{"id":8232,"date":"2013-08-01T07:38:57","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T07:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8232"},"modified":"2013-08-01T07:39:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T07:39:15","slug":"zimbabweans-chain-themselves-to-mandela-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8232","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabweans chain themselves to Mandela statue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mandelasandton\"<\/a>Three protestors chained themselves to Mandela’s statue at Nelson Mandela Square on Tuesday to voice their concerns about the presidential election in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Zimbabweans went to the polls on Wednesday. According to Reuters, the Zimbabwean exiles argued that despite the imminent election, their country was not free.<\/p>\n

The three wrapped a thick silver chain around their necks at the base of the 2.7 metre tall statue. The spectacle ended quickly after security staff requested them to leave.<\/p>\n

The protest happened in the affluent Sandton Square shopping centre, the site of the towering bronze statue of Mandela.<\/p>\n

The three Zimbabwean nationals brandished placards with the message: “Zimbabwe deserves to be free.”<\/p>\n

The protest did not last long after security guards told them and some supporters and passersby to leave.<\/p>\n

But the message soon spread on Facebook and Twitter, with other Zimbabwean exiles echoing the sentiment that the country is still not free from the control of Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF.<\/p>\n

Respected human rights advocate and the head of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, Gabriel Shumba, told SW Radio Africa that voting day is a bittersweet one for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. He said that while there is “so much hope for change,” there is still skepticism.<\/p>\n

Thousands of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have returned home to vote, after the right to vote in their resident countries was denied by the government. This is in spite of a successful court application that Shumba filed at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, which ordered the Zim government to allow the postal vote for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.<\/p>\n

“What we were told when the government defied this order is that we should try go back and vote anyway. Unfortunately not everyone can do this, and even when they do, it seems the practice on the ground is to deny this,” Shumba said.<\/p>\n

He was referring to the fact that at least seven buses believed to be filled with Zimbabweans travelling from South Africa to cast their votes, were stopped at Beitbridge in the early hours of Wednesday morning. One of the buses was impounded and the others were prevented from travelling onto their final destinations. It is understood that the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights were trying to intervene on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

“So there is a mood of skepticism that this vote will bring change. We don’t think this election will be credible, legitimate, free and fair,” Shumba said.<\/p>\n

Riot police were reportedly deployed in Zimbabwe on the eve of the election. An election in 2008 was marred by political violence. – SW Radio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three protestors chained themselves to Mandela’s statue at Nelson Mandela Square on Tuesday to voice their concerns about the presidential election in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans went to the polls on Wednesday. According to Reuters, the Zimbabwean exiles argued that despite the imminent election, their country was not free. The three wrapped a thick silver chain around … Continue reading “Zimbabweans chain themselves to Mandela statue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1018,4547,4548,4549,180,4550],"class_list":["post-8232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-elections","tag-mandelas-statue-at-nelson-mandela-square","tag-sandton-city","tag-sandton-square","tag-zimbabwe","tag-zimbabwean-exiles"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/mandelasandton.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8236,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions\/8236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}