MLF: Are they liberators or a bunch of tribal anarchists?

07 Jan, 2018 - 00:01 0 Views
MLF: Are they liberators or a bunch of tribal anarchists?

The Sunday News

Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF)

Allan Foti, Features Correspondent
ON New Year’s Eve a handful of Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) activists were arrested after attempting to disrupt a thanksgiving ceremony at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) grounds which was organised by the Faith for the Nation Campaign.

The ceremony was organised by the clergymen to thank God for a “peaceful transition” and they invited President Emmerson Mnangagwa to be the guest of honour following “Operation Restore Legacy” which got international applause.

However, the so-called “liberators” of the Matabeleland people decided to ignore the agenda of the event and chose to stage an unsanctioned protest demanding that President Mnangagwa address the post-independence issue commonly known as Gukurahundi issue. The action by a group that purports to represent the interests of people yet refuses to acknowledge the significance of such an event being held in Bulawayo exposed the MLF’s selfish nature.

By definition and from a political or activism perspective, the word “demonstration” means “a public display of group feelings toward a person or cause; peaceful demonstrations against the government”.

The so-called peaceful protest brought to the fore elements of the MLF’s DNA and led to critical questions being asked about their role in the development of Zimbabwe in general and Matabeleland in particular.

The “protest” raises one question that should, under normal circumstances for any bona fide activist, be critical to its relevance in their society and for their cause: are they liberators or selfish anarchists?

The MLF secessionist party was launched on 28 December in 2010 supposedly to represent the interests of the people of Matabeleland or the Mthwakazi Republic as they like to call it.

It is worth noting that former President Mugabe was a regular visitor to Bulawayo and at no point did the MLF demonstrate against him or compel him to do anything at any event he attended in the city or region.

Now that the country has a President who prefers dialogue and round tables, miscreants purporting to be activists such as the MLF wake up in the morning and decide to run before they can crawl.

The MLF decided to organise a demonstration against a man who has literally said to everyone concerned with the development of the people of Zimbabwe “let us come together, let us engage and confer on how to manage our problems as one people”.

For a group that forever preaches that it stands for the “emancipation” of the Matabele, people, the demonstration merely served to expose their hypocrisy.

While the President of the Republic was extending an olive branch to all Zimbabweans regardless of race, colour, creed, and tribe, and opening his door for those interested in dialogue, the MLF was plotting to have an event aimed at discrediting that effort.

Why would a “peaceful” group stage a “peaceful protest” against a man who has literally invited everyone with issues to his office and have tea while discussing the way forward? How does someone protest against a person or institution that is saying “let us find ways to try and soothe old wounds” without engaging them first?

Why would a group supposedly working for the people contrive to protest before even attempting to engage relevant people and raise whatever concerns or grievances they may have?

Why wouldn’t any rational person or group of persons attempt to take the President on his word and engage him to work a solution for whatever problems they claim to be fighting to fix in the region?

But for all their posturing, they have NEVER offered solutions to problems faced by the people of Matabeleland or even the region’s economy. Most of its members and leaders are not even domiciled in Zimbabwe and some even do not know village heads where they purport to come from.

It is also not surprising as it betrays their selfish interests that for an organisation that was created purportedly to service the needs of the people of Matabeleland, they are most active during the festive season when most of its members and leaders are home for the holidays.

The group has a history of internal fights that rival or even supersede the Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change. The MLF has had several leadership reshuffles and resignations, while summary dismissals are also the order of the day.

The MLF has often made unfounded claims regarding the employment of civil servants while pushing their agenda of a separate state.

Among the ridiculous claims made by the MLF was a letter they wrote to the South African Deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa lobbying for President Mnangagwa’s arrest.

Some of the issues they raised in the letter are:
-A need for people from Matabeleland (Mthwakazi) to become top decision makers in their own country (they don’t seem to know where Vice-President Kembo Mohadi comes from)

-Only Shona people are employed as teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, and at any other profession in our own country Matabeleland (Mthwakazi) (they clearly do not live in Zimbabwe)

-Not least, since Mugabe assumed power in 1980, there is no person from our country, Matabeleland (Mthwakazi) who was ever trained as a PILOT. (They are not aware of Air Vice Marshal Elson Moyo)

-In the diplomatic missions, we don’t have a single person, its only Shona people. (Which part of the country does Ambassador SK Moyo, Cain Mathema and Ambassador Aaron Maboyi Ncube just to mention a few come from)

The letter exposed the MLF’s agenda of tribal anarchists bent on creating an unbalanced society in Zimbabwe. Theirs has been exposed as a selfish agenda designed for attention seeking and aimed at gaining relevance via the manipulation of people’s emotions and tragic losses.

To a few, the MLF might appear to be a group fighting for the people of Matabeleland, but to many more they are just a group of attentions seeking tribal anarchists with selfish aspirations guiding their interests and cause while trying to undo history and delete the hard work and bitter sweat of many real nationalists and patriots with a clear development agenda. — @AllanFoti

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