“Passive resistance”
Dear Zimbabwe Women and Men of all ethnic societies,
The coming 8th 0f March 2015 is an international women’s day. The past two letters that I have written regarding the “Grand Boycott,” I have managed to convince most women about the need for “passive resistance” to bring down the corrupt regime of Robert Mugabe and his criminal cabals. I appeal to all other women of Zimbabwe to be brave and be part of this passive resistance. If we sacrifice this blessed month of March 2015, we shall bring the change we want and it shall be done by women of Zimbabwe assisted by their men. We have a lot to win from this “passive resistance.” A regime like we have in Zimbabwe has no respect for life of its own citizens, it is for this reason that it must be brought down differently. We can only resist and not demonstrate in the street as there will be untold number of harmed people. We do not want to shed blood in this revolution. We know this too well, a lot of blood has been shed already: in Gugurahundi atrocities, in farm invasions, Operation Murambatsvina, the 2008 General elections. Thousands of people of all ethnic groups lost lives in shootings maiming, torture and various other forms the Zanu government used to eliminate dissenting voices.
Today I am inviting men to assist us in the “passive resistance.” We can win this elegantly if men joined hands with us in boycotting work for the whole of March this year of 2015. If most of you men who are working in government institutions have not been paid for the past 9 months consecutively, the question why can’t we just stage a non lethal revolt that will send this corrupt government packing. We have been too timid too long, we let this government do what it wants and we look on because we are afraid to do something to stop this nonsense. Please dear citizens, smell the coffee, this economy is grinding to a standstill. Crush it by resisting going to work and stay put in your homes. This government has never been an institution that is accountable to its own citizens except for those few selected citizens who are good at praise singing the “Great Leader Robert Mugabe” and his wife Grace. Please pack and stuff a lot of food in your kitchen and embrace the coming moment of truth where we shall take the monster by its horns just by sitting in our homes and not in the streets where it will harm us en masse.
A thought to consider while we wait the coming International Women’s Day, we women of Zimbabwe should hope of a culture of politics that is none patronizing. We should demand a better political climate and not this one of fear. Our women are used and abused in these Zimbabwean political parties. We have read a lot in the media about how women where used in the Zanu Party before and after independence. Oppah Muchinguri gave us some in-depth knowledge on how women and girls were used and abused during the struggle for independence only to be dumped after independence. The big shots in the party fed on young girls literally. This culture of abusing women is in the opposition parties too. We are told some women in opposition parties got positions by having sex with the top officials. Should we then wonder when they get purged like rates when their sale-by-date has expired? Our girl-children are looking at us as role models. We are sending a silent message to our future young women who are emulating from us, telling them that sexual advances are used to get a political position. The coming dispensation should revoke this practice. Our future girl children who will be women in those political positions should get it right. We must give them the dignity that rightly belongs to them. We must stop this culture of patronage altogether. Again they may be dissenting voices saying Nomazulu cannot tell us what to do with our bodies. My answer to this is that politics is dirty enough a trade. A position that a women gets after sleeping with a higher official reduces all of us women as we are sending a very toxic message to our men counterparts, they will continue to undermine us at will as they do not respect women anywhere. Zimbabwe is patriarchal through and through and in every political party in Zimbabwe there are male chauvinists who have no regards for the dignity of women. This is what our women should be fighting across all political divides. If we win this war and the women are considered as equals to men, not only in text books but in practice, our men will be liberated too. Any party or government position should be given to a citizen on merit and not on patronage and bottom power availability. We hope for a new dispensation that is corrupt- free, that will bring bread on the tables of all Zimbabweans regardless of tribe and color. Our reasons and objectives are clearly summarized:
Women and children are experiencing more acute poverty in Zimbabwe.
Families headed by women are now very common and experience higher levels of poverty than those headed by men.
Most Zimbabwean children are not getting even basic primary education. Educational structures have collapsed.
The number of street children in all large towns in Zimbabwe has risen to unprecedented levels.
People with mental and physical handicaps are not given the help they need.
Young girls: as young as 13 to 14 years are sent for early marriages to alleviate hunger in most rural areas.
Girls will still forfeit schools if they are on monthly periods because they do not have simple sanitary pads.
Food insecurities in most parts of Matabeleland and Midlands are not addresses by the government, it’s done selectively, given to those they think they support Zanu PF.
We are not protected by this government at all, our young women and girls are raped, every 90 minutes, a young girl or young woman is sexually assaulted by sick men who think they can cure AIDS by raping virgins, thereby infecting them further with the deadly virus.
Companies are relocating to their countries because their Zimasset is unsustainable to make business.
Flood victims are left on their own and unattended by the government, instead whatever donations that are done in their name, the goods and money are looted by disgraceful officials without shame!
 
Fasting!
 
During the boycott time the whole of March starting from the 8th of March, the International Women’s Day, women will be asked to fast. Fasting is the most powerful prayer we can offer to God at this hour of our most desperate times. God will give us tenfold if we fasted at this correct time of our religious time: Easter. God will hear our innermost prayers if we give up sex. Usually when people fast they give up what they like most. In this case we ask all women of Zimbabwe to give up conjugal rights of the bedroom with our spouses. Even passive resistance can bring change, it has happened before in many other countries; let it happen again in our lifetime done by us here in Zimbabwe.
 
Please be on the watch out for information every week until the 8th of March 2015 on Nehanda Radio. In the meantime please do stuff up the kitchen with food so that you do not go out during the boycott days! Enough is enough!
 
Ndini Chirikadzi chenyu
Yimi Ugogo omncane
Yes we can!
 
Nomazulu Thata is a political activist who resides in Germany. She is a senior member of the party Zunde: the Deputy National Chairperson. This call to boycott is a call to all women citizens of Zimbabwe of all political parties and non political oriented persons, it is therefore nowhere in conflict with her party Zunde position and aspirations. She can be contacted on: [email protected]