 MPC Presidential Launch Statement. Today, by these humble occasions across the globe, we announce to the world the formal start of our political struggle to establish ourselves as an independent nation under an independent and sovereign state we have called United Mthwakazi Republic – UMR – for short.
Mthwakazians,
Invited Guests,
Honoured Friends,
Executive Members of the our NEC, NOMW and NOMY
Members of MPC, Women and Youth Organizations of MPC,
Representatives of the international community and Observors here present today;
I greet you all.
Today, by these humble occasions across the globe, we announce to the world the formal start of our political struggle to establish ourselves as an independent nation under an independent and sovereign state we have called United Mthwakazi Republic – UMR – for short.
Today, we are officially launching MPC abroad. The launches abroad are a precursor to the main launch that will take place in South Africa soon on a date yet to be announced. This follows the recent postponement of the South African launch, then also scheduled for the 27th September 2008.
MPC took the political decision to defer launch in South Africa in deference to the difficult transitional phase that South Africa is going through at this moment. We are confident that South Africa will emerge from this difficult period even stronger.
Honoured Friends, Invited Guests; we are Mthwakazians. Across the globe we are popularly known as the Ndebele, and currently occupy Matebeleland North and Matebeleland South and parts of the Midlands Provinces of present-day Zimbabwe.
From today, the politics of present-day Zimbabwe will never be the same again.
As a people, we have resolved to separate from present-day Zimbabwe and establish ourselves as an independent and sovereign nation.
We have set out not to destroy but to build. Our history and political circumstance dictate that this is the only way forward at this stage.
Today, we are united not in fear but in hope. We are also sure that those whom we seek to leave behind as Zimbabwe, we leave in hope, not fear. Hope that arises from the realization that the fundamental political differences that have divided us and continue to divide us will no longer be a factor once we part ways. Each of us, Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi, can begin to harness our creative energies for the betterment of our respective countries without the distractions of political squabbles. We can also look to the future with confidence. It would be false to pretend that those political differences have been anything but serious. To this stage, those political differences have been irreconcilable and have made both our situations politically untenable under the same state. Someone had to make the political leap for the good of all. We have.
Mthwakazi, we are gathered here today no longer as victims but as shapers of our political destiny, determined to take on history and fate with courage and commitment shown by all successful peoples of the world. After stone-walling for all these decades, we have come full cycle to stare our history and circumstance in the face rather than run away from it. We have had to. What we are doing today is the politically correct thing to do. It defies fashion and political correctness. It is truth in political action.
Mthwakazians, Honoured Friends and Invited Guests, the history of Mthwakazi under Zimbabwe rule is a matter of international knowledge; we need not repeat it here. But we would be insincere not to record its salient features that have informed and in some way driven this process today. We repeat it here not as a swipe at Zimbabwe but as a true record of history.
Amid the hope and promise of independence in 1980, uMthwakazi lost everything. Overnight, our hopes turned to tragedy and a living nightmare. Overnight, uMthwakazi became the sworn enemy of the new state. Overnight, uMthwakazi became the hunted and hounded. Falsely labeled traitors, we became easy and legitimate prey for collective punishment. In no time, we had lost thousands, perhaps as many as 40 000 people, to a tribal operation that became known as the Gukurahundi Genocide. Hundreds others disappeared and have never been accounted for since. Today, we bear the physical and emotional scars of that tragedy.
For us, it was the sword of political betrayal stuck in our backs.
In the intervening years, despite clamours for it, we have received no apology from Zimbabwe. Instead, we have received everything that says we deserved what we got. To this day, Zimbabwe still uses the genocide for political sport. For us, this is a cynical and insensitive form of continuing collective punishment.
We have also been subject to continuing underdevelopment, started as part of the Gukurahundi operation. We also continue to be systematically denied access to opportunities of life. Our culture and language have been under siege since 1980. Government and state institutions continue to act as an occupation force in Matebeleland and Ndebele-speaking parts of the Midlands. We are a people under political siege and suffocating under it.
All these things have been done to drive home by force and repetition, and to force-feed the new reality that Zimbabwe is a Shona state, for the Shona by the Shona. That is the international image of Zimbabwe promoted by our political adversaries. This image is reflected in all levels of government, party politics and all spheres of Zimbabwean life.
It was never going to last forever. It can never last permanently anywhere in the world.
Mthwakazians, Honoured Friends and Invited Guests, as we are gathered here today, our purpose is not to mourn about these tragic and sad events, or to catalogue them as if to seek some divine intervention on our behalf, it is to formally start the political process of writing those wrongs. For us, it is time to draw a line in the sand and say never again.
To say never again will uMthwakazi become the game of warped Shona politics. To say never again will uMthwakazi suffer genocide or be victims, and to say never again will uMthwakazi be silent about the political and other injustices or political machinations and games targeted at us as a people. To say never again to everything no people would want done on them.
Today, beginning with these gatherings, we say enough is enough.
Beginning today, we are calling our people to political arms. Today, we are calling on our people to rise up and challenge these wrongs, to eject all manifestations of them totally and not to be apologetic about it in the process. We are calling our people to be forceful and proud in dumping tyranny and domination.
In calling on our people to rise up to right these wrongs, we are asking our people not to touch a single Zimbabwean life, or acquire a centimetre of Zimbabwean territory or possess an aorta of Zimbabwean assets. We want only what is ours or what we will agree on. We want Zimbabwe to remain and develop as Zimbabwe and we want uMthwakazi to leave Zimbabwe and develop as Mthwakazi.
Today, in the presence of our invited guests, and as our witnesses, we are calling for the peaceful partition of present-day Zimbabwe into the new Zimbabwe and the unfolding UMR. We want a ‘velvet divorce’.
Only, United Mthwakazi Republic can guarantee us our political aspirations.
Mthwakazi, today, we want to tell the world that nothing will suffice but a total partition of present-day Zimbabwe into the new Zimbabwe and UMR. We also want to tell the world today that we will accept nothing less.
Mthwakazi, Invited Guests and Honoured Friends, as we gather here today, we do so under the backdrop of a so-called agreement signed between Zanu-PF and two formations of the MDC on the 15th September 2008. It is as if we knew when we set our launch date as the 27th September 2008 that such a non-event would have occurred. We could not have asked for anything better to illustrate our point and advance our cause.
Mthwakazi, three Shona-led political parties have come together, as expected, and signed a document which they call an agreement of the people of Zimbabwe which has solved the political problems present-day Zimbabwe. Nothing could be further from the truth. But there is a more sinister accomplishment of the so-called agreement that we, as Mthwakazians, would be loathe to fail to see.
Mthwakazi, in this so-called agreement, we see Gukurahundi in triumph. We see the so-called Grand Plan accomplished. We see the entire Zimbabwe Project finally come together. We also see Shona truimphalism in public display.
Those involved call it a power-sharing agreement. That is only a small part of the truth. The so-called agreement is more important for what it does not say than what it says. Here is what it does not tell you and the world.
They do not tell you that this so-called agreement is the culmination of years of hard work by the Zimbabwe government to finally and formally establish Zimbabwe as a Shona state. The so-called agreement represents the triumph of the politics of tribal domination, of the Shona politically dominating uMthwakazi, forever. Forty-five years later since the launch of this project in 1963, the Zimbabwe Project has finally succeeded. With its nemesis, Joshua Nkomo, whom it hounded and persecuted now dead and buried, its triumph could not be sweeter.
Mthwakazi, today we want to tell it in our own way, in our own language. Yes, we want to say it in a manner that shows our emotion and registers our passion; a manner that shows our character and tells who we are. Today, therefore, we avoid the language of learned concepts and tired political clichés that obscure our message, dulls our emotions and passion and numbs our festering wounds. We want to tell it is as it is.
They call this political charade an agreement of the people of present-day Zimbabwe.
Who in the world today, let alone in the region and Africa, does not know that in Zimbabwe politics is and has always been about whether one is Shona or Ndebele?
What agreement can there ever be, therefore, if that agreement does not address or even purport to address this pertinent issue? Where is the political legitimacy of the whole thing when the people never mandated the so-called talks and uMthwakazi was always absent from them? How can the private project of a few power-hungry or scared men and women ever be an agreement of the people?
The answer is not difficult to find.
On the 15th September 2008 we saw political opportunism and political expediency join tyranny as bad bedfellows. Even before the ink on the document was dry, we saw Mr Mugabe describe signing it as a ‘humiliation’. He was right. We know that, but for his fear of the then impending and now-assured Zuma presidency, he had no option but to sign. We also know that both factions of the MDC, with virtually nothing to offer except that which the international community leveraged for them, they had to sign. It is an agreement preordained to fail and will fail. And with no political legitimacy of any note, it is a private agreement between individuals. It has done nothing politically except virtually guarantee that Zimbabwe is stuck with Robert Mugabe until he drops dead. It has also guaranteed him and his cronies, virtual impunity. It has given those in the MDC access to political office, but nothing more, assuming we even get that far.
The whole so-called agreement has nothing to do with to do with solving present-day Zimbabwe’s political problems.
Thankfully, Zanu-PF and those in the MDC who have signed this agreement are relics of a fast-disappearing past. All of them have no relevance or place in the emerging age of consensus politics, openness and accountable governance, people power over the arrogance of leadership, truth over falsehood.
Neither of the parties had the interests of Zimbabwe at heart. Both are interested only in power and political office. The text of the so-called agreement virtually confirms this. Thankfully, the agreement has only served to leave both parties weaker than stronger. It is only a question of time before those weaknesses are exposed and the fissures of greed, power, and gloated egos break out into open civil war. The first political salvos have already been fired.
We hope the emerging regional order will revisit this so-called agreement expeditiously.
Mthwakazi, we have been through this before. This is a replay of the so-called Unity Accord of 1987 in another guise. It is also a repeat of Lancaster in 1979. Both are tragic political errors of the past we would be foolish to ignore. Mthwakazi, this time we must say no. We must say this time we will not be silent and we will not be silenced.
Mthwakazi, today, by this launch, we have become of political age. We are saying goodbye forever to the politics of inaction, to the politics of protest voting, to the politics of playing victim and to the politics of naïve and blind belief in political institutions as self-acting and self-applying in the name of some common good or interests of some justice. This is a utopian world uMthwakazi has wallowed in for far too long.
Today, by these launches, we have awakened from this slumber and come to the real world. It is a real world that says a common good is made and does not pre-exist, a world that also says that what you think is a common good might turn out to be a false reality created for you while the true reality exists elsewhere. It is also a real world that says justice is what you assert, not what you wait for; and a real world that says be your own liberator because no one will liberate you.
In 1980, uMthwakazi was sold a false reality of a free Zimbabwe for all while the true reality was the political elimination of Mthwakazi. We have paid a heavy political price for buying into that illusion. We helped liberate our own later oppressor. Thirty years on, and today, here we are at the beginning.
The world we live in is a real world, not just of rights but asserted rights, of power, not just power but exercised political power. We have waited for justice and power. They will never come until we activate them. We have come into this real world late but it is never too late to discover it and live in it.
Mthwakazi, today, in launching our political struggle and demanding our UMR we have finally arrived in that world. We are moving on.
But we have only begun.
In the next few days, months and years we will be rolling out continuing programmes of action that will see us achieve our independence and establish our UMR. That will be our collective future effort.
For today, our role is different.
Today, our role is to rally our people to the cause, and to do so publicly, loudly and openly. It is also to unite our people and to invite them to bury their differences here and today. It is about burying the rancour and mutual suspicion caused by the pain of past political defeat and erasing the memory of defeat. It is about venting our pain to the state that has caused us this much political frustration, not targeting each other. It is about pulling each other up, each extending a hand of support to the other until, finally, we all stand up and charge in the right direction and the correct political target. It is about galvanizing and coalescing to form a political force for change not rival little groups engaging in petty squabbles.
It is about defining and enabling our people to see a common vision and a shared future. It is about us as a people. It is about Mthwakazi and being Mthwakazian, about our pride, our self-belief, abilities and possibilities.
It is about saying, whether you are Zanu-PF, MDC, MPC or any other, we are all Mthwakazians. Being Zanu-PF, MDC, MPC or any other, are mere political labels not definitions of who we are. What defines us, and separates us from others and others from us, is our inner core, our values, beliefs, visions and conceptions of who we are. Being who we are is our inalienable right.
We have a right to be who we are, who we want to be and who we aspire to be and to do so in ways that we have agreed as a body politic. Today, therefore, Mthwakazi know that in seeking your independence and sovereignty, you have committed no crime and offended no one.
Mthwakazi, we are confident to announce our political struggle publicly because we know it is the right thing to do. There are no hidden agendas. We will prosecute this struggle publicly and politically because this struggle is a public and collective effort of all Mthwakazians.
Mthwakazi, Invited Guests and Honoured Friends, as soon as possible after this launch, we will formally begin the processes of engaging the political leadership of Zimbabwe. We will also be taking steps to secure the registration of our political movement, MPC, as a political party/movement in Zimbabwe. MPC has produced documents which are now available on our website and other media detailing how we intend to prosecute our political struggle. It is not necessary for me today to rehash that detail except to refer you all to the said media.
It remains for me to reiterate that we will prosecute our political struggle through the political institutions and processes of present-day Zimbabwe to the fullest extent allowed by those processes. That is why we need to register MPC. Further, I need point out that the process of registration will be a political act rather than primarily a legal formality. It is therefore incumbent upon us all to fully support that process.
It is an exciting time for us. It is a time of boundless possibilities.
However, we will be failing you and misleading you Mthwakazi if we failed to tell you that there may be those who are opposed to this project, and they are many, who, because they wield power, might seek to place harm in our way. We must therefore remain vigilant.
On the part of MPC, we will do everything in our power to protect and ensure the safety of all our people, and indeed, those with whom we are politically opposed. We will also exercise cautionary optimism that political wisdom and foresight will prevail on the leadership of Zimbabwe to allow this issue to proceed as a political matter in which the safety and security of everybody will be guaranteed. For our part, as uMthwakazi and MPC, in the presence of all our Honoured Guests here gathered, we commit ourselves to the peaceful and political resolution of our independence agenda and to protect, by all means available to us, the safety and security of every person.
Mthwakazi, that process of mutual protection starts early, and now. We therefore see it as our political duty to take our people out of the political mindset of Gukurahundi and to convince our political adversaries that the political instrumentation of fear will never work in the long-term. Today, we are evidence of that. We will and are committed to implementing measures that promote confidence and trust as instruments of choice in this process.
Mthwakazi, we all know it is a painful and angry situation from which we want to extricate ourselves but that does not mean we must prosecute our cause angrily and with rancour. We must remain measured, non-judgmental and true to ourselves.
Mthwakazi, we are at a defining stage of history. History is on our side and we are on the side of history. We are sure that future generations of Zimbabwe and UMR, if we succeed with this velvet divorce, will applaud us and say we were correct, particularly but not exclusively, with reference to the Gukurahundi tragedy.
We must therefore press on. We are on the right path. We are doing the politically correct and politically responsible thing to do. That should motivate us and strengthen us all. As Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe, we are all politically vulnerable and we all stand on the verge of boundless opportunities. Which side we fall will depend on how we proceed from here on. The choice is both ours. We are sure both Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe will make the right choice.
Mthwakazi, for our part, as we have said above, we will initiate the process and do the unthinkable. We will politically engage the Government of Zimbabwe at the earliest opportunity. Whatever the response we get, we will come back to you for the political mandate on how to proceed. That is our undertaking.
Where we have come from as Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe, no one in their right mind should want to go back. Sadly, but realistically, for us, this is no longer a matter of pious assurances or firm political declarations. It is now a matter that can only be guaranteed by the people of Mthwakazi protecting and promoting themselves in a state of their own. Zimbabweans, too, have a right to their own state. We have no doubt this two-state solution is the best way forward and the international community should support it.
The international community will support any agreement we will reach as equal and free partners. We must therefore work to agree first. We cannot agree on everything at the same time, but as start, and at the very minimum, we must agree to start political negotiations at the earliest opportunity. Our commitment to that initial process is solid.
We therefore publicly extend an invitation to the Government of Zimbabwe to be partners in this political process. We are sure that together, we can bury the past and together we can bury fears and concerns which may well turn out to have been unfounded. We believe political negotiation can illuminate otherwise dark vistas. We must explore the political route fully.
We also believe in forgiveness as a human function. We cannot get it unless we seek ways to find it first.
Forgiveness is never further than the simplest of truths. Once forgiveness is achieved, the process of forgetting can begin. By its nature forgiveness is a bilateral process. Sometimes it appears too difficult to ask for or too harsh to demand it. However, in the process of political engagement, forgiveness may find a vent through which it can escape and secure a political settlement and future no clever political mind could ever have devised. We hope, if not openly, Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe will find such a miraculous political escape and enable both peoples to move on.
After all, our history, experience and circumstance are now intractably intertwined. We would be fools to pretend otherwise.
We also believe in public retribution. But public retribution does not operate in a political vacuum uninformed by the informed and freely expressed wishes of our people. We believe retribution can still be achieved in ways that meet the interests of justice and forgiveness. But the victims must be allowed to speak. That is not impunity. It would be politically unwise and uhelpful for both Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi to seek to shy away from some form of retributive process or to wish it away. There are ways that will satisfy victims while holding perpetrators to account without necessarily the spectre of imprisonment. We must find ways and put the ghost of Gukurahundi to sleep. And it is high time we did too!
Mthwakazi, as a people, we must be prepared to explore all the ways.
This is a golden moment we both should not and cannot afford to lose.
Mthwakazi, let us go on and build a modern and forward-looking UMR that knows no colour, creed or tribe; that promotes and celebrates, not kill diversity; that advances equality not superiority; that includes, not excludes; that promotes and rewards innovation and creativity and not frustrate it; that opens up opportunities of life to all without discrimination; that is respectful and not fearful of its citizenry; and that is open, accountable and allows popular participation by the citizenry in all matters of public life.
Together with the international community we can build two states that are successful and progressive members of the international community.
I invite all of you Mthwakazians and Zimbabweans to join hands in building those two separate but equal nations. This is what we need to do at this stage.
I thank you all.
Ndabenhle Sibane Shamase
President - MPC
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