Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe

Ladies and gentleman, what started as a very cloudy and wet day turned out to be a nice windy but warm day for the activists who came out for this year’s maiden demonstration in the city of Liverpool. It rained heavily throughout the morning and we almost thought we would not make it to the streets on Saturday afternoon. Around noon the sky started clearing up and within an hour we were out there in our colours unhindered by the possible return of the rain.  

We gathered on Church Street outside Primark, what a lovely place to be, many thanks to Mim Whitfield of Liverpool city council for giving us such a lovely position. Hundreds of shoppers passed by and it felt good to see them acknowledge our presence. Many of them stopped for a chat and some signed our register.  

You will be amazed at the interest shown by the people of Liverpool regarding continued Human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. We highlighted to them; the recent withdrawal from full participation in government by Morgan Tsvangirai caused by the failure by Zanu PF to fully implement the terms of the GPA, the continued persecution of members of the opposition as evidenced in the Roy Bennett issue, the selective application of the rule of law ( Zimbabwe Republic Police raid MDC house over the weekend ), the continued invasion of white owned commercial farms, the total disregard of the plight of the farm workers and the stealing of crops worth millions of dollars. There is a resurgence of violence in rural and farming areas (see violence at Foothills farm article on ROHR website). All this cannot be ignored as it may signal what is to come. In these discussions we learnt that we are not alone in dreaming that Zimbabwe will one day be a country that upholds the rule of law, safeguards its citizens’ human rights and returns to be bread basket of Southern Africa.  

Our gathering ended at 4 pm. We would like thank Mr Mqondisi Tshuma from ROHR Manchester branch and his team that joined us for the day. A special thank you to our Information and publicity Secretary, Mr Humphrey Moyo and Miss Bridget Chimbiro, for the informative and very effective placards; well done guys. And finally thank you to all that made it.  

Our next demonstration is on the 14^th November (2 pm) at the same place. 44 People signed the register.  

Anywhere Mungoyo
Vice Chairman, ROHR Liverpool Branch