MRP’s take on  elections

Calvin Manika

Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) will not be fielding a presidential candidate and will only participate in local governance and parliamentary elections in Bulawayo and Matabeleland, in this year’s harmonised elections, we can reveal.

President of MRP, Mqondisi Moyo said his party has been busy  pursuing self determination or total independence from Zimbabwe, “with the realisation that we have got the historical facts that are there for everyone to prove that Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi are two separate territories,” since its formation on 11 January 2014.

“We are educating our people about the ideology of the party. That encompasses self determination. We are not an electioneering party but a political party that is totally different from other parties.”

Moyo says the party experienced a hiautus at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic but has since sprung back to action.

“We’ve been going around conducting rallies in our territories. Our last rally was held on the first of April. The advent of the pandemic affected almost everyone.  Our party was not exempted because there was no way of  reaching out and campaigning. Soon after the lockdown, we started our campaigns. Last year alone, I think we had more than seven or six rallies in all our provinces. These rallies were successful,” said Moyo. 

Redirecting electoral attention, according to the Mthwakazi Party, is a legitimate approach that merits consideration. The party says campaigns need to be redirected away from national politics and toward solving local problems.

The party has begun organizing for the upcoming elections and is pleading with the people of Bulawayo and Matabeleland to vote for its candidates for local and parliamentary seats in 2023.

In order to encourage people to struggle for their social and economic freedom, Moyo stated that the party’s theme was “Taking the restoration agenda to the people.”

The party, which focuses on Matabeleland’s growth and self-determination, claims that those living in the southern half of the nation “deserved more,” as they have not completely experienced freedom as their economic circumstances are getting worse.

When quizzed about who will be representing the party in the imminent elections, Moyo said, “As a matter of fact, we haven’t come up with our candidates list like these other political parties but we are busy on the ground. MRP doesn’t take part in the presidential elections of Zimbabwe,” he said.

The secessionist and restorationist party seeks to restore the Mthwakazi kingdom. MRP espouses the idea of a separatist nation, and the Mthwakazi  brand of activism is based on an interpretation of Gukurahundi as not just a distinct historical incident but as the most egregious manifestation of a continuing “Grand Plan” of ethnic marginalization.

Mthwakazi supporters who spoke to Community Podium believe that the past violence and their current struggles are intertwined because they both stem from the same unresolved ethnic conflict that pitted Ndebeles against Shonas. The Gukurahundi narratives of the Mthwakazi activists are mostly characterised by these two themes—a primarily ethnic interpretation of the violence of the 1980s and its extrapolation into the present.

After decades of comparatively quiet action, the late 2010s saw a resurgence of Gukurahundi activism among people who were born after the atrocites. The Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP), whose accounts of Gukurahundi are intertwined with demands for the “restoration” of the Ndebele state, is at the forefront of  subsequent protests.

However, the party does not have visible structures in some areas, which is a source of concern for some of its followers.

“Due to lack of concern for Matabeleland by the main political parties in Zimbabwe, I decided to support MRP as an alternative. Their issues reflect our daily struggles. However, I have not seen a total commitment from the party. There are no visible structures and election candidates in my area. That is worrisome,” said one of the party supporters who identified himself as Mduduzi. 

In 2018, MRP claimed to have 20,000 card-carrying members and was one of a broader group of Ndebele organizations that had established themselves to support this “restoration agenda” in terms of politics and culture. 

 Even though most MRP active members were either born after or during Gukurahundi, their political justification and imagination heavily drew on a particular reconstruction of a history that emphasized the conflict’s ethnic rather than political dimensions, ultimately dividing the nation into Shona-speaking perpetrators and beneficiaries on one hand and Ndebele-speaking victims on the other.

Leonard Dhliwayo, a historian and political enthusiast believes the Gukurahundi struggle was passed down to the second generation in highly emotional, fragmented, and incomplete forms and this has allowed the conflict to persist as a readily available interpretive lens. He said this perspective gained significance in the context of Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic crisis, disenchantment with party politics, and ethnic marginalisation experiences that drove the second generation’s quest for political identity.

“MRP think that the Gukurahundi slaughter is still going on. Therefore, in order to stop it, they must start talking about development, equitable national wealth distribution, equal employment opportunities, and other related topics. MRP is saying one cannot talk about peace and unity until those issues are resolved,” said Dhliwayo.

Some residents of Matabeleland region are worried about the MRP’s election preparations at a time when other parties are getting ready. The opposition to voting, according to some pro-Mthwakazi supporters can be best understood in light of the fact that Zimbabwe has held elections continuously since 1980 but is still not a democratic country.

“Matabeles have been voting over the years, but their treatment is still the same as it was under the colonial government. Zimbabwe serves as a prime illustration of the reality that elections are not a reliable indicator of democracy and are only as good as the political institutions in which they are held. Despots’ free elections do not end tyranny or free the enslaved,” said Khumbulani Ntini.

Moyo said the history and background of events is important for people to understand why the party seems to be reluctant to conduct intensive pre-election activities. 

The MRP has had its share of battles with state security agents.

Nine activists were convicted of public violence in June last year after storming Bulawayo Central Police station protesting what they said was a botched abduction of party leader Moyo by state security agents.

Under the 2013 constitution, Zimbabwe is a unitary republic. A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority.