Take2Zimbabwe 2018
- Details
- Written by: John Burke
- Hits: 5297
PRESS RELEASE ###STARTS###
On Wednesday April 18, 2018, Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation (ZHRO), and other Human Rights organizations including Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) & Zimbabwe Citizens Initiative (ZCI), some political parties, and citizens movements are uniting to demonstrate outside the Zimbabwean Embassy in London.
ZHRO is initiating an ongoing campaign for a second independence for Zimbabwe termed, '#Take2Zimbabwe' in support of a united citizens ‘front’ coming together against the betrayal of independence irrespective of parties, groups, movements etc. In effect ‘the people’ will be rejecting the Independence Day celebration in favour of triggering their own “Zexit” – leaving behind the failed State of Zimbabwe in favour of a new Independent Zimbabwe.
"#Take2Zimbabwe What Independence? concept was birthed from realization that I/you/we and those past have been tragically betrayed by the military regime & government. The very definition of independent is not what Zimbabwe is today or has been for decades. Look around you, What Independence?" - Mable Kayiya; Marketing Department ZHRO.
"We feel that the protest is necessary to highlight the Human Right abuses in Zimbabwe, we cannot celebrate being Independent when we are being denied the right to vote and our people are being abducted and tortured for speaking out the truth," stated Farai Nhakaniso, spokesperson for ROHR Zimbabwe U.K. Chapter.
10 Downing Street Petition
- Details
- Written by: ZHRO
- Hits: 10345
20th May 2017, 15:00; 6 selected members of ZHRO had permission from the Downing Street Police unit to present our diaspora vote petition: Unfortunately Karen Nhakaniso was taken sick the day before so could not attend. So John Burke took her place only because the Police had his details on file in the orignial application as the organiser. So Elector Zvorwadza, Mable Kayiya, Rashiwe Bayisayi, Kingstone Jambawo and Shelton Mhlanga entered the security gates.
Prevously on the 18th April [as a protest regarding Zimbabwean Independence] we had been scheduled to deliver this petition, but the Prime Minister,
Theresa May went and called a 'snap' election on that day - so we got 'bumped'.
The day itself was preceeded by our ZHRO meeting at the Royal Festival Hall, on the South Bank. We then walked, in a slight down-pour of rain, to Richmond Terrace [opposite the gates to Downing Street]. We lined up at the Downing Street Police check point at 14:50 whilst the supporting ZHRO members sang and played the drums, with particular thanks to Mary Muteyerwa and Sibongile Kadzima for the percussion.
Take2Zimbabwe Leicester
- Details
- Written by: John Burke
- Hits: 6184
Organised by ZHRO Marketing member Olive Rudvidzo, in conjunction with her opposite number in ROHR Midlands. Olive co-ordinated the event with Refugee Week, the Red Cross and had a radio interview with BBC Leicester lined up.
Leicester, UK, 17 June 2017. The Zimbabwe diaspora rallied in Leicester to kick off the start of UK refugee week with the #Take2Zimbabwe protest.They have held similar protests in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and back to London where they petitioned the British PM to intervene on granting diaspora vote.
By holding the event in Leicester, the protesters are building and expanding on these previous repertoires of demanding a second independence, this time from an indigenous leadership whose
economic mismanagement has made survival all but impossible for ordinary Zimbabweans.
The event was initiated by ZHRO Marketing team member Olive Rudvidzo and organised by Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe's Midlands branch.
Still No Justice in 2025
- Details
- Written by: Desire Munyaradzi KUNAKA with ZAPU evidence and testimonies
- Hits: 2689
Introduction
Written by: Richard Gandari [ZAPU Spokes Person, Harare]: Hits: 581
https://gukurahundi.info/the-beginnings-of-a-genocide [The Gukurahundi.info website is a collaboration of Richard Gandari [ZAPU Zimbabwe] and John Burke [ZHRO UK]
Identifying as a member or supporter of ZAPU became a death wish.
Under the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, a caveat was promulgated, outlawing ZAPU and forfeiting all its properties to the state. Some of the properties belonged to ZPRA, the armed wing of ZAPU during the liberation struggle. Being visionaries, ZPRA veterans lawfully purchased a string of valuable properties using funds pooled from their demobilization payouts. The party, ZAPU also invested in movable and immovable properties. Everything was seized and forfeited to the state. Dr Joshua Nkomo was persecuted and hounded into exile. His lieutenants, the late Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and the late Commander Lookout Masuku were thrown into Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on trumped up charges. The rest is history as the adage goes.
Just like in East Germany in 1990, it has been four decades of denial and deafening silence.
As the watershed elections of August 2023 were rigged to maintain the status quo, hopes of a new Zimbabwe remain an elusive dream. ZAPU the corporate victim of Gukurahundi, remains incapacitated. With Mugabe’s caveat frozen in time, the resurging party is struggling to reclaim its purloined glory. As fate would have it, the leader of ZAPU today is none other than Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo, the very son of the late Dr Joshua Nkomo. One would consider it a golden opportunity for poetic justice but lo and behold, those wielding the levers of power have no desire to allow a new dawn for Zimbabwe. Due to incapacitation, ZAPU could not field its leader for the presidential race. The steep nomination fees demanded by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission made it impossible for ZAPU to effectively participate in the crucial plebiscite.
Unwritten caveats designed to perpetuate Gukurahundi in other subtle and thinly veiled forms
Apart from the continued onslaught against ZAPU there remains a myriad of unwritten caveats designed to perpetuate Gukurahundi in other subtle and thinly veiled forms. Nothing short of regime change can revive hopes for the genuine resolution of Gukurahundi as a de facto genocide.
Page 35 of 50
