BY SILAS NKALA THE Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) has asked the South African (SA) government to intervene and help solve Zimbabwe’s problems.
In a letter addressed to SA’s International Relations and Co-operation minister Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, in apparent response to the minister’s recent statement that there were “serious and seemingly intractable political factors that might need attention, and, in fact, do need attention if solutions are to be effective and implementable in Zimbabwe,” Pandor also expressed concern that political formations in Zimbabwe remained at loggerheads, which has made planning extremely difficult.
In 2019, Pandor hosted a symposium under the theme How Zimbabwe Can Recover Economically, in her capacity as the SA International Relations and Co-operation minister.
MLF president Churchill Mpiyesizwe Guduza, who is based in SA, sent a petition dated August 23, 2022 to Pandor saying Zimbabwe’s situation was actually worse than what he pointed out.
“I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all your remarks delivered at the symposium. It is encouraging to note that the SA government has recognised the need to interrogate and address the problems affecting its neighbour, Zimbabwe, through what you identified as “conjoined solutions” involving all stakeholders,” Guduza said.
“The first point that I need to bring to your attention is that for far too long there has been a deliberate negation from policy-makers within the Southern Africa Development Community and across the world of the existence of the people of Mthwakazi in present-day Zimbabwe. This is astonishing, especially considering that all these policymakers ought to know better that present-day Zimbabwe is, in fact, two States in one — Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi. For far too long the people of Mthwakazi have suffered at the hands of the Zimbabwean government.”
He claimed that Zimbabwe is afflicted by deep ethnic divisions which might end up in the people of Mthwakazi ceasing to exist.
Guduza said Zimbabwe was born out of Rhodesia in 1980, while the people of Mthwakazi were already in existence.
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“Hitherto, the people of Zimbabwe did not exist. Only the people of Matabeleland (Mthwakazi) and Mashonaland who were forced into a unitary State system of Rhodesia existed. The people of Mthwakazi are generally referred to as Ndebele-speaking people (comprising Tonga, Nambya, Nguni, Kalanga, Sotho and Venda) with those of Mashonaland known as Shona-speaking people consisting of their own ethnic groupings.”
He said the African National Congress (ANC) government could not turn a blind eye to the Gururahundi massacres in Zimbabwe, adding that ANC cadres were also victimised by the Zimbabwean regime.
“Furthermore, as real people yesterday, today and tomorrow, the people of Mthwakazi cannot be wished away either from being participants and stakeholders in any path that aims at resolving what you referred to as the “large nature of the problem” that is characterised by a “debilitating crisis and social situation,” he added.
MLF spokesperson Crispen Nyoni, who is also based in SA, said they were yet to get a response to the petition.
In 2011, MLF burnt the Zimbabwean flag in South Africa to symbolise their quest for a separate State called Mthwakazi.
- Follow Silas on Twitter @silasnkala
