MDC ‘Go Home’ rally – Mamelodi, Pretoria
I was very happy when the MDC organised a rally in Mamelodi near Pretoria. Many of us attended because this was the first rally organised by our party since the signing of the GNU. My aim was to hear what exactly this agreement has brought to refugees in other countries, activists and victims of ten year political violence in Zimbabwe.
Political songs entertained us before the MDC South Africa District executive committee arrived to attend. Everyone was happy and chanting “Chinja Maitiro Gugula Izenzo”. The chanting of the slogans took me back to 2002 when I was at home in Zimbabwe. I felt as though this meeting would bring us a solution on how to go back home. I believed from the meeting name that the MDC ‘go back home’ rally would be about telling us that now there are some measures in place ensuring that we can stay safe at home (Zimbabwe) without risk of any arrest.
When the executive arrived some in the crowd blew whistles and others were ululating to express how happy we are to go back home. After a while we stopped singing because we were hungry to listen to the ‘go back home’ message.
The announcement came through the organising Secretary Rodgers, saying that it is the time for us to go back home. He said that because the MDC is now ruling in the GNU, there was nost need to have refugees from Zimbabwe still here in South Africa.
After explaining his reasons there was silence. People could not believe what they had heard and some started to ask questions: Do you have any measures or any guarantee that we will have peace when we go home? Is there any Amnesty for political cases or political detainees? Has anybody bothered to identify the people who were killed by War veterans in Nkayi and re-buried them? The answer to all these questions was “No”.
I do not trust these guys. After asking a few questions from those around me I found that most of them in the executive came here in South Africa before even the formation of the MDC. They only know about the violence through the media. They do not have direct involvement with violence, unlike me – who was tortured by Zanu PF.
After the meeting the police had to escort the MDC committee away because people were very angry with them.
I do not think they will be able to hold a rally again unless they leave their positions.
This blog was sent to us by a Zimbabwean activist, currently living as a refugee in South Africa. He fled Zimbabwe because his life was at risk.
June 2nd, 2009 22:56
Incidentally, this is not the first time that the MDC has said Zimbabweans who are living outside the country should go back.
A few years ago, Tsvangirai told the then British Prime Minister, that Zimbabwean asylum seekers should be deported so that they can go back and vote.
It did not matter to him in the least that a lot of those people he was saying should be returned to Zimbabwe would end up in prison or dead.
The MDC has always been out of touch with grassroots members of the party and other sympathisers.