This is directed at my brothers here who I will not name, whose posts about our dear brother and Cde Job Sikhala have been totally insensitive, callous and steeped in factional political interests, and without a shred of human decency.
Cdes, whatever factional issues there are in our opposition movement, we have a duty to recognise the gravity of our brother Wiwa’s experiences and have the grace to treat him with respect, understanding and kindness for the horrendous treatment he has endured, and the great sacrifices he has made for the cause of Zimbabwe.
Who among us can imagine what being in solitary confinement is like? Professional opinion would recommend medical attention and a period of recovery, allowing him to process his experiences, thoughts and emotions, and I believe we owe our brother respite, rather than treat him as an adversary to be pulverised all in the name of oppositional factional battles.
Your behaviour here has been embarrassing to see! Acting like hired mercenaries without an ounce of humanity, going for the jugular and seeking, in the eyes of your baying supporters, to score points and create a caricature of a compromised sellout out of our heroic Cde, who has sacrificed more than most ever since the democratic change movement’s inception in 1999!
I’m saying it is not necessary for you to respond to every statement or opinion that Wiwa has expressed – his deep sense of grievance isn’t one you ought to rationalise and challenge, and parade your retorts before the public gallery to prove how wrong Job is! Munhu ari kuputsa bundu remwoyo, regai aputse!
We would rather – and have indeed advised – that he stay away from media interviews to give himself time to recover and regroup within himself. But nonetheless, for us, there is a greater humanity required here, and dare I say, a greater respect we owe to those who actually sacrifice much to this thing we call our struggle.
There is no struggle without heroes – those who lay down their lives, or sacrifice much, for the collective’s cause. What does that make us when we piss on ours, even going ahead of Zanu-PF itself, which is watching this oppositional spectacle with gleeful amusement?
All because of vacuous, narrow, ego-driven factional political interests whose sum is unequal to this nation’s demand for freedom from Zanu-PF repression?
The nationalist parties in government in 1980 failed to deliver a programme of rehabilitation for demobilised combatants of the liberation struggle, leaving them to carry their untreated trauma from the war.
Many of them suffered marginalisation in their own communities because of the manifestation of this trauma in socially unhealthy ways, while the new government and its new elite moved on.
Fast forward to today, and we are supposed to be more literate about trauma and mental health, and yet here we are, throwing a Comrade under the bus, who has emerged from a soul-crunching solitary confinement in the most inhumane conditions available in the regime’s prison system, including being forced to undergo medical treatment whilst in leg irons!
Those who are doing this are no doubt thinking they’re doing so to shield the main opposition leader from any shade Job’s utterances might project! And yet it’s not necessary, any leader would cut Wiwa some slack – he’s been through a lot!
We need to do better! To be more human! To show some grace, understanding and compassion for our Comrade! Many have and will go through the same soul crashing experience in the militarised dictatorship’s jails – they will need the same understanding and compassion from us.
It’s our duty to give it!
Chofamba Sithole is Senior Communications & PR professional| ex-Political Journalist & Editor| Chevening Scholar
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