Three days of protest outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, London – 17-19 April
For those who are in London, or who can travel to London, please make a special effort for this one. 18 April is Zimbabwe’s Independence Day. It would be good if the day was clearly marked by protests and demonstrations against the lack of Independence in Zimbabwe.
My cynical suspicious mind tells me that Mugabe might choose 18 April for ZEC to finally release Presidential results, and announcing that he has in fact won. Can you imagine anything more nauseating than him claiming he has fought and regained ‘independence’ after those ‘British tried to take it from us’ in the elections with their ‘puppet Tsvangirai’? I could be sick just thinking about it.
T-Shirts
We have a small selection of T-shirt designs on our website if you’d like to print yourselves an iron-on transfer and to make a T-Shirt to wear on the day. Please, if there are better T-Shirt printing resources (middle column of our website on that page) please let us know so we can give people the best advice.
Banners
Make banners to take to the protest well: brainstorm ideas for slogans and captions in our comments if you would like too.
Feedback and support
The details about the protest are below. But before that, please note the comment from Erin and send him a reply (link to comment) who says:
I am in Washington DC and the Pope is here right now. Any Zimbabweans in Washington DC with ideas on what to do?
And this from Deepyarn who says:
Many of the UN e-mails are now coming back as “over quota.†This is good. For those that are able, please fax the Security Council members in New York City below.
Here are the details about the London protests - thankfully I’ve given you a tiny bit of advance notice. Can we all support the London crowd to go all out, and can we ask anyone who goes to the protests to take photos and send us emails so we can post up feedback for Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe.
ZimVigil website here
Three days of protest outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, London – 17-19 April
- Thursday, 17th April, 10 am – 4 pm. MDC UK is gathering outside the Embassy in protest over Mugabe’s undemocratic clinging to power. For more information contact: Jaison Matewu 07816 619 788, Owen Mtombeni 07780 544 181.
- Friday, 18th April, 12.30 - 2 pm. Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) is calling on supporters to demonstrate for democracy on Zimbabwe’s Independence Day. For more information visit this link. ACTSA will be supported by the trade unions and would really like Vigil support to make it a Zimbabwean protest. We will be there with our banners.
- Saturday, 19th April, 2 – 6 pm. The Vigil will be protesting about the planned recounting of Parlliamentary and Presidential votes by Zanu PF. We will be relaunching our petition calling on EU governments to suspend aid to SADC countries and instead finance the starving in Zimbabwe. The Vigil’s musicians will be taking centre stage. We will have with us Lucky Moyo of Black Umfolozi fame who has made a special request to Zimbabwean musicians in the UK to come to the Vigil and speak out on the situation in Zimbabwe. He says “as much as we may want to be apolitical we are social commentators. We must play a part by reflecting in song what pathways our society has taken over the last 28 yearsâ€. His call has been echoed by Willard Karanga, formerly of Thomas Mapfumo’s band, who will also be with us. The event will be covered by SW Radio Africa.
Exiled Zimbabweans and supporters are taking part in three days of demonstrations outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London in protest at the rigging of the Zimbabwe elections.
The Mugabe regime is unleashing a new campaign of terror and violence on the people of Zimbabwe.
Every day Mugabe remains in power is one more day of suffering.
PLEASE COME AND PROTEST - DON’T LEAVE IT TO OTHERS, COME YOURSELF
IF WE DON’T KEEP UP THE PRESSURE THE WORLD WILL FORGET US - DON’T LET ZIMBABWE BECOME ANOTHER BURMA
WE MUST ALL ACT NOW OR ACCEPT OUR FATE
April 15th, 2008 20:44
We need to come in full force,these guys are completely wankers,time has come i will never ever forgive Mugabe and his people,vakomana ngatibatanei,nguva yakwana,these guys are just bastards.
April 16th, 2008 00:15
There is a term called “quite insubordination” which can be effective in Zimbabwe because it’s very difficult for authorities to proove. In a similar context I would suggest that Zimbabweans should simply find a queue and stand in it all day. When that one fizzles out, find another. There’s plenty to go around - bread, cooking oil, maize-meal, fuel, money, clinics etc. If you’re going to pay a bill, take a long time at the payment desk, ask questions, play it dumb and spin the process out. Make things go slow. If you stay at home, the police will simply go door to door, and if you loiter around the streets you’re asking for trouble. They would probably do it, but the police dispersing a food queue or emptying a clinic will be another black mark against the regime internationally. Despite beliefs to the contrary the international community is counting up those black marks. I believe that the ZANU is going to be hurt most through their pocket. They cannot indefinitely finance extra activities.
Queues are one suggestion off the top of the head - and they’re legitimate.I guess others can come up with other similar ideas.
I fully appreciate the reluctance many will have in losing pay, and for that I have no consolation other than such losses need not be long term. If nothing is done, the sufferings that currently manifest will worsen, become protracted and the populace will sink so low into poverty that they will be unable to extricate themselves, and will be prisoners of their own dejection.
Of special note was the recent WOZA ‘SSS’ demo in Bulawayo - Small, Short and Sharp, so that by the time the police mobilized, everyone had dispersed. The police failed, and that will undoubtedly make them a laughing stock. More importantly it showed the police not to be omnipotent and they were clearly not on the ball.If this demo had in place another ready to kick off by the time the police arrived at the first disbanded one, you could organize quite a merry dance for ZRP.
Forget mass protests, unless you’re going to go for it in such a big way as to flood the police cells or over-whelm the forces of the authorities by sheer weight of numbers.
April 16th, 2008 08:20
TRYING TO SEND YOU A MESSAGE BUT CANNOT FIND CONTACT ADDRESS BUT YOU MANAGED TO GET ONTO BBC 10 OCLOCK NEWS LAST NIGHT SO YOUR WEBSITE IS GETTING KNOWN MORE IN THE UK NOW SO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO READ FIRST HAND WHAT HARD WORK YOU ARE TRYING TO DO FOR ZIMBABWE AND READ THE HORRORS
April 16th, 2008 10:55
We will be outside the Zimbabwe high commission in force all weekend. We are also planning protests outside the SA high commission. We may not be with you in Zimbabwe but we have not forgotten.
April 16th, 2008 11:59
Thanks for the news Boomerang. We can be emailed at info[a]sokwanele.com. Or via the contact form on our main website
April 16th, 2008 22:17
Interested in protest outside the embassy in DC as well, is there a group planning on doing this?
October 1st, 2008 14:21
Hello makadini,i would like to know if ther is anything i can do to support my fellow zimbabweans, here in north wales there arent many of us and i have been away from home since 1999.It breaks my heart not being able to do anything.Im glad you gus are there and now we can share our problems together.Tinofanira kubatana nguva dzino,zvinonirwazda chaizvo zvirikuitwa ku nyika yedu.Kana kuine vamwe vanosvika kuno kwatiri mungandizivise here.Ndiri kutsvaga mwana wa sekuru George Chinengunu Fungai, we last saw each other in 1994 in Gleenale.hang in there ana bhudi nana sisi.You are in my thoughts i dont pray anymore cause there is really nothing up there is there.keep in touch. .