Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna has urged Zimbabweans in the diaspora to speak out against the illegitimacy of the recently held harmonised elections.
Chief Ndiweni, who launched a petition which has since been submitted to the office of the UK Government’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to challenge the election, reiterated that the international community is willing to lend a listening ear to Zimbabweans in the diaspora in their quest for justice.
The traditional leader said Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in a better position to speak out against the elections because citizens in Zimbabwe risk being arrested should they voice their concerns.
“We are all very much aware of the situation back home. We know that our brothers and sisters are not free to speak freely. We know that those who have engaged or have tried to engage in the recent elections are being haunted and arrested and having fraudulent charges brought up against them. For us here in the diaspora we now have a vital and incredible role,” Chief Ndiweni said.
“In South Africa, it only took five focused individuals to have the Apartheid government to sit down in the International Arena. Our job now as the Zimbabwean diaspora is to speak out because those at home cannot. We need to be focused, that when we hand in this petition to the Prime Minister and Parliament, we are asking them to exercise the powers that they have when it comes to things like democracy. We are not interested in Mnangagwa but we are taking this to the next level.”
Chief Ndiweni said the gesture by heads of state who refused to attend Mnangagwa’s “fake” inauguration is evidence enough that they have their misgivings on the electoral process.
“The international arena has already shown itself. 67 heads of State were invited to the fake inauguration, only three turned out. That means we have 64 heads of state who refused. If all these people refused, what other evidence do we need that they are with us. Because in a diplomatic language, nation against nation, state against nation, for a head of state to refuse, it takes something. The only thing they want now is to hear us. They want to know if the Zimbabwean diaspora is really there?” he said.
“The observer missions took it to that level, they took it to the international arena to say the issue of Zimbabwe now needs to be handled amongst the brotherhood and sisterhood of nations. No longer can it be confined to just Zimbabwe, nor to just Chief Justice Malaba in the Constitutional Court, it is now bigger than that. For now, us Zimbabweans in the diaspora, we are at the forefront, we must know 100 percent that if we in the diaspora do not speak, nothing happens back home. We have therefore now engaged a new gear.”
