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Lest We Forget: From LOMA to POSA
Public meeting commemorating the 1960 protests
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition
Harare, July 24, 2003
Introduction
Brian Raftopoulos, Chair, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
It is entirely appropriate
that, in the midst of the contemporary crisis gripping Zimbabwe, we should
reflect on the repressive legacies of the settler colonial state. This is
so for two reasons. Firstly because it is important to remind ourselves
not only about the significant changes that have marked the post-colonial
period, but also the continuities from the past. In effect, by thinking
historically we are able to observe the ways in which the new ruling class
in Zimbabwe has drawn from the lessons of a repressive colonial past, to
constrain the citizens of an independent Zimbabwe. This tells us a great
deal about the nature of the post-colonial state in Zimbabwe, as well as
cautioning us against drawing too stark a dichotomy between our white dominated
past and black rule in the present. Secondly the ruling party, in particular
in the last three years of deepening economic and political crisis, has
fed the Zimbabwean citizenry a stodgy diet of a certain selective history
of the past, designed to legitimate the present. As citizens it is our right
to a more informed and critical debate about the past, as it bears so heavily
on the many issues we are grappling with at present.
The route from the
Rhodesian Law and Order Maintenance Act (1960) to the Public Order and
Security Act (2002) has been a bloody and painful one for Zimbabweans.
The first marked the prelude to a restructured right wing racist regime,
that plunged the country into a protracted war of liberation, while the
second was part of a series of legislative and repressive political interventions
that reconfigured the post-colonial state into a decisively authoritarian
project with little pretence for consent and tolerance. The context has
changed and new actors have entered the stage, but the negative effects
of a repressive state on its citizenry have been continuous. While in
the 1960's this closing down of political space in the country in general,
and in the cities in particular, necessitated a change of methods and
location of struggle from largely peaceful political mobilisation to guerrilla
war, the current political context does not present such an option. We
must as Zimbabweans find a peaceful way out of our turmoil.
LOMA
Let us recall briefly the events that led to the enactment of the LOMA
in 1960. On Tuesday 19th July 1960 three leaders of the National Democratic
Party (NDP) were arrested including, Michael Mawema, Sketchely Samkange
and Leopold Takawira. While there were no arrests in Bulawayo, the house
of the NDP chairman, Z.K. Sihwa, the Secretary, J.R. Mzimila and a leading
committee member, J.Z. Moyo were searched for papers. In response to the
arrests some 7000 people in Salisbury, led by the NDP, marched from Highfield
towards the city centre where they were met by the violence of the police
of the Whitehead government.
In Bulawayo there
was a more complex and violent response from the protestors. On Sunday
24th July people gathered at Stanley Square from 8.00 am to protest against
the arrest of their leaders. As the crowd marched to Makokoba Township
its number grew so that it reached 5000, by the time the protestors left
the township towards Lobengula Street. What followed this protest was
a series of violent activities that came to be known as the Zhii Riots.
(Zhii was the Zulu word for 'destroy completely', 'reduce to rubble.')
Recent research on the events surrounding Zhii indicate that the violence
was not organised by the nationalists, who were in 1960 not well organised
in Bulawayo. In a forthcoming book, "Bulawayo Burning: State, City
and Worker 1930-1960" Terence Ranger says of the NDP in this period:
It did not yet
have branches in most of the townships. It did not yet have a formal
Women's organisation or a formal Youth organisation.
Rather, Ranger suggests
that the Zhii riots were organised by the 'long-standing youth gang tradition
of the Bulawayo townships.' Thus rather than being organised by the NDP
Zhii in fact 'stimulated nationalism'. The result of these events was
that, 515 people appeared in court, 131 were convicted, 90 were acquitted
and charges were withdrawn against 277. Most tragically 12 people were
killed. In addition the LOMA was enacted, which provided a central judicial
weapon with which to control the nationalists. So draconian were the implications
of this act that the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Tredgold resigned in protest
at its enactment.
POSA
In 2002, against the background of increasing opposition and a widespread
loss of legitimacy, the Zanu PF government introduced the POSA, in every
way a true successor to LOMA. Its widespread restrictions on freedom of
association and the repressive intrusions of the state that it has attempted
to legitimise mean that it is almost certainly ultra vires the constitution,
even given the latter's current defective state. A series of national
and international human rights reports have provided detailed information
on the abuses of POSA, and its use in the armoury of a desperate state.
In particular POSA has been used to detain opposition MDC and civic activists,
prevent demonstrations and public meetings and generally disrupt the lawful
activities of civic groups.
Once again it is essential
to draw on our historical understanding in the fight against POSA. For
as important as the fight over the land question was to the anti-colonial
struggle, so was the struggle against repressive legislation subverting
human and civic rights. As the nationalists campaigned against the LOMA,
so must we protest vehemently against the strictures of the POSA. The
discourse on human rights is not simply an 'ideology of domination' imported
from the west to subvert the very real battle for economic rights. In
the double-speak of the international financial institutions and the belligerent
policies of an imperial state, it certainly has such connotations. However
it is also a terrain of struggle against an oppressive and corrupt state,
with important links to the anti-colonial movements of the past. The modality
through which any state carries through its economic programmes is as
important as the programmes themselves. The violent and corrupt ways in
which the ruling party has embarked on its 'Third Chimurenga' has created
lasting damage to Zimbabwe's political culture. Therefore the battle against
POSA is part of a broader struggle to reclaim our constitutional rights
and our political spaces. Moreover it is a political struggle that is
as important as any such struggle fought by the nationalists against settler
colonial rule.
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