Zimbabwe: MLF, a Force to Reckon With
By Eric Sande
HARARE---A new political party, Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), was launched on Tuesday 28 December 2010 at Bulawayo’s cradle of politics, Stanley Hall in Makokoba led by Fidelis Ncube, former commander of the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army or ZIPRA, in the 1970s liberation war.
Another prominent figure in the party is Max Mnkandla, leader of the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform Peace Initiative, a veterans association.
David Magagula, spokesperson for the group, says that his party was different from other political parties in that its objective was to restore the Ndebele State established by King Mzilikazi before the advent of colonialism. He added that their "membership runs into millions" and "some are drawn from both ZANU-PF and Movement for Democratic Change."
“The major objective is to liberate the people of Mthwakazi. It is because of the marginalization of the people of Matabeleland who are seen as part of Zimbabwe yet they are not,” he said.
Magagula said MLF was formed on June 6 2006 in South Africa by Zimbabweans from Matabeleland who are based in that country.
The party has been active in South Africa and has actively used the Internet, especially Facebook, to mobilise Zimbabweans “The major objective is to liberate the people of Umthwakazi. It is because of the marginalisation of the people of Matabeleland who are seen as part of Zimbabwe yet they are not, even in treatment,” he said.
President Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba, has dismissed calls for a breakaway state, claiming that “the comical launch of Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) becomes a serious affair when one asks what political ecology and possibly shared temperament make such a political proposition conceivable.”
Stephen Mpofu, a columnist at the state-run paper based in Bulawayo, Matabeleland, said the action by MLF to parcel out Zimbabwe should be described “as treasonable act.”
“With the wave of the hand, skeptics will probably dismiss the MLF, an upgrade from a pressure group, as an election year joke intended to fleece money out of imperialists always keen to throw anything in the hat of anyone,” wrote Mpofu.
During the launch of the party, Mr Magagula said his party had not yet decided on whether or not to participate in the forthcoming elections but said they were still trying to mobilise support from the masses.
He, however, said in the event of an election, none of the MDC formations would win a vote in Matabeleland save for Zanu-PF.He also castigated MDC formations for concentrating much on removing President Mugabe from power instead of addressing concrete developmental issues.
“Other parties are calling for devolution of power but we are calling for dissolution of power,” said Mr Magagula.
“We want Matabeleland to be reinstated to its position as a State as it was before 1923 so that we can be free and rule ourselves. This is the time for us to stand up and claim self determination in order to enjoy our rights.”
In Zimbabwe, the southern part has vast untapped natural resources ranging from coal, methane gas, tin, uranium, gold, diamonds and vast tracks of timber. And MLF says these resources are not benefiting their region, as all resources are taken to Harare to develop the northern part of the country.
The Matabeleland region has a population of close to four million according to the last census in 2002.
On January 9, 2011, Sudan, began a week-long referendum in the southern part of the country, which will decide whether this vast oil- and mineral-rich state remains united or splits into two distinct countries: the predominantly Muslim and Arab north and the Christian, Black south.