MDC deputy chairperson Job Sikhala (JS) became the 21st
person in Zimbabwe to face charges of attempting to subvert President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s government after he allegedly told a rally in Bikita that the MDC
would overthrow Mnangagwa before his term of office ends in 2023. Sikhala
speaks to Newsday senior reporter Blessed Mhlanga (ND) on his experiences.
ND: You are facing charges of attempting to subvert a
constitutionally-elected government following statements you allegedly uttered
at a Bikita rally, how do you feel about that charge?
JS: Basically, what you must understand is that when a
matter is before the courts, there is a cardinal principle at law and it’s
called sub judice. It means that you must not begin to discuss the merits of
the matter, but what I can say is that it is now a common political charge many
political opponents of the system are facing in Zimbabwe.
I am number 21 since Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration
came to power. If we go at this rate, Zimbabwe is going to have more political
prisoners, more than those witnessed during the period of Ian Douglas Smith,
even more than political prisoners witnessed during apartheid in South Africa.
The way government is trying to throttle democratic space
in our country has not been witnessed in the history of this country, even
[former President] Robert Mugabe did not try to kill dissent in this country by
charging people.
ND: Are you shaken by these charges?
JS: The period to be shaken by dictators has long gone. To
some of us, we happen to be modern fighters. It’s a commitment that I gave
myself when I joined politics and the movement, not for the purpose of seeking
anything, but seeking the liberty and freedom of our people.
So it is a committed mission that does not allow me to be
shaken by these people. Prison for political deliverance has been home for true
revolutionaries. Therefore, I cannot panic from being put in prison for the
purposes of demanding the political freedoms of the people. Rather, it is an
incentive.
ND: Recently you had a rally and seemed more emboldened in
confronting Mnangagwa, what drives you?
JM: I must be clear that it’s a democratic and
constitutional right for every citizen in our country to participate in
politics, because these are important fundamental rights that are provided for
in terms of Chapter 4 of our national Constitution, which is basically the
declaration of rights.
It’s different from the Bill of rights. The Bill of rights
is a wish list, but a declaration is peremptory to the extent that a person has
a right to exercise them without fear or favour. The other issue is we have
been in this struggle for a very long time. Morgan Tsvangirai passed away, our
founding deputy president Gibson Sibanda passed away, our founding national
chairperson (Isaac Matongo) passed away. There are many cadres and committed
senior officials of the MDC.
When we have not reached the destination, every sentence
has a full stop and every composition has a conclusion. So we must have an end
game in the way we are going to deal with the situation so that the people of
Zimbabwe reach the destination. So, if we are not going to get the new Chris
Hanis and the Josiah Tongogaras and the Herbert Chitepos and the Nelson
Mandelas, definitely we are not going anywhere.
ND: Let me take you to your arrest, how was it handled?
JS: There are still some elements within our police, who
are a minority, who are overzealous, whose mission and also I don’t know the
agenda, whether they want to be thanked by the current regime for maltreating
the current regime or not. One Superintendent Daniel Josephs treated me quite
badly both during the period I was at Harare Central Police Station and also
when they smuggled and abducted me to Bikita without the knowledge of both my
lawyers and family.
Specifically, there is one incident that really angered me
most, where I am taking the legal remedy in terms of suing them. I have already
completed the summons and issued a 60-day notice in terms of the State
Liabilities Act to the Minister of Home affairs, Attorney-General and also to
him as an individual on the maltreatment when he visited me during the time of
my incarceration.
When they abducted and smuggled me out of Harare Central
Police Station, after locking out my legal practitioners, they took me to the
car park, where three cars were parked, one a Toyota Quantum minibus and two
Toyota Hilux vehicles.
All of them were filled with soldiers and State Security personnel.
They bundled me into the Toyota Hilux that was between the two vehicles.
ND: How did you know that the people in the car were
soldiers? Where they in uniform?
JS: Yes, they were in uniforms. There were about six
soldiers who were in that Quantum and they were also six riot police officers
in that same car.
ND: What was going through your mind during that time when
you saw the soldiers and Central Intelligence Organisation operatives?
JS: Absolutely nothing. I was not even afraid even when
Daniel Josephs put a hood to blindfold me over my head. I never panicked. I was
ready for everything. We need to have the new Josiah Tongogaras in our country.
We need the new Itai Dzamaras in our country. People who are prepared to die
for their beliefs and the spirit of Herbert Chitepo, Josiah Tongogara, Itai
Dzamara has currently possessed me that I am prepared to die for the common
good of our people.
ND: The government is saying it’s a new dispensation and
that the democratic space is being widened and improved, yet you are suggesting
otherwise.
JS: Only fools and people who are not able to study
carefully that this government is worse than the people who were here before
they took over power will be praising these people. There is no new
dispensation at all. It’s a deception which Mnangagwa is trying to sell both locally
and internationally, that there is a new dispensation in Zimbabwe, but everyone
has witnessed how people were shot from point-blank range in the streets of
Harare on the first of August (2018), between January 14 and 17 (this year)
when the ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Unions) and the citizens of this country
called for that stay-away.
I was so astonished with the level of torture the people
underwent, I saw those who I represented in court. It took the audacity for me
to represent for free down-trodden citizens of this country in Chitungwiza,
where over 200 people were being tortured in police cells.
ND: These events that you describe, are they not what
motivated you to use the words that you used at the Bikita rally?
JS: Whether I said those words or not is not the question
on the basis that there is no evidence or proof that I said those words. I
don’t know why people are jumping into conclusion. I don’t want to pre-empt my
defence in court.
The truth of the matter is that only a fool would not know that
the existence of every political leader in the country or a political
organisation is to remove the government in power. So for them to be astonished
that they want to be removed from power by a political leader and a political
opponent means we are being governed by people who are insane.
They must know that my real existence and my every strategy
and plan on a daily basis is to remove them from power because I am not part
and parcel of their crew and government. So, specifically, my existence on its
own must tell them that I want them to be out of power.
ND: With hindsight, do you regret the Bikita rally?
JS: It’s a calling I will never regret. Many people,
including my relatives and friends, were asking me that. You have worked so
hard that you have almost everything that you need in terms of financial needs,
you have almost everything. My wife was asking me: “Daddy, why are you doing
this and risking yourself over this? You have almost everything that you need
at our house.”
I told her that the satisfaction of your needs should not
drive you to be selfish. The majority, almost 98% of Zimbabweans, are
suffering. They are not lawyers like me and even some lawyers are not fortunate
like me, they are suffering.
ND: There has been talk that there were divisions over the
statements you made in Bikita. Your party released a statement that seemed to
distance itself from you. Has your issue created divisions in your party?
JS: The people in Zimbabwe rush into conclusions. People
are allowed to see differently in a huge liberation movement like the MDC. It’s
a common phenomenon in huge and large political organisations. Hani differed in
1978 with a gang of 15 that was at Robben Island, when the gang of 15 at the
Robben Island wanted a soft landing and negotiate with the Apartheid government
of (Pieter Willem) PW Botha to be able to be given a soft landing.
If you remember and it’s written in our own history that
when Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa were in prison, they totally differed
with Dr Joshua Nkomo and that did not lead to them disowning him. Differing in
political opinion should be accepted in the democratic culture that we want to
create in our country. Newsday
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