Birthday In Prison: Sikhala Says Nelson Mandela Celebrated 27 Years In Prison

Jailed Zengeza West legislator, Job Sikhala, has released a statement to mark his 50th birthday saying he is strengthened by the fact that some prominent politicians also celebrated their birthdays in prison. In a statement seen by Pindula News, Sikhala who is detained at  Chikurubi Maximum Prison said Zimbabwe is continuously degenerating into poverty because the old generation is clinging to medieval politics. Sikhala was arrested in June and charged with inciting public violence which erupted during the funeral wake of slain Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activist, Moreblessing Ali. Through lawyer Freddy Masarirevu who is his family and personal spokesman, Sikhala said:

50 years ago, on the 30th of October 1972, in the village of Masema in Gutu, Sophia Mugari and Adrew Sikhala procreated Job. It is this great day which I am celebrating today under incarceration and trepidation in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. This has been made so not because I am a criminal. I am being denied my liberty together with my colleagues here and being persecuted for my deep beliefs and values in the freedom and happiness of our people. Human life is sacrosanct. Moreblessing Ali’s life was as treasury as everyone’s life. I am happy to suffer for that good.

Today, my daughter, Monalisa, would have baked a special birthday cake for her dad. My wife Ellen would have made five more to share with the good people of Zengeza West, Chitungwiza in general, and hundreds of colleagues from all over Zimbabwe. Usually, it is a huge gathering event for me, my family, and friends. Evil plotters conspired to ruin my special day and this happy moment by their obsession with persecuting my person. Congratulations to them all for getting satisfaction from this facade of a charade.

What gives me utmost happiness is that I am not the first and will not be the last political prisoner to celebrate their birthdays under persecution from an evil dictatorship. History is awash with such personalities. Nelson Mandela celebrated 27 consecutive birthdays in prison; Dumiso Dabengwa 7, Lookout Masuku 7, Bakili Muluzi 10, Raila Odinga 10, and many other good men and women of upright standing.

Last month, I heard someone celebrated their 80th birthday —30 years older than me. I am the age of his 3rd born child. Persecuting a child for a difference in political views and beliefs is as preposterous as it comes.

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Elders in our country have played a major role in liberating our beloved country. I have unquestionable respect for their profound role. However, the needs and demands of today call for new thinking and ideas which are in tandem with the modem 21st Century, to catch up with rapid changing times. There is need of urgent political and economic reforms in our country which the old generation is refusing to relent. Times change. Our Country is the odd one, not only in the region but in the whole world without a functioning industry. The only one with the Government as the largest employer, “salarying” its employees slave wages.

This has been justified through a big lie. Countries which are frequently touted did not develop through archaic politics. There were extensive political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union and China to re-engineer their lives to move with the times. Mikhail Gorbachev was brave to bring perestroika and glasnost and dump Stalin and Brezhnev’s insanity. Deng Xiaoping dumped Mao’s cultural revolution and cult of personality politics and fostered both economic and political reforms to move with the changing times. Our great nation is daily drifting towards the stone age era. The cause is the old generation that is clinging to the Stalinist and Maoist traditions of medieval politics. We will not relent in calling for the release of our country from the jaws of the kleptocratic looting brigade of today.

My wife had baked me a cake, but they refused to let her deliver it to me. I am not surprised. Today, I will toast water and share the love of the people of Zimbabwe with Hon. Godfrey Sithole and the rest of the inmates.

Half a century and NOT OUT, cheers beloved Zimbabweans!!!!

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