Paul Siwela floats secession plan Jeffrey Muvundusi • 6 August 2014 1:37PM Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin BULAWAYO - Paul Siwela, a former presidential candidate and self-exiled leader of Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO), has said the “people of Mthwakazi” were getting ready to execute the secession plan. The 50-year-old Siwela, who is thought to be domiciled in Sweden after skipping the country amid a treason trial, accused the ruling Zanu PF party of running down the country and failing the Matabeleland region. “Zimbabwe is a failed State and heading towards the abyss,” Siwela told the Daily News from self-imposed exile. “It is for this and other reasons like gross abuse of human rights, corruption, Matabele genocide and lack of accountability and abuse of office by the government and failure to address Matabeleland political grievances that the current situation shall deliver the birth of the Republic of Matabeleland.” Siwela together with Charles Thomas and John Gazi, former leaders of the Matabeleland Liberation Front, were arrested in 2011 on allegations of treason and attempting to subvert a constitutionally-elected government. The trio distributed fliers calling on members of the public and the army to rise up against the government. The High Court has since acquitted Gazi but ruled that Thomas and Siwela have a case to answer. Speaking to the Daily News, from his base yesterday, Siwela said: “The people of Matabeleland have been suffering discrimination since November 3, 1893 when the British colonial masters annexed the region. “As if that was not enough, they further lost their independence and sovereignty and suffered genocide under President Robert Mugabe who has dismally failed and falsely projected himself as a pan-Africanist yet he is an anti-thesis of pan-Africanism.” While not giving a time frame when the plan will likely be put into motion, Siwela said MLO intends to raise the national flag of the “Republic of Matabeleland” by 2018, claiming they have already penned a national anthem that is set to be sung during the inaugural hoisting of the flag. He claimed Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces were ready for the so-called separation. “At the moment, the agenda is to commit to the independence of our country,” he said. “We have finished our constitution for the Republic of Matabeleland and we have our coat of arms as well. “The people of Matabeleland have resolved to combine their efforts and work towards establishing their independence from Zimbabwe which is a colonial master being a successor to Rhodesia. Remember, there was no country called Zimbabwe before April 1980.” Spelling out his ambitions for the new State, Siwela said they would recruit 30 000 civilians to form the Matabeleland Defence Force “to defend and protect our political integrity.” He added: “We will have a 10 000-member police force, 3 000 correctional services, 100 000 civil servants that would include district, provincial and central government; some would be absorbed in the agriculture, mining, tourism services, a few parastatals and State-owned entities, industry and wildlife.”
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 04:04:51 +0000
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