Wiwa the slippery stone that Joshua Nkomo was

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By Charles M. Mutama

Job “Saro Wiwa” Sikhala Conjures Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo
I have known Job “Wiwa Sikhala” since 1996 when I first met him in the revolutionary Complex 5 (Bagdad Student Hostel) at the University of Zimbabwe where his passion for the students in particular and Zimbabweans in general resonated with the ideals of the liberation struggle.
One such liberation icon who has inspired Job “Saro Wiwa” Sikhala is none other than uMdala wethu (Father Zimbawe) whose dedication and commitment to the common man’s struggle ever since his trade unionist and National Democratic Party days through to ZAPU resembled the selflessness of Nelson Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela.

After independence, Father Zimbabwe suffered untold political persecution from his erstwhile fellow freedom fighters and in 1983 had to flee to London after illegally crossing the Botswana border incognito. Father Zimbabwe assured the nation that he was going to look for “solutions” to Zimbabwean problems abroad.
Thirty seven years later, a post independence and 21st century nationalist who matches Father Zimbabwe in stature and heart for the country is in a de ja vu moment from the same tormentors who haunted his hero until the ill-fated Unity Accord of 1987.

It is now a matter of historical record that Job Sikhala has been on the run since the middle of July while speculation around his whereabouts abounds. He has been reported to have crossed into Zambia and back into Zimbabwe and only to be prowled in the rural area of Dema, Seke. Currently, he is reported to be in Mozambique with the military intelligence and central intelligence operatives on his heels.
In his regular engagements with the citizens of Zimbabwe, Job “Saro Wiwa” Sikhala has implored the nation to be united in sentiments reminiscent of Father Zimbabwe’s “We cannot move forward if we are divided.”Under the vibrant 31st July Movement, he has managed to unify former friends and foes reeling under the yoke of poverty wrought upon the nation by the corrupt and repressive Mnangagwa regime.

Ironically, E. D. Mnangagwa commandeered the notorious North Korean trained 5th Brigade which is guilty of committing genocide in Matabeleland and the unprecedented persecution of Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo.
Job “Saro Wiwa” Sikhala has now conjured “Chibwechitedza” (the slippery rock) by constantly outfoxing the security apparatus ever since the dreaded announcement by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) that they are interested in “interviewing” him and 13 other activists who have since been labeled as terrorists who need to be “flushed out.” Eerily similar, Joshua Nkomo and his ZAPU colleagues were labeled as “dissidents” and “cockroaches” before the tragic washing of chaff (Gukurahundi massacre) witnessed in newly independent Zimbabwe and perpetrated against the people of Matabeleland by E. D. Mnangagwa’s secutity apparatus.

Job “Saro Wiwa” Sikhala’s post indepence struggle against the corrupt and parasitic elite now fittingly mirrors Father Zimbabwe’s “The Story of My Life.”

Like Nkomo, Sikhala has managed to expose what is wrong with Zimbabwe and equally is optimistic that “Freedom Lies Ahead.”
By my hand,
Charles M. Mutama
August 14th, 2020