Let’s start pulling down that portrait…. we have no president
By Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo
On the 6th of July 2016 Zimbabweans peacefully and non-violently protested against President Mugabe’s misrule across Zimbabwe. This was evidenced by a successful stay away and shut down which brought all the towns in Zimbabwe to a standstill.
Leaders of citizen movements #Tajamuka and #ThisFlag, Promise Mkwananzi and Pastor Evan Mawarire respectively were peacefully demanding answers and accountability from the government on issues to do with corruption, unemployment, kleptocracy, gross human rights violations and government’s failure to eradicate poverty.
Citizens stayed away as a way of peacefully demanding accountability from President Mugabe’s government. The brutal ZANU PF government responded by sending out it’s junta to tear gas and beat up defenceless civilians, as that was not enough Promise Mkwananzi and Pastor Evan Mawarire were arrested for exercising their constitutional right of asking the government to be accountable to it’s citizens.
When a handful of former freedom fighters the so called war vets in our usual political terminology protested at the ZANU PF headquarters raising issues of their welfare to President Mugabe, the President called for a state of nation address that same day and responded to their issues.
But when the whole country peacefully protested on the 6th of July he chose to ignore us all and as I write he is said to be wining and dining with his youthful wife Grace in the Far East whilst the whole country is burning.
What happened on the 6th of July in a normal democracy would have triggered an urgent State of Nation Address with the President responding to the issues raised by citizens.
You can despise President Zuma of South Africa calling him with all sorts of names but he is better than Mugabe. When citizens demanded answers on Marikana and Nkandla he responded, I could see him stammering even in parliament trying to be accountable to South Africans. He is even paying back the taxpayers money which he abused building himself a mansion in Nkandla.
But not Africa’s oldest President Robert Mugabe he has no time for all that and neither does he care about what the hell citizens think they are. Just like apartheid President P.W Botha, ask Mugabe a question he will respond you with a sjambok. He does not recognize us (Zimbabweans) as citizens empowered by our constitution to demand accountability from him so why do we have to recognize him as our President?
We have no President if we had one he or she would have responded to our demands on the 6th of July or extend a hand of invitation to a discussion. Promise Mkwananzi, Pastor Evan Mawarire and other leaders of various citizens movement (If I were you Mr Mugabe) were supposed to be summoned to the state house for lunch with the President where they will have to put all their issues (on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe) on the table and discuss it further with the head of state.
I would like to urge all Zimbabweans to start pulling down all official portraits of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and stop recognizing him as President until and after he starts respecting us as citizens of this country not his slaves. Don’t do anything violent, don’t break the portrait, NO, just pull it down and keep it down as a sign of saying Mr Mugabe we no longer recognize you as our President since you no longer recognize us (citizens) too.
People of Zimbabwe, President Mugabe has taken us for granted for a very long time but this is the time to reclaim our rights as Zimbabweans and uproot dictatorship on this land. It is our generational mandate to restore our dignity on this land.
#Tajamuka, #ThisFlag Enough is Enough we have suffered enough!!! Let’s start pulling down all Mugabe’s official portraits from our walls he is not our President anymore, this country has no President. #LetsPullDownHisPortraits until and after he start recognizing us as rightful citizens of this dying country and respond to the issues raised on the 6th of July..
Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo, Snr is an exiled human rights defender and democracy activist. He writes in his personal capacity and he is reachable on his whatsapp number +263775037579 or his email [email protected]
