Exiled Matabeleland Liberation Organisation leader Paul
Siwela has revealed that he recently sneaked back into the country to bury his
father in Bulawayo.
Siwela escaped Zimbabwe in 2013 after he was charged with
treason alongside war veterans John Gazi and Charles Thomas after they
distributed fliers calling for the secession of Matabeleland.
Gazi and Thomas have since been acquitted of the charges by
the High Court, but Siwela remains holed up in an unknown country.
He said he had to return to the country last week to bury
his 90 year-old father King Siwela, who died on Monday.
“”Yes it’s true that my father has passed on in Bulawayo.
He was 90 years old and nine months and is survived by four children and 18
grandchildren as well as eight great grandchildren,” he said.
Siwela said he had last seen his father in August in
neighbouring South Africa where he had gone for treatment.
“I am pleased that I have lived up to 57 years having my
dad and was last with him in August 2019 when I had taken him for medical
attention to South Africa,”
he said.
Siwela confirmed that they had buried his father in
Bulawayo on Thursday. His mother died in 2016 and he could not return home to
bury her as he feared for his life.
Former president Robert Mugabe’s government declared him a
fugitive after he skipped the country in 2013.
Siwela says he still fears that he would be arrested if he
returned to Zimbabwe as President Emmerson Mnangagwa was Justice minister when
he was being persecuted.
At the time he was incarcerated for 90 days, with the state
refusing to release him on bail on the grounds that he would continue with his
subversive activities.
Siwela, who was one of the presidential candidates during
the controversial 2002 elections, has in the past been a member of
organisations that have been lobbying for the creation of a Mthwakazi State,
carved out of the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. Standard
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