generation ought to be ashamed of our conduct as national leaders. National responsibility requires responsible leadership. Zero sum gamesmanship is an abomination to modern democracy.
Compatriots, we gather today after experiencing unprecedented levels of intolerance by the government against political activists. This year marks 9 years since the abduction and disappearance of Itai Dzamara. We roundly condemn the prolonged detention without trial, of Advocate Job Sikhala and Mr Godfrey Sithole. While the two have since been freed, we refuse to celebrate their release because they were not supposed to be detained in the first place. Relentlessly, we continue to call for the immediate release of Nkosinathi Ncube, Mongameli Mlotshwa, Welcome Moyo, Sibongile Banda, Maxwell Nkosi, Ackim Ndebele, Tinos Nkomo, Livison Ncube and Busi Ncube, collectively known as the MRP9.
OUR ECONOMY
Fellow Citizens, our economy has been run down by the clueless ZANU PF-led government. Apart from molesting our democracy, and trampling on our rights, they have gone a step further to tax us dry in order to fund their lavish lifestyles. While our children have become economic refugees across the world, those of us who are still at home are now being taxed for our shelter. They have essentially reincarnated the Rhodesian regime. Incredibly, they are taxing the vulnerable and the disabled. We call upon the government to reverse these intolerable taxes and stick to sound economic policies.
As ZAPU we believe that our economic decay took a turn for the worse when the ruling party embarked on a chaotic and largely violent agrarian reform programme in the year 2000. Our alternative approach to the land question, had we been the government of the day, would have been a scientific and reconciliatory land reform programme. ZAPU would not have chased away white commercial farmers but would have fostered an integration system of adding black farmers along the agricultural value chain. The question of loss of life and property for commercial farmers which led to Zimbabwe’s current pariah status would not have happened. In fact, ZAPU and ZPRA bought many farms and were already producing when Gukurahundi started. Just like the white farmers, ZAPU lost its farms and still needs them back.
Fellow Zimbabweans, we lament the current wave of forced removals of families from their communal and farmlands now considered state land. Some of the displacements are being done to pave way for mining claims, often owned by foreign nationals and top government officials via their handpicked proxies. The ordinary man and woman who have called a piece of land home for decades, are now being driven off unceremoniously with no compensation at all. Many are being plunged into abject poverty. Graves of many generations of parents and ancestors in the affected areas will be casually desecrated by miners and other occupiers whose only right to claim such lands is their proximity to power.
Unemployment continues to ravage our communities forcing our people to succumb to drug abuse, risky prostitution, child marriage and other social ills. Economic factors have been cited by many local and international surveys as the leading cause of our mass exodus, low life expectancy and alarming crime rates. The informal sector continues to be shunned by the banking sector in terms of access to loans and capital investment. Vendors trying to eke out a living are harassed and subjected to archaic, Rhodesian authored by-laws which do not factor in our current economic realities.
Compatriots, we call on the government to ensure that we prepare adequately for the impending drought. We need to ensure that our grain reserves are sufficient to feed our people until the next harvest. We urgently need to ensure mitigation measures are put in place to minimize the death of livestock for communal farmers. The millions of Zimbabweans facing hunger need to be assisted to avoid starvation on a massive scale. Government’s downplaying of the magnitude of the food insecure to avoid scrutiny does not help anyone.
The tired excuse of blaming our economic collapse on targeted sanctions imposed by the West is now in tatters. The Gold Mafia exposé broadcast by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit in June 2023, showed all of us and the world at large that Zimbabwe’s natural resources are being plundered by a privileged few at the expense of the vast majority. The economic challenges we are forced to endure in this country are manmade. Those men dwell among us.
GUKURAHUNDI
Fellow Zimbabweans, we have witnessed an attempt by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to deceive our people into thinking that he sincerely wants to address the Gukurahundi genocide. ZAPU is fully aware of the need and urgency for finding permanent and sustainable closure over this emotional subject. We have communicated directly with Mr Mnangagwa, expressing our reservations regarding the whole process. Our major discontentment is the fact that the perpetrator is not only in charge of the process but determines the terms of the whole process. As if that is not enough, ZAPU, the primary target of the Gukurahundi military operation has not been considered by the government. We have clearly stated that any process that does not include us as victims is an exercise in futility.
Compatriots, Gukurahundi affected our people in different ways. Those who lost loved ones need healing and closure. Those who were raped deserve healing. Many lost their properties and deserve compensation. ZAPU and ZPRA also lost properties which are yet to be returned. ZAPU insists that the starting point in addressing Gukurahundi is making public the Chihambakwe report. It is for this reason that we appeal to President Mnangagwa to halt the process and consult widely so that for once, he can do something that can outlive his chequered legacy. On our part, we encourage our people to avoid exposing themselves to possible retribution by state agents after testifying in this partisan outreach programme.
We have started engaging our chiefs in an effort to expose the folly of participating in a discredited process designed to bury evidence and absolve perpetrators. Recent utterances by Chief Fortune Charumbira have not dampened our efforts, as we know that the majority of our chiefs are ethical and morally upright individuals worthy of the respect of their subjects. Moreover, many are victims of Gukurahundi themselves. This delicate process is ongoing but so far, we are satisfied with the progress we are making. At this juncture we cannot reveal too many details in terms of our strategies to counter Mr Mnangagwa’s machinations but we can reassure the nation that we will not rest until genuine redress is availed for the Gukurahundi genocide.
WAY FORWARD
Fellow Citizens, ZAPU makes the following proposed interventions to heal Zimbabwe and give her a fighting chance.
- Legitimacy
We need to take steps to deal with the legitimacy question brought about by the disputed 23 August, 2023 harmonized elections. We must urgently endeavor to build the social contract between the government and ordinary citizens which was broken by toxic politics.
- Independence of institutions
We need to address the conflation of government institutions and ZANU PF. Our judiciary needs to act independently and stop serving the narrow interests of members of the executive. Our state security forces should refuse to operate as appendages of the ruling party, violating the civil liberties of citizens just to assist ZANU PF in power retention. Constitutionalism and professionalism should guide members of our defense forces.
- National Vision
All political actors should act responsibly in the interest of a shared vision to improve the lives of our people instead of selfish interests. While this is not a veiled invitation for a universal coalition or broad alliance, it is clarion call for genuine patriotism.
- EOM Recommendations
We need to start implementing election observer mission recommendations as well as electoral, media and political reforms so that we put an end to disputed election results.
- Unity of Purpose
In order to hold the government to account, opposition political parties need to unite to demand freedom rather than to be governed better by a failed regime. Zimbabweans in general should also return to the basic love of neighbor and love of country. Let us embrace each other and unite to liberate ourselves from bondage.
IN CONCLUSION
We appeal to our chiefs to avoid being caught on the wrong side of history. Protect your subjects from wanton abuse and provocation at this time when they need you the most. To the government we say, as ZAPU we desire to see a process of genuine redress for Gukurahundi. The process has to be inclusive, victim centered, wholesome, sincerely based on truth telling, naming of perpetrators and restorative justice. Again, to our honorable chiefs we say, speak out against the displacements of your subjects happening across the country. You lose nothing in your stature by standing with your subjects and speaking truth to power.
To the masses of Zimbabwe, take time to introspect. Assess the economic and political environment in our country. Is this the Zimbabwe we want? After the First and Second Chimurenga/Umvukela, is this the Zimbabwe we deserve? We implore you to join or support ZAPU a genuine revolutionary party with people’s freedom and welfare at heart. Refuse to be misled by power-hungry individuals and join a real party, well organized to restore normalcy and true democracy in our nation. Together we can make Zimbabwe great again.
I thank you.