He is not sitting on his dream, but working hard to make it reality through Human Rights Africa, a human rights organisation that he chairs. “It is important that we unite, love and assist one another as Zimbabweans, especially those in the Diaspora, so that we can better pull through the horrible life we are facing,” said Nduna recently.
“After we hold free and fair elections, we will remain even more united than divided. As a human rights activist who has witnessed similar problems here in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and London, I am trying to use my organisation to build a campaign ‘Unity in the Diaspora’, which began here in South Africa,” he said.
Nduna’s organisation is using the initiative to assist desperate Zimbabwean economic migrants, visitors and refugees in their time of trouble, especially that caused by their migration and nationality status. He does that in conjunction with other like-minded human rights organisations, entrepreneurs and Zimbabweans in South Africa.
“We have all been alerted to the plight of a one year-old-baby, Paidamoyo Chikati, whose body is still in the mortuary due to lack of repatriation funds, but I believe there are many cases like this that fail to reach our ears,” he added.
Most Zimbabweans in the neighbouring country live in informal settlements and farms, where some live from hand-to-mouth. Nduna believes unity with their more privileged countrymen would help pull them through. “Considering that someone doesn’t have a job to talk about and depends on piece jobs for survival what can they do in the event of serious problems like death? Our migrant brothers and sisters also have children to support. We have seen some of those who cannot handle the pressure being forced to commit suicide while others get a pauper’s burial,” he said.
His ultimate aim is to see all Zimbabwean human rights organisations, pro-democracy fighters and social movements in the Diaspora fighingt for one goal as a united front – both on the political and economic fronts.
“I am proud of my country and always cry when asked to assist those that are less-privileged than me. However, there are still people who cannot even afford airtime for communication and the internet and those are the people I would really love to reach out to. I am happy that we have enough officers to search for these people and bring them to our attention.
His biggest worry is that most Zimbabwean businessmen seem to forget about their countryman once they find their feet in the neighbouring country.
“We must not forget that when the push factors that took us out of our country are removed, we will still need a workforce and that will partly come from the exiles we are ignoring today. It would not be good for the country to have millions of its workers coming from a sorry past in exile, when we could have helped them. We lack the compassion sometimes,” added Nduna, who was also involved in negotiations for and the subsequent facilitation of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project, which brought free four-year permits to his countrymen.
“Human Rights Africa remains committed to assisting our fellow Zimbabweans in whatever way we can, but we cannot do that on our own without other people’s assistance. We are therefore involved in efforts to rally all Zimbabweans to pull in one direction and fight as one unit. That is our only pathway to building a truly prosperous country, both politically and economically. I wish more people could join us in this.”
Besides fighting for unity, HRA is also involved in efforts to invite foreign direct investment into Zimbabwe, fight for economic integration and good governance.
“We have also planned debates among Zimbabwean parties here in South Africa, so that we can all campaign for political tolerance and stop both violence and tribalism ahead of our elections. Our multi-national organisation also operates under the auspices of the SADC council of NGOs to enforce and encourage democracy, basic human rights, freedom and election monitoring and observation,” he added.
Post published in: News