GEORGE MKHWANAZI: Why Zimbabwe should be split into two states
'Matabeleland is bigger than Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Togo, Guinea Bissau, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea and Djibouti, all found in Africa'
This is the prologue from the book Matabele Rising by David Hilton Barber, Footprint Press, R240 Zimbabwe is not one country; to pretend otherwise is a dangerous hallucination. The country has to be divided into two federal states of Mashonaland and Mthwakazi (Matabeleland). The issue of the statehood of Mthwakazi should have been resolved at the pre-independence negotiations in 1979 and the error was a tragic constitutional omission on the part of the delegation led by Joshua Nkomo. It should not have been assumed the Mthwakazians embraced the Zimbabwean identity. That assumption has never been put to test. This has to be achieved by negotiation under the auspices of an independent body of the United Nations. The alternative of an armed struggle is untenable. War drains resources, exacerbates malnutrition and disease, destroys infrastructure and impoverishes the state. If something is not done to stem this evil progression, the entire nation of over three million people faces a pe...
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