We need government in exile

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We need government in exile

BY MAGAISA IBENZI

SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH – I have been absolutely delighted with the news from England about the Free Zim youths who gave south Africa’s foreign minister Amai Zuma a hard time when they heckled her while she was trying to convince Londoners about South Africa’s solidarity with other struggling Africans. Bravo! Well done Free Zim.
We need more of this from you young boys and girls of ours. We are proud of you. This is why we, your parents, suffered so much to educate you. Why has it taken you so long to get started. You have shown the way to other Zimbabweans around the world. This is what they should do whenever South African officials visit. This type of activism should also be extended to other SADC officials who are also backing Mugabe.
I was particularly pleased that the first target was Nkosazana Zuma, who herself spent many years living in London during the apartheid years. She was a member of the South African diaspora. But now she tells those in the diaspora that they should keep quiet. Hah! It was actually South Africans in the diaspora who successfully lobbied the international governments and media to put the squeeze on the apartheid regime.
I appeal to all Zimbabweans wherever they are in the diaspora to completely ignore the comments of Zuma and her ilk.
We all know very well that the ANC supports Zanu (PF). They care nothing for the suffering people of Zimbabwe – all they care about is propping up the façade of a fellow liberation movement. Despite their fancy constitution, human rights really means nothing to Mbeki and his crowd, Zuma included. Even the youngsters in the ANC have been brainwashed as we saw last week. It’s really a very worrying situation.
I therefore appeal to our young Zimbabweans, and the old ones out there, you are all needed. Please step up this campaign of confrontation, to include all visits by South African government officials to anywhere in the world. And please extend this campaign to cover all SADC leaders because they are all complicit in the crimes against the Zimbabwean people through their silence.
It is not that they don’t know the real situation. The life expectancy of Zimbabweans has been reduced in six years from 60-something to 30-something. And that is not simply because there is an AIDS pandemic in the region. People are dying from hunger, malnutrition, malaria and many other preventable diseases that even the least developed Third World country should be able to prevent. The people of Zimbabwe are dying from cruelty by one man.
But I digress. Zimbabweans in the diaspora constitute a sizeable force. More than a quarter of Zimbabweans live outside their own country. We are all denied our right to vote. We did not vote for Zanu (PF). We were not allowed to vote. Why don’t we have our own government in exile, to represent our interests, to look after ourselves? We could be a focus for those wanting to help our nation and channel resources back home. At the moment we have nobody to represent us. Our embassies in the countries where we live are there for Zanu (PF) – not for us. In fact they spy on us.
I would like to hear from your readers, Mr Editor, about how we can take this idea forward. – write to magaisa@thezimbabwean.co.uk