The handiende (I won’t go) syndrome threatens to reverse the gains Zimbabwe has won since independence, says the MDC youth president, Solomon Madzore, in a message from Chikurubi Prison, where he has been incarcerated for almost a year with 27 other MDC activists charged with murdering a police officer.
Excerpts from his statement follow:
“Wise people have maintained that a society is judged by how it treats its weakest citizens – orphans, the elderly, the homeless, those living with disabilities and prisoners. In Zimbabwe today, these people are treated like nonentities, while a few people under the guise of having fought in the war of liberation enjoy the fruits of their “entitlement” to power and riches. They use such false “entitlements” to create a culture of impunity and disdain for the rule of law.
“The majority of the youth suffer from abject poverty and depend on handouts – yet the children of Zanu (PF) top hierarchy are suffocating with wealth, both locally and abroad.
“I am still to regain my liberty, the unlawful Zanu (PF) detention continues unabated. Mugabe and Zanu (PF) do not comprehend the sacredness of freedom. They continue to live in perpetual fear, the fear of the unknown and the fear of the very people they helped to liberate. This monster is so afraid of the people of Zimbabwe that brutality and intimidation is their default ideology. Whenever they look at the youth, they see loss of their power instead of seeing progress and rejuvenation. They fail to see that locking away political opponents does not help their cause in any way.
“Being in prison has helped me to witness the dreadful conditions under which Zimbabwean prisoners live, most of them being youth offenders. Their crimes include robbery, stock theft, fraud, aggravated assault and murder, burglary, motor vehicle theft and rape. Most of these crimes are attributable to the economic meltdown of the past 12 years.
“The criminal justice system in this country is a complete mess – exacerbated by overzealous, corrupt, partisan, arrogant and ignorant police leaders and an equally evil Attorney General’s office. These institutions of terror have been used by Zanu (PF) to hand down stiff sentences ranging from 10 to 250 years. Zanu (PF) uses the police, the courts and prison services to continue their hold on power. Overcrowding is the order of the day in all prisons, as are poor diet, poor clothing and poor health delivery to inmates. There is no rehabilitation going on, and the few facilities left by the colonial regime in 1980 for that purpose are now obsolete.
“Zimbabwe has the largest number of prisoners outside war zones. People are imprisoned without parole or amnesty, they serve long sentences for petty crimes and live under harsh conditions. Homosexuality is practiced almost openly by some desperate inmates. There are no conjugal rights for prisoners, no psychological counselling or skills training to empower and rehabilitate offenders.
“The justice system is appallingly slow and one can spend many years before the state is ready to prosecute. Quite a number of offenders do not complete their sentences because they die in prison.
“I am certainly not the first to suffer under Zanu (PF)’s oppressive and coercive machinery. My consolation is that victory against this oppression is nigh. If my unlawful detention and that of my fellow accused men and women is part of the price we have to pay for a better Zimbabwe then, so be it! We will always be together in spirit. I am alive to the fact that you aspire to live productive and meaningful lives, free from harassment and all forms of state sponsored violence.
“We are sick and tired of lack of progress in our lives. The ball is in our court, we must make sure that every eligible young person is registered to vote, both in the referendum and in the general elections. I have no doubt whatsoever that Mugabe will go after the next elections. Forget the empty threats by so-called Generals.
“We refuse to drink from the poisoned chalice of the Kasukuweres of this era , we refuse and reject the Mahosorisation of our thinking and intelligence. We refuse to be brainwashed by political prostitutes like Jonathan Moyo. The youth of Zimbabwe are too smart for such cheap and devious talk on both state sponsored TV and radios. We must prepare ourselves to sacrifice in a way that we have not done before by ensuring that our votes are registered , cast, counted and protected.
“I urge you the youth of Zimbabwe to go in your multitudes and register to vote. As for some of us who are in prison, the Zanu (PF) machinery can only imprison our bodies and never our spirits. We are free inside ourselves. They are the ones shackled in perpetual prison of fear, guilt and shame.”
Post published in: News