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 In MPC we will defend and uphold everybody’s right to be different and to hold a political view contrary to that of MPC. We will also welcome and applaud the entry into the political arena of political organizations that advance uMthwakazi’s political agenda by political and democratic means.
As a people we have come from and still suffer political tyranny. The last thing we want is to suppress others or their views. MPC has therefore been formed precisely to uphold all of our cherished freedoms. Freedom of speech and the right to criticize is one of the cores of those freedoms which MPC will always uphold. But when we are gratuitously abused or insulted we must also be free to exercise our democratic right to defend ourselves. The gulf between freedom of speech and abuse is a big one. It pales only to those who for whatever reason have chosen to throw away their sense of proportion or reason. Somewhere along the plane of humanness there is an agreed zone of right or wrong. We have no doubt that zone has been breached this time and we must respond. As MPC we deeply regret and are shamed by some of the language deployed to critic our work in a popular cyber forum, words which are too obscene to repeat here. We are not qualified to comment on contributors’ mastery of the English language but we are able to identify lame attempts at controversy. We also know of abuse of language. Imagery will always be more than just the insertion of a vulgar word in a sentence or phrase. We also reject the insinuation that you can rise by rubbishing others. The truth may very well be the opposite. We can only hope that someone has been careless this time and that no offence is intended. UMthwakazi that we know and all belong to has a character. As MPC we are proud to believe that we still belong to it. We would even be more delighted to know that all those who call themselves Mthwakazians, wherever they might be and whatever might be their circumstance, are also still proud to be part of that character, never too big for it nor slavishly deferential to it. This is not a moral crusade. It is a polite reminder of who we are. As MPC we will engage in or take on any robust debate or criticism anytime and anywhere without fear or favour but we will reserve our right to defend ourselves against attack, whatever guise that attack might come in. But it will never be lost to MPC that our political struggle will be strengthened by criticism and enriched by the contribution of all. Still, we must confront attack or innuendos of it when we see it. For the benefit of those who are just coming into contact with MPC, it is important that we repeat this. We have said from inception that MPC does not have a monopoly on how to liberate uMthwakazi. We have also said MPC did not invent the independence agenda. We have only sought to publicize that agenda, to give it a modern structure and form and execute it in terms of modern instruments and institutions. This is a process, not an event, a struggle, not a picnic. There are many players in this agenda. Others are yet to emerge. MPC is only different because it has adopted a direct political route. But all players are equal but different. And each is effective in its own way. But all point to Mthwakazi’s desired destiny however each player sees that destiny. We have sought to pass no judgment on others. MPC is therefore saddened to be engaged in such a debate. As a nation, we have a job of work to do which we must all focus on. Unfortunately, sometimes petty distractions, if left unchecked, can have a cumulatively debilitating effect on our struggle and make it that much harder to prosecute. It is partly for this reason that MPC has had to make this response on this occasion. When our people are killed for political sport, when they are systematically starved as punishment after every election, when they are systematically elbowed and muscled out of opportunities of life, when they are economically stripped, when they are being politically bullied, or when the system in Harare seeks nothing short of the physical elimination of Mthwakazi by a series of orchestrated drip-drip effects, we have seen and identified a political problem. That problem needs a comprehensive not piecemeal political solution. That is why MPC has responded politically. That is why it is mobilizing. That is no small task to take on. There are no easy answers or clear paths. There will be frustrations and impatience, sadly, and particularly, from bystanders who want to be delivered from bondage by others for free. But participation and involvement will reveal the sheer enormity of the task ahead and erase the easy assumptions of political idle-speak to which this latest unwarranted and disproportionate attack on us clearly belongs. That is the challenge MPC is putting out to all Mthwakazians! MPC Communications Dept.
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