Activism & Campaigns
ACTIVISM
“MAKE YOUR TONGUE AN INSTRUMENT OF SPEAKING TRUTH, YOUR LIPS AN INSTRUMENT OF DEFENDING TRUTH AND YOUR MOUTH AN INSTRUMENT OF PREACHING TRUTH”-VIOMAK
Viomak is involved in hands on socio-political activism since 2001 and has spent half of her life to date denouncing social and political ills ravaging Zimbabwe, Africa and the world and seeking justice for different causes for herself and for others in various ways. Due to the nature of her activism Viomak is always faced with confrontational and controversial situations that affect people’s day to day lives and the different challenging scenarios that she deals with everyday have amassed haters and supporters for her. Viomak has a passion for working with people of all backgrounds especially the oppressed, the sick and the physically challenged and this has broadened her horizons for knowledge giving her the opportunity and experience to understand social issues affecting diverse populations and finding solutions to the problems that reach her hands, cross her eyes and visit her mind. Through her activism Viomak engages in a lot of advocacy, raising awareness about political oppression, social injustice and the need to empower the voiceless. She has petitioned for social and political justice demanding accountability and transparency from various people and organizations holding different positions that impact on the lives of Zimbabweans and other humanity.
In September 2019 Viomak pioneered the demand to withdraw Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife Auxillia Mnangagwa’s award bestowed on her by Harvard Global Health department for her so called philanthropy and contribution to the health of cancer patients in Zimbabwe. After Viomak initiated the activism, a group of retired US diplomats also penned a letter of protest to Harvard University, demanding that the award for contributions to healthcare in Zimbabwe be withdrawn as she did not deserve the award .The department withdrew the honour after the activism denouncing Auxillia’s honorary award as an ambassador of Harvard University Global Health Catalyst due to her so called work in Zimbabwe’s health sector. In a letter protesting the honour and titled, ‘I Viomak should be the Honorary Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst and not ZanuPF Auxillia Mnangagwa’, Viomak wrote,
“To whom it may concern: I hope I find you well. My name is Viomak, a Zimbabwean human rights defender, freedom of expression and opinion advocate, global health advocate, (children and adults), philanthropist and protest singer. My work since 2001 involves all of the above which is all voluntary work. The reason why I made the personal commitment to be involved in all this challenging work is because having seen the suffering of Zimbabweans my heart has been bleeding especially for sick children since 2001. The perpetrators of this suffering are ZanuPF leaders, their families and supporters and up to now as I write to you the suffering continues under Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia Mnangagwa who your university has unashamedly awarded the honour to be the Honorary Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst. What an insult and fallacy not only to Zimbabweans like me who sacrifice their personal wages and time to help sick and poverty stricken children and adults. Your decision is also an insult to many cancer-stricken and poverty-stricken children I have personally helped and still do with the support of a small team I work with to ensure that Zimbabwe children get the health that they deserve. If the ZanuPF which is the ruling party has Zimbabweans’ health at heart why am I doing this work? If the health system in Zimbabwe is vibrant and functioning well and if Auxillia Mnangagwa who your university has honoured is doing honourable health work to save lives why do I receive many pleas for help from distraught families and well wishers asking me to assist their cancer stricken and poverty stricken children and relatives . Why are they not approaching the ambassador Auxillia Mnangagwa for help? I bet the Harvard university department, which agreed to honour the ZanuPF idiot, is run by corrupt officials. I will get to the bottom of this nonsense. I have more than enough energy to deal with such kind of stupidity.
Having seen this heartbreaking suffering while ZanuPF thieves and thugs (including Emmerson and his wife Auxillia) were busy stealing and are still busy stealing Zimbabwe’s public funds, I started donating my personal resources (personal money, time, energy etc) and was also singing against ZanuPF’s human rights abuses producing protest music using my salary of which 50% I donate to charity. While I was busy sacrificing my resources all for the sake of better health, education and well being for Zimbabwe children ZanuPF thieves (including Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia Mnangagwa) were busy stealing our public funds, building personal mansions, buying luxury cars and aeroplanes for themselves and their children and opening businesses while Zimbabweans were left with a dead health system. If I had not been human enough to help the needy I would be having a mansion and luxury cars and thriving businesses and an aeroplane but I am human enough to put the lives of the suffering first ahead of my greediness and needs. But you go on to honour a ruthless, heartless and evil woman who does not even do any charity work apart from national trotting in Zimbabwe campaigning for her husband to rig elections and masterminding the torture and abduction of opposing voices.
As I write to you a Dr Peter Magombeyi who has been instrumental in challenging Emmerson’s government for failing to provide the medical staff with tools to work with (while Emmerson and Auxillia burn jet fuel globe trotting for nonsense) was abducted for demanding such basic needs. Did Harvard even ask Auxillia who sent abductors to kidnap and torture Dr Peter Magombeyi? You did not ask her because your interests are not in our suffering as Zimbabweans but all you are interested in is pleasing ZanuPF thieves and thugs and you claim to be human rights advocates there in America. Whose interests and rights are you serving at your university? If you are serving the interests and rights of the suffering and dying Zimbabweans I am challenging you to withdraw the honour you have bestowed on that ZanuPF woman Auxillia who has not done anything in relation to national and global health apart from visiting Zimbabwe hospitals during election time to garner support for her husband from sick citizens. How evil is that? Not all of us are fools. Someone there at Harvard University has to do the right thing.
The reason why I have written you today is to challenge your warped decision to award Auxillia Mnangagwa that honour which I strongly believe should be mine or someone else who is not Auxillia Mnangagwa. This idiocy of putting lipstick on a housefly has to stop. How can such a highly recognised university stoop so low to honour such a selfish and fake woman in that way? This is also an insult to well wishers who see me working so hard campaigning and helping to ensure Zimbabwe children and citizens get the medical care they deserve. I actually got to know about this shocking news from fellow Zimbabweans who are also disgusted by such a stupid and insincere decision.
As I write to you 4 year old cancer stricken Simbarashe Dande is in a South Africa hospital since February 2019 receiving medical care, courtesy of my personal sacrifices, kindness and hard work with our small team of volunteers and well wishers and donors. I’m sure you saw Simbarashe’s story on Fox news. Where was Auxillia? Instead of awarding us, your university has the audacity to honour Auxillia a non entity and not us. This nonsense has to stop. I am prepared to challenge your unjust and deliberate decision to honour this woman in a way she does not deserve and more so Auxillia herself is selfish enough, typical of her, to accept an honour she knows she does not deserve. How ruthless is that? I am going to fight left, right and centre to ensure Harvard university withdraws the honour bestowed on Auxillia as she does not deserve it but I myself Viomak or someone else do deserve it for all the philanthropy work I have done since 2001 in my own capacity as a concerned citizen and not as a second wife to the president of the troubled nation Zimbabwe. Troubled because of Emmerson and Auxillia .You are not serious. I will fight this injustice until I drop dead.
I don’t do this charity work in order to be awarded but I do it out of my own kindness as a human being with a heart but your university goes on to award an inhuman being because you engage in chicanery in order to achieve your personal and organisational agendas at the expense of our suffering .How stupid is that? I am not going to sit down and watch while you honour a ZanuPF thief Auxillia who has neglected the children I personally help day and night using my personal resources while her husband and herself steal public funds that should be used to build hospitals for Zimbabweans including children’s hospitals but I struggle to send the sick children to hospitals outside the country. Who should be honoured and who should be the Harvard ambassador? Is it Auxillia Mnangagwa or Viomak? I need an answer in your response to this communication which I am going to publicise and copy to anyone who I feel has to know about your stupidity and hypocrisy including the president of your country Mr Donald Trump. Our team and I have sleepless nights, restless days, heartaches, headaches, and backaches as we work tirelessness to save the lives of Zimbabwe’s sick children and you go on to honour a woman who is causing the same children we are saving to suffer. What kind of hypocrisy and foolishness is that from a renowned university? This hypocrisy should stop forthwith for the sake of the sick children and suffering Zimbabweans who I sacrifice for and strive to help through my campaigns for their health and other needs to be met. What kind of insult is that to honour a ZanuPF corrupt and evil government comprising Emmerson and his wife Auxillia? I am not going to allow your university to work with that incompetent, evil, fake and undeserving woman Auxillia yet the actual people who should be honoured including me are there. The honour has to be awarded according to merit and not according to marital status as you have done and more so she is married to a murderer and a thief Emmerson. Shame on you and everyone who sat down to come up with the stupid decision of honouring a selfish and fake woman in such a way, as if you don’t know that she doesn’t deserve the honour. What a joke.
As I write we have another cancer stricken 25 year old Charlotte at Parirenyatwa hospital Harare. Is it Auxillia who took Charlotte from rural Murehwa to hospital and how much is Auxillia paying for Charlotte’s chemotherapy, surgery and expenses? I need an answer to these questions in your response. I’m sick and tired of hypocrites of your calibre who cause more harm to us and our suffering children by honouring undeserving idiots just because you have your own agendas to pursue at the expense of the suffering children and masses. Who in their right senses honours a ruthless and selfish ZanuPF woman in such a way and why? What charity work has she done and where, stop lying .Whatever the lies she told you whose resources she is using to do the charity work. You are not going to rig this one. Not as long as I live. That Harvard ambassador honour is mine not Auxillia’s. What a disgrace. That said, before I contact a legal advisor regarding challenging your warped decision I am kindly asking that you furnish me with this information.
The criteria that Harvard University used to come up with Auxillia’s name as the Honorary Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst, the evidence of Auxillia’s philanthropy work with Zimbabweans and cancer stricken citizens which has nothing to do with her role as Zimbabwe’s first lady, a list of those funding the Harvard Global Health Catalyst initiative ,the names, positions and email addresses of those who decided to honour Auxillia in such a way, the Harvard university student board’s names and email addresses. Harvard University’s chancellor and vice chancellor’s names and contacts, preferably email addresses, the reasons why the honour cannot be withdrawn if it cannot be withdrawn, the reasons why Auxillia Mnangagwa has to be the Zimbabwean Honorary Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst and not Viomak or someone else, the role as in duties and responsibilities of the Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst, the respondents’ names, positions and email addresses in case we get to a point where I have to pursue the legal route for this honour bestowed on her by Harvard university to be withdrawn. I am not joking. I will provide the evidence why I strongly feel I should be the Zimbabwean Ambassador of Harvard Global Health Catalyst and not Auxillia after you provide me with the evidence of Auxillia’s philanthropy work with Zimbabweans and cancer stricken citizens which has nothing to do with her role as Zimbabwe’s first lady.
Meanwhile I have attached the 1 in a million image so you have an idea of who I am. I don’t see 2 in a million. This is not a laughing matter. I am very flabbergasted and I am ready to part with all my savings in order to pursue a legal battle that will ensure the title is withdrawn from Auxillia and awarded to the deserving person or no one. Zimbabwe needs a real ambassador and not an incompetent, fake and evil idiot Auxillia. We deserve the best too and not the worst. Meanwhile may you please ask your so called ambassador Auxillia to donate to the causes below using the public funds that Emmerson and her stole from us. If they sell one of their mansions or luxury cars these cancer and poverty stricken children and citizens will have the money for medical care and related expenses. Can you please also ask her why such cases keep coming to me if she is doing the work that Harvard University has honoured her for? What a shame. Someone there does not have a conscience. The list is not exhaustive. Brave Magumo is 14 months old and has retinoblastoma cancer with no medical care or money for food. The mother is unemployed and Zimbabwe’s health system is dead. 25 year old Charlotte Katsoka was diagnosed with cancer and one eye and nostril are closed. Her mother is unemployed and the hospital turned her away because her mother cannot afford the basic medical costs even money for Charlotte to have a scan. 9 year old Doreen Mutema has cerebral palsy. She needs money for a wheel chair, rehabilitation, food, clothes, surgery. Her parents are unemployed and so Doreen just sleeps. Professor Zidanda is a 6 year old struggling with retinoblastoma cancer with no medical care. Simbarashe is a 4 year old Zimbabwean struggling with fibrous dysplasia and currently on chemotherapy in South Africa. We are planning on getting him over to USA if all goes well. Pedzisai is a 10 year old in grade 4 without arms. He writes using his mouth and toes. Tanatswa 7 years is in Zimbabwe and she has cerebral palsy and living in poverty. Her parents are not feeling well as well. Grandmother Simbini is in Zimbabwe. She was left homeless with nothing with her 100year old husband by cyclone Idai. The 66 orphans who I am also assisting may you find accommodation for them their building that shelters them caught fire last week. 4 year old Ngoni Mazarire who died of cancer in 2015 and 6 year old Professor Zidanda (2019),due to lack of medical care resources and failure to afford even the most basic pain stop while ZanuPF leaders ( including Emmerson and Auxillia) lead luxurious lives may your dear souls rest in peace. Harvard University USA has honoured one perpetrator of your suffering and deaths. To the homeless grandfather Simbini , a victim of cyclone Idai who died homeless and in poverty while the ambassador Auxillia is leading a luxurious life and neglecting the poor may your dear soul rest in peace. I am awaiting your response which will be greatly appreciated”.
In February 2018, irked that Britain’s minister of state for Africa and Member of Parliament for West Worcestershire Harriett Baldwin visited the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Viomak said in Britain they seek justice, in Africa they seek opportunities and wrote a letter to MP Harriett Baldwin titled, ‘About your visit to Zimbabwe’ saying,
“Dear Mrs Baldwin. I hope I find you well. My name is Viomak originally from Zimbabwe but currently in Britain where I claimed political asylum in 2006 and was granted refugee status two months later. I did not want to leave my country where my heart is and come to Britain to start a new challenging and emotionally draining life here, but the reason why I claimed asylum is my life is in danger from the ZanuPF murderers and thugs who include the Emmerson Mnangagwa who you are now seeing as a saint. I don’t understand why such a heartless man is now a saint. Whose agendas are you pursuing? I guess you need to start behaving like a leader and not like a politician. Zimbabwe desperately needs leaders and not politicians. Legitimising a murderer and well known looting thief is not only unjust to the many suffering Zimbabweans who are scattered all over the world and the many Zimbabweans who were murdered by Mnangagwa and ZanuPF but it is also unjust to the many Zimbabweans including myself, whose livelihoods were destroyed by ZanuPF and Mnangagwa with many struggling to eke out a living. Families have been destroyed, the present is hopeless and the future is shattered courtesy of Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s evil leadership, but today you proudly embrace the thugs. Where is your heart? Our children and us also need a Zimbabwe as good as Britain but we will not realise such a Zimbabwe if murderers and thieves are embraced and legitimised as leaders by those pursuing sinister agendas at the expense of the suffering masses.
As I type my life is in danger from the same ZanuPF thugs Mnangagwa and Chiwenga who you are dining with today and legitimising as Zimbabwe leaders. You don’t seem to understand that for the past 37 years many Zimbabweans including myself suffered under Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s evil leadership and are still suffering up to today. You are sitting pretty in Britain while we suffer under the same murderers and thieves you are legitimising today. Why am I not seeing murderers and thieves in the British government? Legitimising murderers and thieves who destroyed livelihoods is emotional abuse of the victims of their devilish behaviour and I am one such victim who is being emotionally tormented by those who legitimise such evilness. Legitimising such a rotten and ruthless government is an insult not only to those who were murdered by Mugabe and Mnangagwa. It is also an insult to Zimbabweans like me who spend fortunes helping the needy who are in a state of destitution .As it is I also sacrificed my life to despise and sing against such murderers of mankind and I live with a crown of death threats from them only for inconsiderate people to embrace such heartless and cruel murderers. Are murderers not in prison in Britain? But you shake hands with Zimbabwe’s murderers and applaud them .Is this what you call good leadership? Embracing murderers and thieves as leaders in Zimbabwe yet in Britain you do the right thing and demand the right leadership? Would you even care to meet me if I request a meeting but you have time for murderers and thieves?
You should be aware of how Mugabe and Mnangagwa destroyed Zimbabwe not only by looting our resources but also by perpetrating human rights abuses .I have plenty of gruesome stories, images and videos to prove their evilness which is well known ,thus I wonder why anyone in their right senses is legitimising their government. So in Zimbabwe human rights abusers are saints but in Britain human rights abusers are condoned? The impression I am getting is us Africans can do with anything that’s why as Minister for Africa you have rushed to legitimise such nonsense. More so this evil man Mnangagwa planned a so called coup with his ally and looter Constantino Chiwenga only for them to grab power so that they can continue looting and terrorising us. Who doesn’t know how Mnangangwa, Chiwenga and the army looted diamonds in Zimbabwe and Congo . I have first hand information of how the two ZanuPF thugs murdered in my home area for diamonds. More so Mnangangwa is the richest man in Zimbabwe and the poorest are street children struggling without a roof or food. Do the children in Britain live and starve in streets? Your lack of empathy at our expense in pursuit of Britain’s sinister agendas is not only irresponsible behaviour but it is also hypocrisy of the highest order .In Britain you don’t tolerate leaders who make the slightest thing wrong but in Zimbabwe you tolerate murderers and thieves as our leaders. You should be ashamed of such hypocrisy and irresponsible behaviour which is not expected of people who claim to be good leaders and civilised.
Our children’s lives and future have been destroyed by the same people you are cherishing. You don’t seem to understand that some of us have so much pain in our hearts. Why don’t you visit the children of Zimbabwe who are living in streets and eating from bins and ask them who made them to suffer like that? I don’t understand why a minister would legitimise such an evil government of murderers and thieves. You need to revisit your conscience. This ZanuPF Mnangagwa looted our diamonds and public funds and built mansions for himself and his children while us and our children are suffering but today you pay a visit to legitimise such an evil thief masquerading as a president. Does Britain have a thieving president? Mnangangwa did not only steal our public funds. He also masterminded the disappearance and murder of opposing voices and also massacred more than 20 000 in Matebeleland but today you proudly sit with such a criminal hoping to work with his government. Do you work with a criminal government in Britain? So why is wrong right in Africa? Your response will be greatly appreciated”.
Responding to Viomak’s letter on behalf of MP Harriet Baldwin the Central Correspondence Unit responded thus, “Our ref: MOP/116676/2018 .Dear Ms Viomak, Thank you for your email of 5 February to the Minister for Africa, Harriet Baldwin MP, about Zimbabwe. The Central Correspondence Unit has been asked to reply. The situation in Zimbabwe is changing quickly. The former Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Department for International Development Minister for Africa, Rory Stewart MP, visited Zimbabwe on 23-24 November 2017 and met the new President, as well as opposition and civil society leaders. There is now an opportunity for Zimbabwe to become the country its people and its many international friends want it to be. This was one of the wealthiest countries in Africa. It has incredible human potential, a very educated population and fantastic natural resources. But it is a country which has suffered terribly. We have called on the Zimbabwean Government to forge a new path free from oppression and misrule and to push for a full programme of political and economic reform. We have made clear to the incoming administration that the UK stands ready to play a key role in support of Zimbabwe’s recovery, but only on the basis of genuine political and economic reforms, including respect for human rights and the rule of law. There must be a more transparent political process and free and fair elections which meet Zimbabwean and international standards. Zimbabwe is one of our 30 Human Rights Priority Countries globally. This means that we monitor and report on human rights abuses and invest in civil society programmes that aim to improve transparency and advocacy and which make human rights violations less likely. More details can be found in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights and Democracy Report. During 2017 we have expressed concerns about the treatment of demonstrators, political activists, opposition political parties and other by the authorities. Since the transfer of power in November 2017 we have called for the release of political prisoners and for the military to return to barracks as soon as possible. The UK regularly calls, both bilaterally and in partnership with other European Union Member States, for an end to all abuses and the restoration of internationally accepted human rights standards. We also call for the full alignment of laws with the 2013 Constitution and for the Government of Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law, while encouraging Zimbabweans of all political persuasions to exercise their democratic rights, including through free and fair elections. We will continue to support the aspirations of the Zimbabwean people for a stable, prosperous and democratic future. Yours sincerely, Central Correspondence Unit Foreign and Commonwealth Office”.