Born and bred in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), I grew up understanding that the culture was wrong – that 120 000 white people ruling over a population of 5million (with only the white people having the vote) should never have been allowed to happen. After 15 years of guerrilla warfare and the loss of many lives, independence was finally achieved in 1980.
The honeymoon lasted a few years, until the ‘Gukurahundi’ massacre of approximately 20 000 people in a government led ethnic cleansing, followed by government control of the press, freedom of speech denied and slowly but surely more laws passed which gave the president more and more sweeping powers that left us in a one party totalitarian state.
I felt the need to get involved to bring about change and was invited to work with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace who worked to bring the perpetrators to justice, but this work came with huge risks to personal safety.
I left Zimbabwe for New Zealand 20 years ago, wanting a better life for my children.
However, I have been more and more disillusioned with the political parties in this country, the recent loss of our freedoms over the Covid19 lockdown, the complete disregard of the government towards issues that concern the people, their health and the health of the environment such as 1080, Glyphosate and 5G. The poisoning of our ecosystem is totally unacceptable, unethical and unsustainable.
The New Zealand Outdoors Party have strong, socially conscious policies that promote true health (incorporating holistic therapies with conventional), true democracy (returning the governance of the country to the people rather than corporates), organic and regenerative farming, a move away from a debt-based economy and a complete ban on poisons, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly and I feel I can stand in my truth and represent the Outdoors Party as a candidate for the Upper Harbour constituency.
