CCC says Unity Day still meaningless in Zimbabwe

By staff writer

MAIN Opposition outfit, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says Unity Day commemorations remain a pipedream in Zimbabwe amid calls for the government to cease persecution forthwith.

CCC spokesperson Promise Mkwananzi said genuine national unity in Zimbabwe was a mirage.

“For now, genuine national unity day is a dream deferred,” he said.

“Today, (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa seeks to use the decapitation of our people and the annihilation of its vehicle the CCC and denigration of the people’s leader advocate Nelson Chamisa to force another unity façade.”

Mkwananzi called for comprehensive national unity that addresses people’s grievances.

“This comprehensive national reconciliation must be driven by the spirit of forgiveness, justice and truth telling,” he said.

“In the absence of this holistic process, this country will continue into further divisions and desperate actions as people seek to be heard and to be given the national platform to vent their long-standing grievances and scars.”

The Job Sikhala Solidarity Council said Unity Day is a reminder of Zanu PF politics of coercion and deceit.

“Zimbabwe’s national calendar dictates that citizens today commemorate Unity Day, a day when the PF Zapu party was coerced to the negotiating table and forced to swallow a poisoned chalice by Zanu PF in 1987,” the council said.

“In 2009, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was a victim of the same vile Zanu PF tactics, forced to enter into the so-called Government of National Unity to halt the mass killing of his supporters.”

The council said Zimbabweans deserve their right to dignity and freedom from State-sponsored lawfare.

“Job Sikhala is a victim of such law fare and has been inhumanely caged in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison for over 18 months,” the council said.

“The Sikhala case is synonymous with the case of Lieutenant General Lookout Masuku, who spent four years in prison, but had been declared innocent by the Supreme Court.”

Masuku, a ZPRA commander, was only released on the basis of ill health and went on to die at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals on April 5, 1986.