LONDON - My name is Yvonne Maposa and Ive been living in the UK for three years now. I had been working for an NGO as a field officer before I fled from Zimbabwe. I was working with volunteers from the community and I used to conduct meetings now and then.
Sometimes we would have these meetings in an open space. When the militia discovered this they told me to stop undertaking these meetings as they thought they were politically motivated and they just assumed I was having MDC meetings.
They started stoking me until they bashed into my house one day and started beating me up. I was hospitalised for about five days. To me this was the last stroke that broke the camels back. One of the volunteer ladies helped me obtain a document that I used to flee from Zimbabwe because there were more death threats when I came out of the hospital. I was so scared even to walk in the streets because I didnt know who was behind me or who I was going to meet.
When I fled to England I felt safe but I was thinking of my family back home. I used to communicate with them now and then to see how they are. In 2010 my sister was identified by one of the militia who was present during my assault and he thought she was me. They started asking her questions that she couldnt answer and thats when she realised they thought she was me. She tried to explain that they had got the wrong person but they insisted that it was me.
Apparently one of our uncle is in the ZANU PF leadership and he was not very happy that our family was supporting MDC. He used to send people round to his brothers place, where my sister was staying, and they will interrogate him. One day at night they came and started beating them up and they sexually assaulted her because they thought my sister was me. They both managed to go to the hospital and my uncle who had serious head injuries, stayed in the hospital for about two days but he couldnt make it.
With this situation, my sister couldnt stay there anymore. She managed to go to South Africa where she claimed asylum. She feels safe in her new adopted home though somehow she is scared that she is being followed.
This is why I am so scared to go back to my own people in Zimbabwe. I still feel my life is in danger. I think the ZANU-PF thugs are still looking for me. I dont think there will ever be human rights in Zimbabwe.
Living in another country is not easy and neither is it pleasant. But Mugabe leaves us with no choice. I want Mugabe to GONOW. – Yvonne Tutsirai Maposa, Activist
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