By Dr Masimba Mavaza | As the president of Zimbabwe prepares to visit the United Kingdom in a trip which will see him gracing the Kingdom of Scotland Zimbabweans a in high morale hoping to see their leader as he lifts the flag of Zimbabwe high. Many presidents will come and some will meet their nationals on the side and address their own. This Zimbabweans will enjoy when the listening president comes and maybe time allowing they will have the precious moments to chat.
In all this excitement there are Zimbabweans who are trying to spoil the party for Zimbabwe. How cruel some people could be: Day and night the MDC and some evil groups masquerading as human rights activists are planning to have flash demonstrations to vilify Zimbabwe and rubbish all the efforts being done by the President.
It is surprising how these malcontents hope to be assisted by demonstrating against their country in a foreign land. Many of these are good for nothing charlatans bent to soil the good name of Zimbabwe.
The charlatans preparing against Zimbabwe are comprised of two groups whose mindset is pathetic, and indeed demented. They form the well known Movement For Demented Charlatans MDC, or otherwise known as Mentally Disturbed Children Away from Home. MDC A.
The MDC demonstrators are also comprised of two groups: those who are confused and paid by their white handlers. The main sponsor of the MDC and those so called Human Rights groups is a MR J Burke a rich white Rhodesian now settled in the UK and a MR M Fish a farmer settled up in the north in Leeds. The MDC members will converge for the love of money and are prepared to drag the name of Zimbabwe in the mud for few coins. It is a shame that in this meeting you will not see any national of other nations demonstrating against their own country. If this is not betrayal by MDC and its supporters, then we will have no name for it.
The other group is a group of Zimbabweans without status in the UK. Most of them came to the UK for economic reasons but in order to get visas fast they sought to seek asylum in the UK.
An asylum seeker when he or she becomes successful in his claim he will be called a refugee. The definition of a refugee according to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is: “a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
In the UK, a person becomes a refugee when government agrees that an individual who has applied for asylum meets the definition in the Refugee Convention; they will ‘recognise’ that person as a refugee and issue them with refugee status documentation. Usually refugees in the UK are given five years’ leave to remain as a refugee. They must then must apply for further leave, although their status as a refugee is not limited to five years. If the asylum is refused one becomes a Refused asylum seeker, a person whose asylum application has been unsuccessful and who has no other claim for protection awaiting a decision.
Some refused asylum seekers voluntarily return home, others are forcibly returned. For some, it is not safe or practical to return until conditions in their country change.
In all types of asylum, immigration or human rights applications, you will need evidence to support your application.
Evidence is information to prove – to the Home Office, or maybe to the courts if you are appealing a refusal – that you are telling the truth. This may be to prove that you need to be in the UK, that you can’t live elsewhere, or just that you meet the criteria (the rules) of the application.
The evidence needed will be specific to your case, to your individual situation. There are, however, some standard rules and principles that need to be met and these will depend on the kind of application you are making.
So in order to get the evidence many Zimbabweans will lie that they are MDC members so that they can present that they are being tortured tormented or they are in fear of death if they are returned to Zimbabwe.
For some applications, such as in asylum applications there may be several points at which you can submit evidence to support your case. In other applications, you may only get one opportunity to submit evidence. The evidence you should submit will depend on the rules you are trying to show you meet and maybe where in the application process you are. For example, if you have had a refusal from the Home Office and you have an opportunity to provide more evidence, your evidence should try to address the reasons the Home Office have given for their refusal. Can you show that you do, in fact, meet the rules or requirements? When possible, you should try and pre-empt (take action to stop it happening) the Home Office refusal and provide evidence for areas they commonly refuse applications on, or areas of your application that appear to be weak or vague.
So many people will then resort to demonstrations at the Zimbabwean High Commission every twice a week. They will take photos dancing to some funny drum beat shouting obscenities to the embassy staff and insulting their own country all for creating evidence that they are in danger should they be returned back to Zimbabwe. Many will post their photos on social media and on internet and argue that their photos at the embassy has been viewed by the CIO and that they are now marked for death should they be returned to Zimbabwe.
Now with the coming of the president those asylum seekers or failed asylum seekers will be stampeding to Scotland only to insult the president so that they can bolster their asylum claim. This second claim is called Fresh application.
For the selfish reasons of wanting a visa these people are prepared to portray Zimbabwe as death trap so that Zimbabwe will be kept on the sanction list. Imagine how many people will be affected and are being affected by the sanctions. For what? For a visa of one pathetic liar who hates his country.
At the early stages of an asylum claim, their evidence may just be their testimony about what has happened to them and/or what they think may happen, and why that means it is not safe to return to your country. So they feel vindicated if they demonstrate against Zimbabwe.
We will see these people in Scotland not because they have a conviction in what they are saying but that they drag Zimbabwe into a dip end just for them to be given asylum.
Documentary evidence is often hard to get because of the circumstances in which you had to leave your country so photos while you are holding placards denouncing your country being cheered by few colonisers presents a good documentary evidence of the idiocy one displays as they destroy their country.
Documentary evidence might include a political party membership card, an arrest warrant, a birth certificate, or newspaper articles about you or about persecution of people like you. This is why these people would want to hog the headline. It is all a show.
Those you will see in Scotland vilifying Zimbabwe are motivated by the basis of a fresh claim which is new evidence about the original reason they claimed asylum; or it might be that their situation has changed since they claimed asylum and had an appeal heard and dismissed; the situation in their country may have changed; or that by insulting the president they have become surplus evidence and they are new targets.
Every day, all over the world, people make one of the most difficult decisions in their lives: to leave their homes in search of a safer, better life. But they do not set to lie about their country and put those left behind in the jaws of sanctions.
Most people in the world have had the experience of leaving the place where they grew up. Maybe they will only move as far as the next village or city. But for some people, they will need to leave their country entirely – sometimes for a short time, but sometimes forever. This is the world we are in today. Some people out there are so proud of their countries. Not these few Zimbabweans in the MDC camps.
There are many reasons why people around the globe seek to rebuild their lives in a different country. Some people leave home to get a job or an education. Others are forced to flee persecution or human rights violations such as torture. Millions flee from armed conflicts or other crises or violence. Some no longer feel safe and might have been targeted just because of who they are or what they do or believe – for example, for their ethnicity, religion, sexuality or political opinions. But Zimbabwe has never seen such triggers yet Zimbabweans are seen at every international gathering insulting their nation and the leaders. Shame on us.
We still have many Zimbabweans talking bad about our health system. It is not a secret that now ED Mnangagwa the president has commissioned a great commission. Which is the renovations of hospitals in Zimbabwe. A state of the art hospital is almost getting finished in Bindura.
Harare Hospital has been refurbished and equipment which costs over half a million has been commissioned. Wilkins hospital was given a face lift and now boasts on of the world class ward wing with a Covid centre near by.
Many districts and provinces are seeing their hospitals renovated. The times for medical tourists is gone.
The new dispensation is pulling through thick and thin but we still have some misfits singing the pride of their countries away in demonstrations out of the country.
Some are demonstrating for a diaspora vote in diaspora. How does the United Nations help you with how votes are taken in Zimbabwe.
Often, the grievance quickly expands to include a repudiation of the government, or its head, or more general denunciations of corruption and economic inequality yet the protestors are not in Zimbabwe. Aerial photos of the anti-government marches routinely show an intimidating sea of people furiously demanding change. And yet, it is surprising how little these crowds achieve. The fervent political energy on the ground is hugely disproportionate to the practical results of these demonstrations.
But most massive rallies fail to create significant changes in politics or public policies. The problem is what happens after the march.
The hodgepodge groups that participated had no formal affiliation with one another, no clear hierarchy, and no obvious leaders. But social networks helped to virally replicate the movement so that the basic patterns of camping, protesting, fundraising, communicating with the media, and interacting with the authorities were similar from place to place.
So besides trying to destroy Zimbabwe the MDC demonstrations abroad will yield nothing. – [email protected]