Shame on the 16 SADC member countries for not speaking out:
These countries are Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Dr. Walter Mzembi is one of the most respected African tourism experts and long-serving tourism minister of Zimbabwe. He was also the foreign minister of that country, and a candidate for Secretary-General for the UNWTO, before being forced to flee to South Africa in exile. He has been living in exile now for 7 years and knows what it means if no one speaks out.
Mzembi has been active in tourism on many fronts, also at the African Tourism Board and World Tourism Network, and was awarded a Tourism Hero while in Excile and during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been speaking out today for a young, promising, and proud school child in Zimbabwe, the country has to stay away from but loves.
This child Nicole Chabata was thrown into one of the most dangerous prisons only for speaking out against the brutal current government in her country.
Former Zimbabwe tourism and foreign affairs minister Dr. Walter Mzembi has written a statement addressed to Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders over the detention of female student Nicole Chabata. He is seen as a Global Business Development Consultant and International Relations Guru
Mzembi bemoans SADC leaders’ neglect of the girl’s plight: He writes:
SADC Presidents came for the 44th Summit and left this minor Nicole Chabata incarcerated in the notorious adult Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
They have met at least once after that most recently with President Mnangagwa at the FOCAC meeting in China, still, no check on whether Nicole was eventually released to prepare for her “O” level Exams, let alone the rest of the detainees locked up ironically on the Day of African Child commemorated on the 16th of June to mark the brutal felling of students in Soweto by the Apartheid Regime.
Amongst the Presidents was the Tanzanian President Suluhu Samia, a mother and matriarch figure in the male-dominated club who should be checking and following up with her newly ordained brother Chairman of SADC_News on the condition of this girl child whom she left holed up in an infamous adult prison.
Many Country Presidents who went on a guided tour of our beautiful Zimbabwe including Official Masisi who was ‘flabbergasted ‘and awed by Precabe Farm the President’s seven-star agrarian retreat also forgot to put in a word for this child.
Our Founding Fathers of SADC, themselves past Frontline States Presidents would have asked for a prison tour knowing their liberation credentials & mindset as we all do with some of them having spent 27 years in prison like Nelson Mandela Cyril Ramaphosa’s mentor.
Cyril is probably too busy trying to balance things in his “historical” GNU to worry about some girl he left in this dingy prison after all he wants 1 million of these illegal Zimbabweans out of sight soonest.
President Mnangagwa did 10 years so the story of how prison hardens a minor’s mind is not new to him, he is infamously accredited for being “unforgiving” because of what jail did to him as a minor in an adult prison from which he escaped the gallows by a whisker.
Talk about “unforgiveness.” Some of us have lived it in exile for 7 years!
So what happened to empathy and brotherhood in this SADC Club let alone peer review? Nicole deserves the fullness of her childhood stolen by prison and by adults who should know better.
Maiguru Zimbabwe’s First Lady mudzimai wenhaka muripi? I heard you say some mature stuff and counsel to a London Reporter last night, stand up for this girl please ndapota. Tatenda…
Zimbabwe’s president, 81-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa Zimbabwe takes his children to see statues in China whilst condemning children of others to a maximum prison in his country, so he won’t be embarrassed when other heads of state visit his nation at the SADC conference.
The main objectives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are to achieve economic development, peace and security, and growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa, and support the socially disadvantaged through Regional Integration.
These objectives are to be achieved through increased Regional Integration, built on democratic principles, and equitable and sustainable development.
SADC heads of state recently came to Zimbabwe for the 44th Summit on August 17 and left this minor Nicole Chabata incarcerated in the notorious adult Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. Not one president spoke out for the kid.
A week before the conference, Amnesty International rang the alarm bells saying:
- More than 160 people arrested since mid-June before the upcoming SADC summit in Harare
- Evidence of torture or other ill-treatment
- “Sets a dangerous tone for the bloc’s commitment to human rights” – Idriss Ali Nassah
Zimbabwean authorities must end their crackdown against opposition and civil society members ahead of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit scheduled for 17 August 2024 in Harare, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release everyone arrested for exercising their rights.
Authorities must also promptly and effectively investigate allegations of torture or other ill-treatment of detainees and hold any suspected perpetrators accountable in fair proceedings, the groups said. Further, SADC must urgently demand an end to this assault on human rights as it prepares to hand the bloc’s leadership to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“Since mid-June, Zimbabwean authorities have conducted a massive crackdown on dissent. More than 160 people have been arrested so far including elected officials, opposition members, union leaders, students, and journalists,” said Khanyo Farise, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
Political analyst Majaira Jairosi commented on the situation, saying, “This is very sad & sadism at its highest level. The 81-year-old Zimbabwe president Emmerson Mnangagwa Zimbabwe takes his children to see statues in China whilst condemning children of others to a maximum prison.
When you think Mangagwa’s evilness can get better, it gets worse. I find it hard to understand why Mnangagwa is like that.”
Nicole is due to sit for her Ordinary Level exams next month, but she is currently being unjustly detained at Chikurubi Female Prison for a crime she did not commit.
She is one of the #Avondale78 who were wrongfully arrested on June 16, 2024.
Nicole had registered to write 10 subjects with the Zimbabwe School Examination Council, but now she risks missing her chance to take these exams. As schools open today for the third and final term of 2024, Nicole remains imprisoned by the regime in Harare, despite being scheduled to sit for her O-level exams.
