Job Sikhala reunites Cham­isa & co

For the first time in over a dec­ade, Zim­b­abwe’s estranged oppos­i­tion lead­ers came together in one room on Fri­day night and spoke from the same micro­phone, push­ing one another towards one com­mon pur­pose, to dis­lodge Zanu PF from power.

Nel­son Cham­isa, the former pres­id­ent of Cit­izens Coali­tion for Change party, his former vice pres­id­ent Job Sikhala, Tendai Biti, Charlton Hwende, Mun­yaradzi Gwisai, Daniel Molokele, Zenzo Nkomo and oth­ers con­verged at Sapes Trust in Har­are for the launch of a book on Job Sikhala titled Foot­prints in the chains writ­ten by Mun­yaradzi Angelo Savanhu.

The book chron­icles the life of Job Sikhala, fea­tur­ing mainly his hec­tic polit­ical career in which he has been arres­ted, tor­tured and detained over 70 times.

Speaker after speaker spoke pas­sion­ately about the need for Zim­b­ab­weans, led by oppos­i­tion lead­ers to come together and declare an end to ‘the pre­vail­ing injustice, cor­rup­tion and dic­tat­or­ship’.

Cham­isa remin­isced on the good old days, and spoke a lot about the oppos­i­tion vibrancy then, declar­ing “there shall be free­dom soon”.

“I know that polit­ical views and opin­ions dif­fer and that is why we are there,” the former youth leader of the ori­ginal Move­ment for Demo­cratic Change (MDC) said.

“We are there because we must have dif­fer­ent opin­ions to cel­eb­rate because that is what we have been fight­ing for.

“I know Job Sikhala as a cour­ageous man who is pas­sion­ate about free­dom.

“I know Job as a man, who is pushed and moved by con­tro­versy.

“Today I have come to sup­port this ini­ti­at­ive to push for free­dom.”

Sikhala said the con­ver­gence of oppos­i­tion lead­ers was a sign of good things to come.

He said Zanu PF cel­eb­rated when they fought amongst them­selves as oppos­i­tion lead­ers.

Any recon­cili­ation and com­ing together shook them to the core, he said.

“This is the only event that has brought founder mem­bers of the demo­cratic struggle under one roof,” Sikhaka said.

“The dif­fer­ence between us is smal­ler than the national interest that we carry and must achieve.

“In whatever we do we must know that we are united under one goal – to see the removal of an evil regime and olig­arch that think they own Zim­b­abwe.

“Never say never. Those that have a his­tory together will remain focused on the big­ger pic­ture, no mat­ter the set­backs.”

Jacob Ngarivhume, one of the most fre­quently arres­ted polit­ical act­iv­ists who shared cells with Sikhala at Chikur­ubi Max­imum prison recoun­ted the deplor­able prison con­di­tions they were sub­jec­ted to, but declared their resolve to fight had been strengthened.

“We made a con­vic­tion and swore to each other that we will con­tinue to fight until Zim­b­abwe is a bet­ter place to live,” Ngarivhume said.

Mun­yaradzi Gwisai said there was need to ensure that the cur­rent gen­er­a­tion of polit­ical lead­ers must real­ize the pur­pose of their exist­ence – to lib­er­ate Zim­b­abwe.

“I want to say to Job that with those 70 arrests that he has endured he must see the ful­fill­ment of his efforts,” Gwisai said.

“We must ded­ic­ate ourselves to ensure that these ‘foot­prints and chains’ can­not be for noth­ing.

“It must be our gen­er­a­tion and the gen­er­a­tion of the young people that must break the chains to ensure full and final lib­er­a­tion of this coun­try. Zim­b­abwe shall be free and Zvigananda shall be defeated.” Standard