Meet Your MP Campaign: Meeting with David Tredinnick MP Bosworth

Meet Your MP Campaign: Meeting with David Tredinnick MP Bosworth

Report by Olive Ruvimbo Ruzvidzo

On Friday the 17^th of November, Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) UK Chapter Midlands Branch members Grace Makoni and Olive Rivimbo Ruzvidzo met MP David Tredinnick. The meeting was organised as part of the ROHR Zimbabwe; “Meet Your MP Campaign”

David Tredinnick is the Member of Parliament for Bosworth in Leicestershire. He is  a Conservative and has been the MP for Bosworth since 1987. 

Upon arrival at his offices, he greeted us activists with great excitement, as he was eager to hear about the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe. There had been numerous events that had occurred in Zimbabwe between the appointment was confirmed to date of the actual appointment. (Let’s bear in mind, this meeting was held during the same week as the Army Generals in Zimbabwe had begun executing the ‘peaceful’ transition of power with the ZANU PF government (coup)).

MP David Tredinnick was very welcoming and we greeted him in Shona and we promised to teach him more Shona words at future meetings and gatherings. He was eager to help us, after he read our ROHR Zimbabwe letter handed to him by Grace Makoni, he wanted to know more about the initiative, ‘Meet YOUR MP CAMPAIGN.’

Letter handed over to MP David Tredinnick, was asking him to take our concerns to parliament which included the following:

·         The restoration of human rights in Zimbabwe

·         The assessment made by Her Majesty Ambassador (HMA) Catriona Laing that; ‘Zimbabwe is peaceful and she feels very safe,’ which was published in the state run newspaper, The Chronicle in 2015 at a time when the Human Rights Watch was publishing a report on the various Human Rights abuses occurring in the country, and Human Rights activists were being kidnapped, tortured and killed.

·         Even most recently in 2017 HMA Catriona Laing in her 2017 Queen’s Birthday Party in Harare, she blatantly avoided speaking on what the British government is doing to support the struggling and oppressed Zimbabweans, but her speech was filled with optimism and shed good light on the ZANU PF government.

In the discussion about our concerns with the way Her Majesty’s Ambassador handling of the situation in Zimbabwe, Grace Makoni and Olive Ruvimbo Ruzvidzo asked MP David Tredinnick to look into what actions the UK government can take in ensuring there is a free & fair election in Zimbabwe next year (2018). David is to follow this up in parliament on behalf of her constituent and ROHR Zimbabwe.

The meeting ended with a photoshoot and the handing over of a small parting gift of a DVD: Simon Wright directed documentary titled: “Robert Mugabe. What happened?”