#mkomanawamamoyo

Once upon a time, 8 years ago right on this day the 26th of November 2014, Our Captain @Itai Dzamara was still with us and as charismatic a leader as he was sat us down at @JoinaCity for a briefing. As new recruits and so ever to graduate from being a #Mafikizolo to a senior we set down and listened to his plan of action of that day. I must quickly point out that on this particular day, the Gods had surely abandoned me right in the middle of the ocean when they knew I could not swim. The mission on had was action on the petition that he and @TichaonaDanho had submitted to the office of the president of that time Robert (Dictator) Mugabe. The captain’s plan was to have a team attend parliament and demand (remember the captain’s dictionary did not have the word ASK) from the public gallery a response. Parliament was sitting in the afternoon on that very Thursday afternoon. This was during the second session of Parliament. Well as you might have already guessed by now that lo and behold yours truly Mafikizolo had no idea what this really meant and had not the slightest idea that this would be his foreskin cutting day from a mare activist to becoming a fully-fledged rancorous activist. @Tichaona Dahno(Anchor), @Terry Manzini(Romeo), @Shungu Mutize(Delta) @Shadreck Dhliwayo who got left behind cause of national identity and myself as Alpha Charlie where chosen, we entered Parliament as spectators and proceeded to the Spectator’s Gallery. We managed to smuggle in, on our persons, copies of the Petition which Itai Dzamara, Tichaona had handed in to the office of the President of Zimbabwe on 17 October 2014. We also hid placards on us. The plan was to stage a flash demo right inside parliament while the house was in session. (Madness right you thinking? wait for it)

Parliament business started like any other normal day and the Deputy Speaker asked whether there were any motions, or questions without notice I stood up in the Spectator’s Gallery and said on appoint of order Mr. Speaker sir, I wished to follow up on the Petition which we had handed in to the office of the President of Zimbabwe, and want answers as to what this house is doing about it…… This led to an eruption of pandemonium from both sides of the floors, with opposition members celebrating and making noise while the ruling party side started insulting us and asking us to be stopped and national broadcasters cameras be turned off. My team pulled out placards stating that Mugabe must step down. Immediately among all the noise state security agents in plain cloths appeared from nowhere. Some people also sitting in the public gallery where actually state security agents pretending to be spectators. The Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, came up to the Spectator’s Gallery from the floor of the House. He was accompanied by several security personnel. Upon his arrival I tried to hand him a copy of the Petition which I had referred to but he refused to accept it. He took hold of me by my belt (Reason why I don’t wear a belt up to this day) and started to drag me out of the Gallery. He told the security personnel to deal with all four of us thoroughly, and advised them to Vamamisei vapfana ava vakuda kutiviringidzira basa which meant , “beat up these youngsters they want to mess up things for us and get us in trouble” an advice the state security personally really took seriously and followed to the later.

The ZBC was doing a live broadcast of the proceedings in Parliament. However, soon they stopped the broadcast and only renewed it after we were removed from the Spectator’s Gallery. The four of us were taken into a room within the Parliament building. For the next three and a half hours we were severely beaten with various objects including baton sticks, broom sticks and computer power cables. We were also punched and slapped. Two uniformed policemen came into the room. They took our personal details. After they left, the beatings continued. (The Gods had surely forsaken me) .These beatings were carried out by four men and two women in plain clothes. They accused us of working with the MDC-T MP called @James Maridadi. We told them that this was not true and that we did not know him, but all this fell on deaf ears as they were dead set on what they believed. This said MP had caused some disturbances in Parliament over the issue of the partition earlier on, thou this was news to us.

They said that they were particularly angry with us because, as a result of us getting into the Spectator’s Gallery undetected, they were going to lose their jobs. And this resulted in them getting pissed off and the more they shared this story with others the more pissed off they became and resulting in more beatings. Comrades and friends physical counselling was diligently administered .At around 5pm members of the Law and Order department of the police came and took us to Police Central. They took us downstairs underground basement Room B15 (Which has become a joke ever since cause down there Alpha Charlie was so beaten that he ended up forgetting is DOB) . They forced us to strip naked and threw water over us. They then started to beat us with whips. There were 3 state security agents in plain clothing, also an older man the 4th who was present who did not take part in the beating but who was in charge. His was giving orders and playing most of the mind games approach, a good example is he kept dismantling and assembling his side arm in clear view of us while telling us that he fought for this country in the liberation war, and showing us bodily scars asking if we were serious to want to just sell off the country just like that, because we were sent by our murungu and paid by @DirkFrey

After a while they took our personal details and they took photos of us. It was after midnight when they put us in a pick-up truck and took us outside the police station. They then told us to go but said that we should return at 11.30am the following morning. The following day the captain refused to have us go back to report but instead took us for treatment for I could barely hug anyone nor seat on my tiny behind.
And so the 26th of November will always have a special place in my heart.
“So I ask this to the modern day activist was that Bravery or Stupidity”?