Nothing To Cheer On Independence Day – Sikhala

“The regime has presided over the deaths of more people than Smith since 1980,” said Sikhala whose party is a breakaway from the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. “The regime has driven more people into exile than Smith,” he told journalists on Monday.
 
“Unemployment is higher than during Smith’s time, dictatorship and oppression has intensified more than during Ian Douglas Smith’s time. Torture and detentions of political rivals has accelerated more than during Ian Smith’s time.”

He said Zimbabwe was under a “new imperial order of black force oppressing its own”. “Robert Mugabe is a tyrannical oppressor masquerading as a liberator who must be shunned by all right thinking people. He has monopolised the Independence Day to suit his own delusionary agendas and those who gatecrash it are ridiculed,” he said.

He said as a result of continued denial of basic freedoms and human rights abuses, Zimbabweans had nothing to cheer on Independence Day commemorated on April 18 to celebrate Zimbabwe’s attainment of independence from Britain in 1980.

The Zanu (PF) spokesperson dismissed Sikhala’s outbursts as childish, saying his actions were largely motivated by the desire to please his “paymasters from the West”. “It is a shame that the beneficiaries of the liberation struggle are the ones who are saying nonsense.”

He said Sikhala had benefitted from free University education because of the sacrifice made by President Mugabe and other gallant sons of the soil.

Zimbabwe;s independence was attained after a protracted and bloody war waged by combatants under the leadership of President Mugabe and the late Vice President, Joshua Nkomo.