By Nomazulu Thata
Does President Robert Mugabe still have the moral authority to condemn xenophobic attacks in South Africa under President Jacob Zuma’s government?
Has he forgotten the way he perpetrated genocide in Matabeleland and the Midlands leaving more than 20,000 people dead, brutally massacred. What about the killings of black and white farmers in 2000, the Murambatsvina in 2005, the brutal elections of 2008 that left thousands killed and maimed?
Right now Itai Dzamara was abducted 4 weeks ago without trace. Justina Mukoko and Beatrice Mtetwa were abducted and treated like criminals! Just three days ago Sydney Chisi was selectively beaten to near death during the anti-xenophobia at the South African embassy in Harare.
He is fighting for his life, breathing with the assistance of a ventilator! That is Mugabe for you at 91 years talking high morals to the world. Pot, what are you telling the kettle? What high moral ground is this President assuming right now? Does he understand why there is xenophobia in South Africa in the first place?
Does he know the number of Zimbabweans in South Africa looking for those jobs they cannot get in Zimbabwe? Why and how and did they leave Zimbabwe? Does he know what it is like to cross a crocodile infested Limpopo River? He does not and he will never know.
There is xenophobia in South Africa because Zimbabwe is a complete failed state. He must be told that his administration is worse than that of Ian Smith. In fact he should pack and go because 99% of the citizens of this great country do not want him anymore.
He knows this too and that’s the reason why he has to rig the elections to overstay. He has remained in power because of cheating the electorate, rigging the elections because he knows he is no longer wanted, who wants Robert Mugabe’s administration that has failed since 1980, we have to be forced to say its 35 independence, so far so good, forced to say that.
The situation in the Mediterranean Sea needs the attention of the AU Chairperson, where is he? Where are the Presidents of the African continent? Those citizens perishing in the Mediterranean are coming from Africa most of them and the situation needs urgent attention from the African Union to solve the issues coming from the continent.
They should ask simple questions why would the populations of African countries citizens prefer to risk the deep seas of the Mediterranean than to face hunger and uncertainties in their own countries of birth. African Presidents should stop this exodus of their citizens by actually taking practical solutions that benefit the masses and not the few elite.
As we speak right now European countries, their relevant ministries are meeting to discuss the drowning of migrants trying to reach the European shores. Why is such a meeting not taking place in Africa? Why is such a meeting not taking place in the SADC region? The head of these two bodies is Mugabe himself! Proust mahlzeit!
President Jacob Zuma made an attempt to visit migrant workers in their sheltered areas. He told them that those who want to go can go and they could come back if they so wished! Those words from a President are not convincing anyone, not even his body language was telling those words.
Some ministers and traditional leaders openly provoked xenophobia in South Africa. He should tell his ministers and traditional leaders and citizens of South Africa that millions of South Africans where in exile for dozens of years and they were well looked after especially in Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique and many other countries north of them.
South Africans where resident almost in every country in Africa, and were given all the assistance they needed. They are the ones now chasing foreigners like animals and calling them lice, said the King of Zululand.
Their treatment to other Africans should be kept in history diaries; we shall make references later as they say what goes around comes back with vengeance. History will easily remind them of the atrocities of hate speeches from a King, son of a President defending xenophobia in their land. Zuma himself married a Mozambiquean wife when he was in Mozambique. Has he forgotten?
South African should constantly be reminded about the sacrifices Zambia made towards the liberation of the countries south of it. Zambia, with very little resources, shared what they had with Zapu, Zanu, Swapo and ANC. Zambia should be the ones much more disappointed than all other countries in Africa.
In 1978 the brutal Ian Douglas Smith sent his Selous Scouts squad to go to Zambia and abduct Nkomo and bomb the freedom fighter camps. They bombed many Zapu places and Comrade Nkomo’s residence. So many people died in those savage acts. President Kaunda came out coughing fire, and said he was going to assist all freedom fighters south of Zambia to the bitter end, and indeed he did that to the bitter end.
President Kenneth Kaunda still lives today and I wonder what he thinks and feels when he sees how unthankful South Africans are to foreigners, what is he saying? What is President Nelson Mandela doing in his grave, must be turning in his grave. East German government assisted thousands of South African refugees by giving them the best education so that when their country is free they can economically liberate South Africa.
In East Germany all foreigners were treated like first class citizens. East Germans as people who had seen two world wars, they tried to give their best to other people who were in the same situation like them during those world wars. They empathized with foreigners including ANC freedom fighters and students. They respected and adored foreigners and they embraced the difference in cultures.
What are they saying now when they see those very people, the very party ANC they gave assistance so much and so long, sending conflicting messages about xenophobia in their politically liberated South Africa? What about Tanzania, President Nyerere must be turning in his grave. What about Angola, what about Cuba? South Africa’s ANC and government are morally beholden of all these countries.
It takes generations to teach a nation about UBUNTU and this is what South Africa has lost. It is the young generation meting those heinous crimes against humanity today. SADC ministries concerned should meet and map the way forward.
President Zuma cannot stand alone without the assistance of the SADC countries whose citizens are being butchered to death by criminal cabals without moral compass.
Even if all foreigners left South Africa, they will find another reason to be at each other’s throats again, something will trigger another wave of violence again. The foreigners are not the root cause of their social problems but deeper than the presence in their midst of human beings from the north of them.
