The Rights to Freedom of Expression, Association and Assembly are Fundamental Universal Basic Human Rights and are Indispensable components of Constitutional Democracy, Mdc Alliance Namibia echoes.

20 October 2021

Mdc Alliance Namibia is deeply concerned by the repression of political activists, human rights defenders and all voices dissent who are persecuted for being a democratic alternative. We are quite transfixed to learn that the clueless Zanupf regime, in an attempt to conceal the revolutionary appetite in the masses went on to barricade the Peoples’ President Advocate Nelson Chamisa’s convoy just outside Mutare. Social democrats in Namibia learnt that armed Zanupf thugocrats who were carrying guns ,knives and knobkerries attacked the president’s car blocking him a peaceful entrance into the city. The road entrance was barricaded with stones and they advanced violently towards his convoy. We absolutely condemn the incessant attempts to assassinate the people’s hope.

As advocates for constitutional democracy, we are very cognisant of the fact that the African Union ( and the Organisation of African Unity before it ) has repeatedly reaffirmed the significance of human rights and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Initially, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Ministerial Conference on Human Rights at Grand Bay, Mauritius in April 1999, the OAU clamoured “on African satanic governments to employ appropriate measures to effectively implement the Declaration in Africa. We are seriously calling for the intervention of the African Union and SADC to take sterner action against dictatorship in our motherland. ZanuPF should pay heed to the call to respect the constitution and rule of law in Zimbabwe. It is not a crime to have astounding political capital. #NgaapindeHakeMukomana.

Further, the African Commission’s Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa ,adopted at the 32nd session of the African Commission held in October 2002 in Gambia, reaffirms the fundamental importance of freedom of expression as a sure means of guaranteeing absolute respect for all human rights, stating that freedom is a basic universal human right and an indispensable component of constitutional democracy. The politically-bankrupt Zanupf Satanists should respect our basic human freedoms in Zimbabwe. The Declaration makes it point blank that any restrictions on freedom of expression should be prescribed by law ,serve a legitimate interest and be necessary in a democratic society.

Moreover, the African Commission Resolution on the right to Freedom of Association also pronounces specific reference to the limits of any restriction on the fundamental right to freedom of association. This is the antithesis of the recommendations submitted by both the African Union and the United Nations Declaration. It’s now high time these two continental and world organisations take serious action on the perpetrators of state-sponsored violence. Mdc Alliance Namibia demands the intervention of the United Nations as defined in its objectives:1) to keep world peace,2)to grant countries their total emancipation from repression,3) to uphold human rights. We understand that any grieved country or person has the reserved right to bring cases of the violation of human rights to the attention of the United Nations. As a district we urge all stakeholders in Zimbabwe politics to petition SADC , African Union and the United Nations so that our president and his legion of supporters could be saved from the marauding Zanupf morons and their surrogates.

Besides two attempts at our dynamic and organic leadership in Masvingo and Mutare respectively, some democratic fighters have been subjected to torture ,inhuman or degrading treatment including the unconstitutional imprisonment of ardent change seekers such as Last Maengahama and Tungamirai Madzokere who were incarcerated for 10 years on trumped up charges only to be acquitted not forgetting the late victim Rebecca Mafikeni who died at Chikurubi Maximum prison after being brutalized by the captured state security agents. Right now Makomborero Haruzivishe is languishing in jail for demanding justice and transparency on the abduction of our youth assembly leader Tawanda Muchehiwa. We comprehend that the UN replaced the League of Nations after the( WW2 ) World War 2 because the organisation was purported to be a toothless bulldog which could buck but not bite.

ZanuPF is obliged to repeal all domestic laws that are anti-people to ensure that they are consistent with international treaties as well to adopt measures to enhance the implementation of the obligations contained in the treaties to which they are part. Mdc Alliance Namibia’s message to the belly politicians in Zanupf is very clear that state parties must refrain from violation of the rights recognised by the Covenant. Desperate Zanupf morons should not override constitutional provisions guaranteed by the constitution and international standards. These belly politicians should not enact provisions which would limit the exercise of the stipulated freedom. The regulation of the exercise of the right to freedom of association should be in tantem with the State’s obligations under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

Social democrats in Namibia did not forget that in 2002,the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights sent a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe after the bloody elections when poor Mugabe allowed his people to kill opposition activists in cold blood for being an alternative. The African Commission found that Zanupf had dismally failed to chart a path that signalled a commitment and dedication to the rule of law and in its recommendations it stated that the independence of the judiciary should be assured and that court orders should be followed religiously. The Commission figured out that the greedy stomach politicians had introduced laws which undermined freedom of expression and recommended that such autocratic laws be amended to meet international standards for freedom of expression. We are calling for international assistance against Zanupf dictatorship.

Recently, we witnessed at least 7 people being shot in Harare after 2018 harmonised elections. We also saw at least 17 shot dead between 14 and 17 January 2019 for demonstrating against rigging of elections and the astronomical rise of fuel respectively. The Mothlante Commission was put in place to investigate the August 1 sad shooting of innocent citizens by soldiers. In his recommendations, he was clear that the victims were butchered by Zanupf captured soldiers. He said the perpetrators of state-sponsored deaths should be brought to book but nothing transpired to date. This must be resisted with equal measure. It’s the opportune time to petition SADC, African Union and the United Nations.

In a nutshell, Mdc Alliance Namibia encourages all Zimbabweans globally register to vote,vote in 2023 and equally defend the vote against Zanupf serial electoral fraudsters. The attempt to assassinate our political generator President Advocate Nelson Chamisa Wamba Dia Wamba shall be surely resisted till our total emancipation from the Zanupf shenanigans. We are ready to prosecute the struggle for socio-economic transformation to its logical conclusion. Voting is one kind of social and political independence. #NgaapindeHakeMukomana

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Mdc Alliance Namibia
Rundu Branch Spokesperson
Robson Ruhanya