Job Sikhala remains unfazed by his persecution
By Charles Mutama
In face of his impending arrest by the rabid regime of ED Mnangagwa, my comrade and friend Hon. Job Wiwa Sikhala appealed to me and I promised him that his sacrifice is not in vain and I was going to mobilize all revolutionaries to immediately launch a safety net for his dear wife and family.
A sympathetic and patriotic intelligence officer had warned my long time comrade that teams were being dispatched to arrest him after the tweet he posted condemning police brutality on a mother and her baby. In his usual courage, Hon. Job Sikhala was unfazed and emboldened by the unwelcome intelligence from the patriot who had advised him to be prepared informing him that the regime’s persecution and threat to his life could only put his physical nature in peril but not his ideas. He said “Charle !” the ideas that we stand for live long after we have departed and it is always wise to stand on moral and ethical principles.
The last I heard from him was yesterday when I had sent him some writings from Thomas Sankara and Franz Fanon to encourage him in the journey of confronting the post-colonial regime in Harare. He appreciated the writings and urged me to continue with the struggle and to escalate publicity around the wanton arrests, corruption, and the one-party state prevailing in Zimbabwe. Exile to him was an advantage for me to launch the people’s struggle defiantly and unapologetically.
— Charles M. Mutama is Sikhala’s long time friend from the University of Zimbabwe