ZIMBABWE--THABITHA Khumalo, an MDC-T Member of Parliament broke down in tears in the middle of her Gukurahundi speech in Britain's Oxford when for the first time she publicly revealed how her father was forced at gun point by the notorious 5th Brigade to have sex with her elder sister, his daughter.
"I have chosen to speak about this sad experience in public here in the United Kingdom because in Zimbabwe we are not allowed to mention such things. We are just dying in our misery. For me, speaking about it like this is therapeutic because I am an angry woman," said Khumalo.
Khumalo whose trip to the UK was facilitated by the chairman of South-End-On-Sea Stanford Biti to attend the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, literally broke down in tears and had to be briefly taken out of Oxford's Headington Community Centre, to allow her calm down.
"I know there are some who say we must be silent over the Gukurahundi issue, but I am saying forgive these people for they don't know what they are talking about, we saw it in Matabeleland and Midlands areas. That was a crime against humanity. I don't want to die before the issue of Gukurahundi is addressed, for I won't rest in peace," she said.
"Gukurahundi came to our rural home wearing red berets. They brutalised us and worse still my father. They forced my father to undress and have sex with my sister while the Gukurahundi were watching and having a laugh. From that point, my sister has never been well, she has been sectioned and admitted to mental health institutions due to the trauma of the incident" said Khumalo before breaking down in tears.
For about 10 minutes proceedings were stopped as a group of MDC-UK women including deputy provincial chairperson Phiona Madanhi and Luton chairperson Suzette Kwenda whisked her out of the building as the MP wept uncontrollable, haunted by painful personal memories of the Gukurahundi era.
When she came back, Khumalo apologised and said: "I am sorry for what I have done to you this afternoon, its all because of what Mugabe has done to me as a human being. As MDC we will never let those behind Gukurahundi get away with murder. Of late Mugabe has been preaching peace, but last month as MPs we were beaten up in parliament when we were debating human rights violations in Zimbabwe".
South-End-On Sea chairman Biti also said the Gukurahundi legacy cannot be allowed to go unaddressed, saying it was haunting the nation.
"We see a lot of Zimbabweans in the UK from Matabeleland being deported every time because they have South African documents, yet these are Zimbabweans we know very well. During Gukurahundi, there were many orphans left behind and since the Zimbabwean law says to write an examination you should have a birth certificate, yet these they don't as their parents were murdered by Gukurahundi so they can't have Zimbabweans identity certificates. So what many in Matabeleland did upon finishing primary school they crossed to South Africa and because of the language similarities they managed to documents of that country," said Biti.
Biti urged politicians and those in diaspora to lobby the British government to regularise the stay of those from Matabeleland in possession of South African documents.
"The current country guidance say Matabeleland is a safe place, I am saying this is wrong, Matabeleland has always suffered yet very few people would talk about this, and I am telling you that in South End we want to launch a fierce campaign to assist those from Matabeleland applying for asylum with South African documents. It's easy to establish whether someone is Zimbabwean or South African," he said.
MP Khumalo added on Biti's and said: "The country guidance is an injustice to people of Matabeleland who have already suffered so much under the watch of President Mugabe".
"We are currently talking directly to authorities here to try and furnish them with the real situation in Zimbabwe," she said.
Khumalo said a Britain must review some of its laws which allowed a former member of the Central Intelligence Organisation Philip Machemedze to be granted a stay in the UK due to the Human Rights perspective.
"These are people who are killing us in Zimbabwe, then they come to the UK and use their evil actions to claim asylum in order to enjoy the comforts of the United Kingdom. Is this right?"
Khumalo said Machemedze should be deported back to Zimbabwe to "face the music".
via bulawayo24
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