Sikhala's 51st Birthday Message From Prison | Full Text
Former Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala (MDC Alliance), on Monday, 30 October celebrated his 51st birthday in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
In May 2023, Sikhala was convicted of obstruction of justice in the murder investigations of Moreblessing Ali and was ordered to pay a US$600 fine or serve a six-month jail term.
He is facing incitement to commit public violence and disorderly conduct charges.
Sikhala, who has been in pre-trial detention since 14 June 2022, wrote an open letter to the public in which he thanked individuals who have financially supported his family. Reads the letter:
MY BIRTHDAY MESSAGE FROM CHIKURUBI MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON
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play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.zw.pindula.newsToday, dear friends, I am celebrating my 51st birthday, this marks my second birthday anniversary under incarceration by the regime in Zimbabwe in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
I think you all heard that I was not feeling well. For seven (7) consecutive days, I was passing blood. In the process, I have lost 3kgs, but I am recuperating well. My doctors are doing a good job.
Second year running, celebrating a birthday in prison under political persecution should remind all of you about our forebearers, Joshua Nkomo, Robert Mugabe, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Patrice Lumumba, Sydney Malunga and many others, who celebrated theirs in similar fashion, equally, as victims of political repressions.
This year, I have advised my family not to attempt to bring a birthday cake present, as an attempt to do so last year, created astonishing accusations that the cake was a threat to national security.
A note was written to me that, the cake was not allowed as it was a national security threat. I was not surprised because such paranoia is inherent in systems built in fear of the unknown, voodooism and witchcraft.
When you see your persecutors getting frightened by a mere birthday cake and growing goose pimples of hate over a birthday cake, you must be consciously informed that you have passed the threshold of rightness with distinctions.
So, dear friends, I am celebrating in memory of all of you. I might be in prison, but you might be free but in a prison of your own. Our suffering is the same.
Malcolm X informs us that, “it is only after extreme grief that the greatest joy can come”.
In the scheme of my enemies, as recently confirmed by their own unstable fortune seeker Eddie Cross, there is no other way, I must hang.
I must be flashed out and destroyed. I am the spoiler of their comfort. An irritant causing people sleepless nights, disturbing the comfort of their power.
Zimbabweans and the world at large have seen for what it is. Persecution by prosecution is a tired old strategy by unpopular tyrannies.
I have to be stopped damn the consequences. My mouth had become dangerous, more than a loaded gun, they say it is vicious and dangerous, it spits venom and causes havoc – I had to be silenced even if it meant assassinating me.
My name became an Agenda item number one in the boardrooms of all agencies of the state. In the security sector, in the judiciary, in their politburo, it is Job Sikhala everywhere.
The amount of financial, human resources and logistical deployment to fight against me is estimated to have consumed nearly 10% of the national GDP, the resource that should have been deployed elsewhere to ameliorate the poverty and suffering of the masses of our people.
Even foreign aid intended for poverty alleviation programs was diverted to fight me. For one year four months in more than 100 days of my court appearances, you witnessed it by yourselves, the massive deployment of police trucks loaded with police officers in riot gear membership no less than 500 at every turn.
Harare Magistrates Court became the haven of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) hovering in every space of the court premises never witnessed in the history of this country.
My name became a swear word, some puked at the sound of it and others cursed it. They declared almost an oath that they shall fight Job Sikhala, left, right and centre.
Unbeknown to my persecutors, is that the day I chose the route to stand with the people, was the day I signed a lifetime testamentary, never to distance myself from the guilty realities of everyday struggles- the arrests, physical violence and the small and large humiliations associated with the odious journey to freedom.
My 2nd birthday celebrations in prison informed me that prison is not a dungeon of shame but a haven of freedom and human dignity. The home that underpins the conscience of the masses.
From the oil-dripping lips of Eddie Cross from the patronage loot, he postulates that telling the world the truth about what unpins my persecutions.
We knew it before you laid it bare Eddie Cross. We have a solid network of informants and we are informed in full of every detail pertaining to instructions given to those tasked with my persecution.
It is not only Virginia Mabhiza, as you try to portray Eddie Cross. Her former boss at the Ministry of Justice was threatening bloodbath to anyone who would not carry out his instructions.
I knew after receiving information that, everything was set so, dear Zimbabweans and my worldwide friends, never expect me to get any fair trial. Everything has been set.
This should inform all of you, who flood to my court hearings in solidarity, about the emotionally charged prosecution of my cases.
But let it be known, dear friends. I long realized the Mandela moment was correctly captured by what Martin Luther King Jnr said in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that, “let everyone and the world know, the hour to continuously plead my innocence before my oppressors is over. They hold a blank cheque to do whatever they want with me”.
The appalling silence of good people and good world leaders in the face of the most vicious attack on an innocent person calls upon serious reflection on the national and international discourse on Zimbabwe. Silence against repression is acquiescence and endorsement of the same.
While we celebrate together the celebrations of my 51st birthday, dear friends, I would like to thank hundreds of good people who have come on board to help my family. Fees for my 4 children who are University attendees have been paid.
Thank you very much and may God bless you all. Advocate Tererai Mafukidze, and Dr. Grahman Stevenson, your contribution touched me.
Honestly, you decided to forward such a huge provision of your share from your mother’s estate, Trudy Stevenson, the former Member of Parliament for Harare North and former Ambassador to Senegal to my family. Thank you Graham.
Thank you Hopewell Chin’ono my friend. The friendship was born out of the pain of sharing a prison cell, for being a sincere and reliable friend.
I thank all those who are contributing to the GoFundMe created by Hope. It is hard to find friends standing with you when you are under siege and attacked by enemies. You are my heroes.
Toast of love.
By Job Sikhala
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison
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