Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) has petitioned SADC calling for the regional organisation’s involvement in its demand for the creation of an independent state (Mthwakazi) covering Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces, separate from Zimbabwe.
CITE reported that MRP members, Tobias Fuyane, Chairman of Botswana South Gaborone, and Leonard Dube, Information and Publicity Secretary from the same province, delivered the petition to SADC offices on Thursday.
A letter written by MRP President Mqondisi Moyo and buttressing the call for Mthwakazi’s self-determination was attached to the petition, as well as a recently signed petition paper with 25 880 signatures.
The SADC Secretariat stamped, signed, and registered the petition under reference number 3951863. Reads the petition:
PETITION BY THE MTHWAKAZI PEOPLE FOR THE RESTORATION OF THEIR KINGDOM & STATE
1. This petition is inspired by the standing resolution of the United Nations with regards to the autonomy and self-determination of all minority groups whose human rights are being denied and their dignity trampled on by their majority ethnic groups anywhere in the world.
2. We are a proud and law-abiding nation kingdom nation that was established by King Mzilikazi Khumalo bringing together many ethnic groups and creating a sense of singular nationhood amongst them, that he then called the Mthwakazi kingdom state.
3. The colonization of our state was never associated with that of Mashonaland or Zimbabwe as we were still a sovereign state at the time this region of Southern Africa was colonized in 1890. Therefore, our decolonization could not have been synchronized and associated with that of Mashonaland or Zimbabwe.
4. Our country was invaded in November 1893 by the British South African Company (BSA Co) on November 4, 1893, in defiance of the authority of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. According to the Moffatt Treaty of Peace and Unity signed on the 11 of February 1888 between Queen Victoria and King Lobengula Khumalo, Britain and Mthwakazi were allies and allies did not invade each other.
5. We are aware however that after the invasion and conquest of Mthwakazi by the BSA Co, the British crown on the other hand, granted the Royal Charter of Incorporation to the BSA Co, conferring it with all the powers of a government on all lands north of the Limpopo River. In the subsequent action that the BSA Co referred to as the “Victoria Agreement of 14 August 1893” which is the instrument by which the British Crown legalized the action of displacing the Mthwakazi nation and looting our cattle. Such action on the part of the British Crown was illegal.
6. The British Crown also legalised the continued occupation of our kingdom state illegally by proclaiming the Matabeleland Order-in-Council on the 19th of July 1894 where it was claimed that our Kingdom had been broken down and replaced by a better system. Such a declaration was racist and false.
In the letter, Moyo said there has never been a political agreement in Zimbabwe that has benefited the Ndebele people. He wrote:
Whether the 1923 amalgamation, the 1980 Zimbabwe independence, the 1987 so-called Unity Accord, have not been in our favour, but in that of Mashonaland people. The 2017 military coup worked for the Mashonaland people.
They alone were at the table negotiating exit packages for Robert Mugabe, and posts in the new government. None from among us were invited.
The Global Political Agreement that followed the disputed election outcome of 2008 didn’t involve us either.
All principals in the deal were Mashonaland people. Whatever was discussed was for the good of Mashonaland, with nothing for Mthwakazi.
He appealed to SADC to also consider “the Mthwakazi Self-determination agenda” when deliberating on Zimbabwe’s disputed 2023 Harmonised Elections.
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