Members of Bulawayo-based secessionist party, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), are planning to march to the Zimbabwean consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday, to submit what they have termed a “more comprehensive version of the Mthwakazi secessionist document”.
Party’s spokesperson David Magagula said yesterday the document to be delivered to the consulate “contains the legal and moral justification for the restoration of the sovereignty of the Mthwakazi state”.
“On April 19, 2011, MLF is set to host the Mthwakazi Freedom March in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is a historic march that is meant to create awareness on the Mthwakazi independence cause and the plight of the forgotten people of Mthwakazi in the Matabeleland and Midlands parts of Zimbabwe to the South African public and the international community at large,” he said.
Magagula said they had wanted to hold the march today so that it coincided with Zimbabwe’s Independence Day, but since the consulate officials would be attending official events in Pretoria, they deferred it to Tuesday.
“The document will also be made available to members of the press and other interested parties. Basically the secession document contains the legal and moral justifications for the restoration of the sovereignty of the Mthwakazi state, some of which include the Gukurahundi genocide and its far- reaching consequences, general marginalisation of the people of Mthwakazi, tribal discrimination, gross violation of human rights, fiscal imbalances as Mthwakazi contributes more resources to the Zimbabwean national treasury than she gets in return, and the state-sponsored destruction of Mthwakazi languages like Ndebele, Kalanga, Nambya, Tonga, Xhosa, Lozi, Venda, Shangani, Thwa, Jahunda and Dhombe,” he said.
Magagula said the march would start at 10am at the Workers’ Library at the corner of Sauer and Bree streets in Johannesburg and end at the Zimbabwean consulate.
“The time has come for the people of Mthwakazi to stand up and demand their right to self-determination in a free and sovereign Mthwakazi state based on its 1894 borders with Mashonaland, Botswana, South Africa and Zambia,” he said.
