Open letter to AU chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

By Chris Veremu

Dear Madam Zuma

Given the demands of your very high office, it would be ambitious of me to expect a response to this message, but as I feel so strongly about the views expressed herein I decided to write you anyway.

I pray and hope something similar will cross your desk in a time near soon. Of course I am mindful of the fact that the mess assailing the continent presently is not of your doing but I am still to see your mark since assuming office.

I also take this opportunity if I may, to commiserate with you on the death of one of the world’s greatest leaders Nelson Rorihlahla Mandela who passed away on the 5th of December. His death left a huge hole in the world’s heart as was witnessed by the international leadership that graced his funeral.

This former colleague of yours was mourned equally by commoners and kings, a fitting tribute indeed for the man of the century.

It has not escaped most on the continent’ attention that same Mandela was a fellow South African, like yourself and a colleague which makes his passing a double tragedy to your person, madam.

I am positive, you madam, as one who worked with this great man, will ensure his memory lives with you forever and it will in some way inspire you to serve the continent in a way which would have pleased him were he still alive!

There are two issues where most on the continent have failed to understand why the African Union has failed and failed dismally.

The first one is the case of mass murders which are perpetrated against innocent civilians and other hungry and sick by-standers in war for power between two or more belligerents.

It is heart wrenching no end, to observe that casualties of these ‘wars’ are poor women and their poor children though without any stake in the ensuing power struggles are made to pay the highest cost with their lives and broken bones.

Have you noticed that these armed belligerents hardly shoot at each other but get feverishly frenzied when they aim their guns, machetes and clubs at defenceless citizens?

Of course it would be naïve to assume in a great big continent like ours there would be no conflict but it is the management of these conflicts where your office has been found a tad wanting.

The unfortunate issue appears to be, maybe by a ‘freak dictate’ of history, conflicts have escalated since you assumed office. This of course is through no fault of your own but the reality is, these conflicts have grown exponentially and you seem to have failed to stem the tide.

You have the whole of the North and the centre embroiled in some kind of conflict, killing children in more than ten countries to date. In case you may have missed the count, there are conflicts in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, CAR and DRC.

This translates to round about 20% of the continent. There are smoldering low intensity conflicts as well in other countries which will also need careful attention from you before they blow up into something bigger than the simmering tense zones they are at the moment.

Countries like Uganda, Gambia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Saharawi Republic and Nigeria can hardly be described as being at peace with themselves.

My question therefore becomes faced with these glaring challenges why would you preside over the condemnation of the International Court of Justice (ICC) which if anything, is doing part of the job for you putting brakes on African deranged vampires’ penchant for children’s blood.

What do you hope to achieve by this except push the continent even deeper and further back on the road back to the Stone Age which is closed anyway? Which other continent in the world presently has more conflicts than Africa where murder of innocents is an African politician’s favorite pastime?

It is like our children’s blood has become some aphrodisiac for these Jurassic dinosaurs and sickly human filth. Do you not believe that unlike your predecessors you have taken over the helm of the AU when international civil society is fighting so hard in your corner?

Why would you kick those who are out to assist you in the face? Add to this, you have digital and instant messaging boosting your arsenal. I must apologize in advance for the next question: Was taking up the post of AU boss just a career move for you or did you genuinely feel you could make a difference in the way the continent is governed?

I ask this because you were quite clear when you made pronouncement on the conflict in Egypt and the progressive world applauded your decision..Fast forward a few weeks down the line you were throwing brickbats at the ICC over the Kenyan issue.

This issue made wholesale mass murder the central theme of governance in this land. Would you blame your critics who say, you appear not to have a clue what needs to be done in the job?

One of your predecessors made his mark by guiding the AU to suspend all those who came into office by coups which had made the continent stink to offend God’s high table.

What are you Madam, going to be remembered for? Might stopping thieves of the continent’s wealth and elections using mass murder not a good place to start? Remember catch the thief and murderers will evaporate, it is a natural law of progression. No?

Of course this does not discount the efforts you have made in Somalia, Mali and Madagascar where you appear determined to arrest the rot. The goodwill of the international community is in abundance following your lead here..So you see good madam, once you have your ducks in a row there is easy buy-in and support from partners when you show you seriousness about tackling REAL issues.

The second issue which refuses to be divorced from the former is the issue of corruption. You know madam, I believe if you were to quarantine thievery, caging murderers would be a stroll in the park. It is theft that feeds murderers, so why not arrest the source?

So really the source of Africa’s problems as during the colonial era is lurking in the shadows of European capitals where international banker thieves are cashing in on Africa’s misery just like this same vermin increased their waists with the plunder and murders of Jews, gassing them after extracting gold teeth from these poor souls during the second world war..

It is these bankers whose appetite for wealth knows no limits. In fact these bankers are worse as they are eating their victims alive to maintain their vampire lifestyles.

Why are European governments allowing this plunder to go on under their very noses or are they cashing in big time on the bones of our children?

They have waged an almost successful fight against drug overlords, what is so special about the African murderer thief? We are hearing frightening numbers from your international and local good governance partners that the continent is losing USD 150 billion to corruption.

Putting this into perspective this is thrice more than the GDP of all SADC countries outside South Africa. Is this not a staggering amount given the poverty obtaining on the continent? Is it not a sad and ugly indictment on the quality of leadership the continent has produced?

Might it not help the continent if those who have already served their two or three terms are advised to step aside and allow for a catharsis of new leadership in their lands? What steps is your office doing to arrest this malady?

Does it not make you weep down to the soles of your feet when you are told as it is common knowledge NOW that this wholesale corruption and wanton thievery is practiced by heads of state who sit with you in Addis? Should you not be courting with even greater gusto the UN to set up a court that will look into this massive continental thuggery like you have done with the ICC?

I may add since the advent of the ICC fewer political mass murders have been recorded but the continent appears to be sliding back since your last spat with the ICC..

Do you not find this coincidence a tad curious? Should you not be engaging international banks with the assistance of bodies like the UN, Transparency International and other like minded bodies to expose and stem the rot?

When are you joining the ‘three cheers chorus’ in the street for Global Witness who have sunk their teeth into righting this riotous extractive orgy by the continent’s leaders? Yah, Madam, three cheers for Global Witness are not misplaced!.Why not join them make louder impact?

Why are European bankers being allowed to get filthy drunk on the blood of the continent’s children who as early as last November or thereabouts drowned in the Mediterranean following their national heritage on the coast of Italy? All of two hundred and fifty of them in one night!

I say, your voice represents a billion voiceless of the continent’s children. Please tell these bankers, long, loud and hard, STOP! Stop soiling your banks with the continent’ blood money or does your greed know no limit? If out of the 50 billion the continent receives from well wishers 150 billion is stolen from the same continent.

Does this not say the continent can do without this so called aid if it translates to it losing 100 billion (to this figure add the bones of our children killed during the transfer of these funds) it can not afford to spare? Should these International bankers not be held to account for this skewered way of doing business? Should these bankers not be brought to court as well for being accomplices to mass murder and grand theft?

What is stopping you from engaging them as robustly? Just like you did with those coup trouble makers, why are you agreeing to sit on the table with thieves who, one has to say, is not a coincidence they are the same people being hunted down by the ICC? Could we have some kind of a timeline as regard when these people are going to be kicked out of the AU like their erstwhile coup plotters?

They should be told to their faces that the AU is no longer a den of thieves and murderers..Go on, go to the top of the Kilimanjaro and shout yourself hoarse! We will all join you on the foot of the mountain! Tell your colleagues from the EU and elsewhere they should stop lecturing us about good governance while they sup and dine with their banker thieving colleagues in Brussels and elsewhere. Enough said!

As mentioned at the beginning of this letter, you can not, as an individual arrest the rot infesting the continent’s body politic alone but you can put structures in place to aid you arrest the rot. Failing to do this when the whole world is watching is self defeating. This, on the road to forming your legacy, I am sure you can do very well without, thank you! The world has stopped laughing at the continent.

They are seething with anger at being forced to watch gory pictures of the continent’s hungry children in their living rooms. The continuous wanton thievery and mass murders are ending everywhere else but increasing on the continent.

Why should the continent be forced carry all the world’s ugliness all on its own? I hope you will roll up your skirts and cage these thieves and murderers with a new robustness.

You have our support, all one billion and more of us. As the Continent’s first lady boss and the continent’s mother we expect you to scream yourself hoarse exposing these murderers and crooks..If the continent’s mother decides to look the other way, what hope is left for the children?

Having said the foregoing, I may have misplaced optimism, but I still believe you are our best bet to uplift the continent and bring back smiles to the faces of our children who have grown up under a heartless collective continental leadership.

A leadership not ashamed to bank what they steal in foreign lands while condemning these same countries with the other side of their mouths. A practice which is sickening to the sole of our bare feet in its mendacity!

You see madam, I say this not out of choice but the brazen reality that you are the last of our children’s hope. Please include in your prayers the children of the continent particularly those of the Central African Republic and the two Sudans, more so those in the new South Sudan.

Keep well, 

Chris Veremu