Ugandan foreign nationals living in South Africa marched to their country’s embassy in Tshwane on Monday to protest and demonstrate their displeasure and discomfort regarding the recently concluded “sham election” that took place in Uganda on 15 January this year.
The march was organised by the South African chapter of the National Unity Platform ( NUP) and coordinator Richard Kimya told Tshwane Talks that the election process was marred by malpractices and ballot stuffing whereby military police raided polling stations and ran away with ballot papers in broad daylight.
“Outright winners have been declared defeated contestants in favour of those from Yuweri Museveni’s ruling party and we would therefore like to make it clear to to our international partners, the Ugandan community and the African diaspora at large that we don’t recognise Yuweri Museveni as the president of Uganda, but that we recognise Bobi Wine as the rightfully-elected president of the country,” said Kamya.
Current President, 81-year old Yuweri Museveni was declared the winner with 72% of the votes while his rival, 42-year old popstar Bobi Wine managed to obtain only 25% of the votes.
Museveni has been in power since taking over the government in a military coup in 1986 after deposing Milton Obote as the country’s president.
One of the marchers Nansubunga Scovia told how her son was kidnapped by government forces together with 30 or so people in Uganda after being involved in strike action against the government of that country regarding the controversial results which declared Museveni as the winner.
“I am very stressed about my son at the moment because I don’t know what will happen to him while being kidnapped, and I sent my mother to look for him at some detention centre but she couldn’t find him,” she said.
“As people of Uganda we need every help from the outside world to help us get rid of Museveni,” she said.
The marchers’ memorandum was received by Ugandan embassy Commissioner Richard Opiyo who promised to take it to the relevant authorities back in Uganda.
He also thanked the marchers for engaging in peaceful action and respecting South African laws.
Copy of Memorandum:
Tshwane Talks readers have been able to read stories in this publication for free for over two years now. We still want our readers to access our stories for free, but we are asking those among our readers who can afford it to contribute at least R30 a month to cover some of the costs of publishing this independent, non-aligned online newspaper which gives a voice to all sectors of society irrespective of race, colour, creed, religion, or political affiliation. You may make your contribution by depositing at least R30 a month into Tshwane Talks' bank account. Details are as follows:
Bank Details
Bank: Standard Bank
Account Number: 10225548834
Account Type: Cheque Account