COMMENT - This is the MDC - Anglo-American de Beers which wants the Zimbabwean people's diamonds, former Rhodesian Front elements who want the Zimbabwean people's land, and the Matabele secessionists who want to be the new local ruling elite. And people wonder why the people of Zimbabwe vote for the ZANU-PF.
Interview: Siwela on Mthwakazi vision
11/06/2012 00:00:00
by Lloyd Mbiba I Daily News
Paul Siwela is the controversial secretary general of the Matabeleland pressure group Mthwakazi Liberation Front, which is agitating for a separate state called Mthwakazi, based on pre-colonial borders. Regional secession is also why I am against decentralisation to the provincial level, as opposed to decentralisation to local government, even municipal government level.
Siwela, along with two other MLF officials John Gazi and Charles Thomas, are currently standing trial for treason. The charges relate to their campaign for secession. The 49-year-old former ZAPU leader [PS] tells The Daily News’ Lloyd Mbiba [LM] about his vision of a Mthwakazi state:
LM: Is MLF a political party or a secessionist movement?
PS: We are a separatist movement. Our aim is to separate Mthwakazi State from Zimbabwe State through peaceful means.
LM: Why is it that MLF wants secession now, three decades after attaining independence?
PS: When were we supposed to do that? There was initial hope that Zimbabwe was going to integrate us into their state as full citizens with equal rights to all opportunities, and thus over the years Mthwakazians have learnt that Zimbabwe is not their home and Zimbabwe will not accommodate Mthwakazians into their community.
The time is now opportune for Mthwakazians to reclaim their country irrespective of the expected howling that would be generated by this demand.
LM: Some people say you are a radical reactionary movement made up of regionalists and tribalists who are hell-bent on causing havoc and divisions. How do you respond to that?
PS: That claim emanates from the Zimbabwean tribalists and Gukurahundists who enjoy marginalising Mthwakazi people and would like to present that argument as scarecrow. We are not worried about that and it has no effect on our people whose decision shall decide the fate of these co-joined countries.
The normal thing to happen is to separate the two and live side by side as neighbours as was the case before the white men came here.
LM: Since you have said you will not contest elections how will you push your agenda for secession?
PS: Our programme is located through peaceful means that would among others include legal warfare. Our people have endured suffering, pain and shame since November 4, 1893, up to date and need to extricate themselves from the injustices they are experiencing today from Limpopo up to Zambezi and from Plumtree up to Battlefields.
LM: Besides elections, do you partake in state programmes such as the ongoing constitution-making process?
PS: We don’t want to interfere with our neighbour’s internal affairs and we expect Zimbabwe to respect and reciprocate our gesture of good relations and stop interfering in our affairs as well.
Zimbabwe knows only too well that we are two countries joined together by the white people and through imperfect decolonisation; we became a colony of Zimbabwe without our consent. We need to complete the process of decolonisation.
LM: Sometime last year you wrote to President Robert Mugabe seeking audience with him over your agenda. Did you ever meet and what transpired?
PS: You will be aware I suppose that such sensitive matters are not usually handled in the glare of cameras and troops of journalists as they evolve, and at this stage we cannot give any comment as to what is happening. But we believe he has given us the necessary attention that we want.
LM: One of your senior members John Gazi is alleged to be a CIO operative. Is this true?
PS: He resigned from our party and we recommend that you talk to him directly on anything that involves him. We are not qualified to speak about him.
LM: How many members does MLF have?
PS: No sane Mthwakazian would want to remain in Zimbabwe given the way our people are segregated in all spheres of life. Even those who were sceptical in the beginning about the feasibility of the restoration of Mthwakazi Republic have changed their minds and have become the disciples of separatism gospel.
What is even interesting is that those who profess to be Zimbabweans and claim to be happy in Zimbabwean political parties and holding senior positions are Nicodemusly supporting our cause and even funding it.
They are found in all Zimbabwean political parties and conveniently behaving as if they are against the cause in public and we support such intelligent stance that they are using.
Every Mthwakazian supports the restoration of Mthwakazi Republic. Mthwakazians want self determination now. This is a beckoning time to solve the Gukurahundi genocide.
Delaying the independence of Mthwakazi is not the solution and Zimbabwean political leaders know this from experience when the Rhodesian colonial government delayed to give them their country. Zimbabwe should not go the Ian Smith route. We are convinced they are cleverer than that.
LM: The emotive Gukurahundi issue, how should it be dealt with?
PS: The Gukurahundi genocide will rest only if Mthwakazians are compensated by having their country back any other way of handling it is mere political posturing which would prove to be problematic to Zimbabwe in future years. Self determination is the solution.
LM: Is MLF financially sound?
PS: We have our own resources which we don’t need to make public as it does not serve our interests to do so.
LM: Being a former member of ZAPU, do you think the current ZAPU has the muscle to power into an election victory?
PS: We don’t think so given that Zimbabwean politics is tribally-driven and influenced by past and present circumstances where Zimbabweans have been taught not to vote for a Mthwakazian to lead any organisation let alone to lead the country.
It would be interesting to note how Zimbabweans would vote if the two top presidential candidates in the run-off were Robert Mugabe and Welshman Ncube. Your guess is as good as mine; Zimbabweans would not countenance voting for Ncube despite the cry of dictatorship and tyranny they have experienced under Robert Mugabe’s rule. There is so much alacrity to countenance a Mthwakazian as the leader of Zimbabwe.
If one lives in a country where your ethnicity or race precludes you from contesting the Presidency or Premiership, whatever the case may be, it means that you are not a full citizen of that country and become entitled to look elsewhere for a home therefore.
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