Nelson Chamisa just can't dislodge ZANU PF- Cecilia Chimbiri

Hosia Mviringi
Apr 26, 2020
11 min read

Updated: Apr 28, 2020

...We need a 'Solomon Mahlangu'.

Cecilia Chimbiri-MDC Alliance Dep. Youth Assembly Chairperson.

An exclusive interview with MDC Alliance Deputy Youth Assembly Chairperson Cecilia Chimbiri.

27 April 2020

By Hosia Mviringi

The MDC Alliance President Advocate Nelson Chamisa is too inept and incapable , while the Youth Assembly is just not millitant enough to remove ZANU PF from power.

This was revealed by the party's Deputy Youth Chairperson Miss Cecilia Chimbiri in an exclusive interview with this publication.

In an indepth yet wide ranging interview which was mainly prompted by a video recording which she circulated on Social media, Cecilia Chimbiri revealed that the MDC Alliance Youth Assembly elected to celebrate and commemorate a foreign fallen hero in the mould of one Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu because locally they couldn't find one such brave millitant young hero to celebrate.

Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was an anti apartheid activist who was hanged by the then apartheid regime of South Africa for championing the cause of majority rule and racial equality.

Cecilia Chimbiri in her message intimated that the memory of Mahlangu invokes in them a fighting spirit which they believe is missing in the Youth Assembly to rise up and confront the ruling ZANU PF in their quest for power.

The MDC Alliance Youth leader hsensationally claimed that the MDC Alliance needs a 'Solomon Mahlangu' as its leader today more than ever.

She said that the current crop of leadership lacks the Mahlangu element that is desperately needed to cause a revolution.

Chimbiri said that it was evident that Chamisa has failed to imitate Solomon Mahlangu both in militancy and bravery adding that eloquence alone is not enough to rattle a dictatorship.

She admitted that at least for now not a single leader in movement has tried to imitate Solomon Mahlangu, thus the call to invoke his spirit and reawaken the Youth Assembly to fight to wrest power from ZANU PF.

Hereunder we publish the exclusive interview with Hosia Mviringi...

Hosia Mviringi (HM) : Hello Cde Chimbiri how are you ? I have just seen a video recording which you circulated on social media. I was wondering if you would be in a position to respond to a few questions which I have concerning the position of the MDC Alliance Youth Assembly regarding the recent Supreme Court ruling and the threats by Senator Douglas Mwonzora andMorgan Komichi to action the Supreme Court ruling and to take over business at MRT House and the way forward.

Cecilia Chimbiri (CC) : Please note that I am personally, as an official of the party not authorized to speak to media on official issues but if it is in connection with the Solomon Mahlangu Commemorations please bring it on.

HM : Who was Solomon Mahlangu ?

CC : Solomon Mahlangu born on July 10 1956 and was hanged on April 6 1979.

Solomon left South Africa to be trained as an Umkhonto weSizwe soldier in Mozambique and Angola. He spent six months in a refugee camp near Xai-Xai in Mozambique and then received military training at an ANC camp in Angola.

On June 11 1977 he returned to South Africa as a cadre to fight the apartheid regime , for charges associated with the attacks in Goch Street in June 1977. He was therefore charged with two counts of murder and several charges under the Terrorism Act.Sep 3, 2019. He was hanged under the terrorism act ,

When they took him to Pretoria at a prison he was to be hanged he refused to be handcuffed, insisting that he wanted to die like a soldier.He was hanged.

HM : How would he have felt with events unfolding in the party?

CC : Solomon was a young, disciplined, fearless and dedicated soldier Regards :what is happening currently in the party he would have been a martyr to save the generations and save the peoples agenda He was simply going to stand for what is right and that is with the people. He would have been arrested right now for unlocking the lockdown to confront ED and company who are dicing with peoples lives through corruption and diverting attention from their blunders.

He would have lost control with rage because the way Zimbabweans are living and the current situation is nothing but a deliberate move by looters at the expense of the people. He was not going to stand there and watch as things go on like this.He would have offered himself up to the people as a matyr.

HM : What are you going to do as Youth Assembly to make sure that what he believed in is not lost given that people like Douglas Mwonzora are threatening the unity of the party?

CC : We will guard the people's agenda jealously and when anyone tries to break that egg we will not watch them but we will not allow them to divert our attention from the real issues affecting the country. We want to be free from corruption, unemploymen, hunger lack of free access to education,from a rotten health system etc. Our economy is in tatters and two men have chosen to be the proverbial Judas Iscariots. Its familiar because even in the scriptures it had to happen so they be fulfilled and that is why in the story of Jesus there were sell outs. There were those that denied him but still all that had to happen for us to be saved from sin.

So the men you refer to as the youths we view them as ants. Let them go, there is nothing broken. The bullet train keeps moving until we reach our final destination.

We Will not stray

We continue adressing the pertinent issues and readying for our final revolution to see this incompetent government out.

We are also concentrating on very important issues, health issues and people's lives which are at stake as Covid 19 and hunger that are stalking us .

We are raising a lot of awareness and encouraging Zimbabwe to stay home and be safe as well as exercise extreme caution as we try to flatten the curve and contain the deadly virus. We say to them hold on despite the hunger that is reaching a notch higher in the majority of households in Zimbabwe, we say hold on freedom is coming .

HM : I have watched your Video and wondered why you had to choose to commemorate a foreign fallen hero yet there are many such Illustrious sons and daughters. What really informed your choice of hero to commemorate ?

CC : First of all it was 6 April and in the region one of the outstanding soldiers was executed on the particular day and coincidentally this years commemoration came at a time when tlhe ZANU PF regime is doing all it can to vapor the opposition.They are having sleepless nights over President Nelson Chamisa just like Saul sought for David ,Pharoah sought for Moses and Herod sought for Jesus Christ, its exactly what the ZANU PF is doing, creating decoys to destabilise the Peoples Movement and to divert the peoples attention.They think they can dismantle Nelson Chamisa and MDC Alliance.I laugh when history repeats itself and rather when parables have found a way of interchanging characters .

My choice of hero couldn't have come at a better time as every year some of us who know history make it a habit to celebrate outstanding people. We celebrate 16 June of the 1976 Soweto uprising. Its Youth day not only for South Africa but also for other progressives like us. So choosing a hero had a lot to do with the date he is commemorated and his determination in seeing a free South Africa .

HM : What is the connection between Solomon Mahlangu's militancy and the recent Supreme Court ruling ?

CC : Like I said 6 April is the day Solomon Mahlangu is commemorated because it was the day he lost his life through hanging by a court order .

The coincidence of a life of one fearless young soldier who was given a court order to be executed is what links the Supreme Court judgement. It reminds us how ruthless governments take advantage of institutions to thwart threats to their stranglehold on power. In this case the opposition is giving the ZANU PF government headaches.

The same courts hanged Kalushi are the same courts that are used today to decide who runs MDC Alliance and who leads it.

The same courts that legitimized the illegitimate.

It's a shame that 40 years later in independent countries like mine we are taken back to when we fought colonial rule and the apartheid system in South Africa.

It means that we need more Solomons today for real freedom to come. So Solomon Mahlangu is a big inspiration and reminder that we need to keep fighting until freedom comes.

We will be free one day and its soon and very soon.

HM : In your video recording you used the example of Solomon Mahlangu as an inspiration for the MDC Youth Assembly to rise up.

Would you equate your circumstances currently in Zimbabwe to that which existed in Apatheid South Africa then ?

CC : Not to equate because some of us know the gruesomeness of apartheid.

Of course apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation and Independent Zimbabwe currently is a cocktail of years of institutionalised violence on the citizens and the capture of institutions. ZANU PF regime wants to transform Zimbabwe into a one party state.

Human rights violations, persecution of political leaders, harassment, abductions, disappearances, court orders ,constant barricades at the opposition headquarters like we are a banned party .

So we yearn for freedom but its not going to ever come on a silver plate, we need to be as militant as Solomon Mahlangu if we are to enjoy political and economic freedoms in our lifetime and for posterity.

Watch: Cecilia R Chimbiri rallies the MDC Alliance Youth Assembly to rise up and take the ZANU PF government head on.

HM : In your earlier submission you alluded to Solomon Mahlangu having been a fearless fighter who, if he was the MDC leader he would have been arrested already for UNLOCKING the LOCKDOWN by confronting President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Company for Corruption and other vices.

Is this to imply that MDC Alliance President Adv Nelson Chamisa is not as militant as the Youth Assembly would expect in order to dislodge ZANU PF?

CC : Your question was referring to the youth as well as my message. President Nelson Chamisa can not do it alone.He has his troops in us the Youth Assembly, the Solomons, and we are the first line of defence.He is the alternative statesman.We will not stand by and watch him getting helpless in the face of an attack.

Earlier on in my response I decried how Mahlangu as a person would have been disgusted by the situation we find ourselves in, the pitiable attempts to destabilise and destroy the party, how he would have never let Judas hang himself after selling out.

So we are invoking the Solomon spirit to manifest in the Youth Assembly, as well as in our leadership so that we rise up and fight.

Advocate Nelson Chamisa has fought countless inequalities from as early as his youth days. He utilised every theatre of the struggle and he is an inspiration to me as a person. He has become a target because they know his level of consciousness and alternative solutions to our crisis.

If let loose they will be gone in no time and that's why they use all the old tricks from decoys to suppression.

But as of today we as Youth Assembly live to protect and defend him as he is the President of the party, rigged as he was, we will protect him.

HM : Have you, as the Youth Assembly, tried to reach out to the other faction to seek reconciliation so as to move the Party forward ?

CC : It is my personal belief that in unity people can achieve more.

The party doesnt have a closed door policy.Everyone is welcome to join the freedom train anytime but as the youths its my wish that we see the clearer picture and knowing who the enemy of the people is rather than supporting blindly. We believe that with Advocate Nelson Chamisa we will reach to the land flowing milk and honey.

HM : You also said that it is your duty as the Youth Assembly to guard the people's agenda.

Is it possible that you can guard this agenda against the law as in this case where a Court ruling has been delivered ?

CC : A court ruling ?

The Court ruling is a theory and we will guard and protect the physical. We will ensure that the theory (court order) does not happen.

How can they determine how the party is run and who leads it?

Even Mugabe in his ruthlessness was not that stupid.

The only guide we have is that of the people.

It's a fight thrown on the table and some of us are ready for the battlefield.

No one will mess with the people's agenda and get away with it.

We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

HM : Miss Cecilia Chimbiri our political space in Zimbabwe has historically been known to be Patriarchal to a greater extent.

As a female senior leader in the MDC Alliance Party, how do you deal with prejudice from Male colleagues and competitors as well as jealousy from fellow female Party associates ?

CC : It starts with you identifying me as a female senior leader. I am Cecillia Chimbiri, a senior youth leader, no need to remind people that I am a female or speak in code about it because that's were promotion of stereotypes actually begin. But maybe for the purpose of your questions lets get to it.

I m just wondering , if this interview was with an Arthur were you going to ask the same question. Being here in senior youth leadership should already show that I can weather the storm.

A lot of people are really threatened by super-smart women.Leadership knows no gender. You just need to have your head in the game and you should be focused.

For me through experience it’s no longer devastating and frightening because a lot of women have done it before. It is possible for a woman to emerge and rise in leadership and this is how lives are changed, having stories to look up to. It changes the game because now peoole are no longer frightened.

We have seven senior female leaders in the youth assembly and they earned it so it means the imbalances are slowly dying away.

I know the color of prejudice so I always call it out when I see it.

However I do it carefully because over the years I have learnt that as I try to work through negatives I cant be too personal because Ip never want emotions to the have the power to overwhelm me. There are costs that come with confrontation but still im not silenced.

As for competition I never really adress such because it boils down to self introspection. Each one of us as we exist have different strengths so for me to notice who is in competition with me it means both me and the other person will be on the wrong lane.I am happy to work with any like minded person because rome wasn't also built by one person.

The issue of jealousy from fellow women in this space and new order has vanished because I think what sparked it in the past was the male dominated space that would set women up to compete due to increased scrutiny and a scarcity of top leadership positions for women. Its a thing of the past so if it exists I dont notice because I am busy in my lane.

HM : Are there plans by the MDC Alliance foot soldiers as you put it, the Youth Assembly, to 'unlock the lockdown ?

CC : No .The youth assembly is a highly disciplined wing.It will never dice with life especially knowing we are in a public health situation that could wipe out lives.

The assembly is cracking their heads and worried sick that people are not in total lockdown and might risk loosing lives thanks to Mnangagwa and company who did not raise awareness,and make sufficient plans for the citizens in lockdown.

Our fellow citizens are faced with a Crisis on a Crisis, Covid-19 on top of hunger so we are busy cracking on how the situation can be rescued etc.

HM : If so how do you plan to 'unlock' the Lockdown and what are your desired outcomes ?

CC : It's not happening so let's pretend this question aint here.

HM : If government had to do one thing to make you happy what would that thing be?

CC : They should step down.

HM : What is your message to your supporters and to those that are contesting for power against your within the opposition circles ?

CC: In my opposition circles the only thing we contest is election rigging , accountability of the illegitimate government, poor health care, unemployment ,access to basic education ,judiciary capture, misplaced priorities ,homelessness etc.

So my message to ZANU PF is you can run with corruption at the expense of the people but you cant hide. You can throw us all in prison but you can't silence the voice of the people, you can't stop an idea whose time has come.

2020 is the year of people power and people's action until Victory is delivered. We keep fighting until the People of Zimbabwe have bread and butter on their tables".

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