THE DEMO AT THE ZIM EMBASSY IN PRETORIA!

By Trust Matsilele

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THE Movement for Democratic Change and the Revolutionary Youth Movement yesterday successfully forced Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya-Moyo to agree to sign a petition penned by Zimbabweans in the Diaspora on the deteriorating situation back home and their demands to the Zimbabwe government for next year’s harmonised elections.

The petition would be taken to Moyo’s office in a week's time after about 500 Zimbabweans marched from South Africa's Union buildings to the Zimbabwean embassy in Arcadia demanding to be heard by the authorities there.

The two organizations are demanding that Zimbabweans living outside the country be allowed to vote in the March presidential, local and parliamentary elections. They want the Zanu Pf government to respect the rule of law but most importantly they want to see all stakeholders sitting down to write a new people-drive Constitution for the country.
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The Zimbabwe government is the only country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which does not allow its citizens based in foreign lands to vote in national elections. They argue the process is expensive but embassy staff vote for their preferred candidates, a thing the Diaspora is saying should come to an end. SADC protocols, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory, clearly say that nationals living in other countries should be allowed to vote during their respective countries elections.

The MDC’s Nqobizitha Mlilo said such democratic campaigns, targeting President Robert Mugabe’s representatives wherever they could be found around the world, were necessary not only in pressurizing the Zimbabwean government to stop human rights abuses but also to send a clear message to the region that Zimbabweans are a peace loving people eager to finding a lasting solution to the political and economic crisis affecting their country.

They also want President Thabo Mbeki to hear them out as he continues to try and bring Zanu PF and the MDC together to find a way to solve the country’s political crisis.

“This is an expression of patriotism for people who have left their country to still be seen lobbying for the restoration of democracy so that they may go back. It is opposite to the view that that they are economic migrants hence the solution remains a political one,” said Mlilo.

One leading activists, who was arrested last week for organizing a demonstration, Reverand Mufaro Hove, called on the Zimbabwean government to stop torturing political opponents. He said Zimbabweans should unite and “fight the common enemy Mugabe”.

“I also call on you Kaya Moyo to join the struggle of liberating Zimbabweans from the oppressive leader Robert Mugabe as his dictatorship had affected everyone including those in Zanu PF,” said Hove.

Moyo agreed he would next week sign the petition from the two organizations. The petition will carry the Diaspora’s concerns over issues in Zimbabwe and the need to bring the country back to democratic rule.

Activists said Moyo’s acceptance to sign the petition showed a level of political maturity which was absent in Zanu PF as a party generally. Mugabe and his government have over the past few years been accused of using state machinery to cow opposition activists into submission.