Zimbabwe Vigil should avoid being bullies

By Harold Matenga

I admire members of the Zimbabwe Vigil for their committed protests against the Mugabe regime every Saturday for over 8 years at the Zimbabwean embassy in London. I am however increasingly appalled by their bully-boy tactics of targeting anyone who does not agree with them on any issue.

I felt compelled to use this widely read website to register my objection to their attack on the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards (UK) for what can only be rightly described as a ‘surprising’ nomination of the pro-Zanu PF commentator George Shire in the Academic Award category.

If the Zimbabwe Vigil is fighting for free expression and other freedoms in Zimbabwe why are they replicating that same intolerance shown by the Mugabe regime by attacking the ZAA who have simply accepted the nomination of someone who happens to fulfill the criteria of the award irrespective of which political party they support.

In the latest Zimbabwe Vigil newsletter they even go so far as to say ‘Among the dubious Zimbabwean organizations springing up here is ‘Zimbabwe Achievers UK’ who have announced a ‘short’ list of about 160 nominees for awards in some 30 categories. Surprisingly there is not a specific category for ‘Zimbabwe war criminal’ or ‘Zanu-PF propagandist’.”

The Zimbabwe Vigil go on to say “Needless to say the Vigil has not been nominated for an award. But it is for the best: we wouldn’t want to pay £60 a head to attend this fake Rolex event.” So already they are pissed off they were not nominated and are also raging that a ‘political rival’ has been nominated.

To grow as a nation we need to tell each other the truth. The Zimbabwe Vigil are perfectly entitled to question the nomination of George Shire for the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards but they have no right to start name calling a fellow organization simply because they see things differently.

You cannot use words like ‘dubious’ and ‘fake rolex event’ to get your point across. Conrad Mwanza and the panel running the awards already know the nomination of Shire will irk many activists and invite controversy but the Zimbabwe Vigil has no right to insult them as an organization to drop Shire from the shortlist, otherwise what’s the point in inviting nominations?

Personally I feel Shire has done nothing to deserve being nominated, I also think it’s a waste of his brain to support a murderous regime back home but the one thing I will not do is become the monster we are fighting back home and replicate the same shocking levels of intolerance by name calling other people.