‘We’ve not abandoned Sikhala’
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THE opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has not deserted its incarcerated member Job Sikhala, but the party is avoiding attracting the ire of its opponents, Harare mayor Jacob Mafume has said. Sikhala is incarcerated together with opposition Transform Zimbabwe president Jacob Ngarivhume.
In an interview, Mafume said leaders of the opposition were avoiding actions that would land them in trouble.
“We want to avoid the acts of the oppressor becoming an indictment on you. The continued detention of Sikhala and Ngarivhume is not an indictment on us,” he said.
“It is an indictment on those people that are detaining him and also an indictment on the Judiciary that allows itself to be in a position where it detains somebody on a pre-trial incarceration for more than a year.
“What we could do to make the situation worse is to go again on unplanned processes that might actually cloud the situation as to who is the problem here.”
He said the CCC was still pushing, adding that the greatest leverage they could give their colleagues was to be angry enough to overwhelm the rigging machinery and take over government post-August 23. Mafume, who is part of the team which formed the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said they had drawn many lessons from their political journey.
“We have gathered a lot of experience now. We still have the same fire, but we now have the benefit or the wisdom of hindsight. We know what is in the realm of the possible, what to push and also to measure and manage our excitement at any process that we are doing and also to avoid certain dangers not only to ourselves but also to our supporters,” he said.
“The 2008 violence taught us a different whole new side to what we were facing and how to measure our tactics and what we need to do and how we do it going forward in many ways to avoid harming ourselves and causing harm to supporters who in most cases would be innocent.”
Mafume is vying for the ward 19 seat in the harmonised elections.
Source Newsday
