We are all Munyaradzi Gwisai
Zimbabwe ISO leader Munyaradzi Gwisai and five other activists have been found guilty by the Zimbabwean government of “inciting public disorder”, after they organised a film showing and discussion at the Labour Centre in Harare about the Egyptian uprising in February last year. The conviction gives the Zimbabwe government a green light to persecute and prosecute ordinary people for watching a film, conversing about current affairs, or discussing events as they unfold in another country.
The ISO activists will be sentenced today and face up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
You may well ask what any of us can do in the face of this authoritarianism. Whilst it may be difficult to show your outrage publicly for fear of reprisal – which is very real – we urge you to continue to inform yourselves about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe and other countries, like Egypt and Syria.
The fact is thousands of Zimbabweans were watching footage of the Egyptian uprising last year. And thousands of Zimbabweans were discussing those events at the office, in their homes and over cold ones in pubs. The majority of people discussing the Arab uprising probably all agreed on one thing: that similar events were unlikely to happen in Zimbabwe. But still we all carried on discussing and arguing. Debate and discourse is a central part of all our lives.
We have a fundamental right to freedom of expression.
Kubatana urges you to use exercise it whenever and wherever you can.
We are all Munyaradzi Gwisai.