Moyo defends Mugabe Kalanga insults

HARARE – Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has defended remarks by President Robert Mugabe in which the 91 year-old insulted members of the Kalanga tribe as ‘uneducated’ people who end up as ‘criminals’ in South Africa.

Moyo said “Government has noted various Press reports including social media chatter on remarks attributed to President Mugabe to the generalised effect that Zimbabwean Kalangas in South Africa are not educated and commit petty crimes.

‘’While some commentary on the remarks in question has raised understandable community issues, it is unfortunate that there has also been opportunistic and even mischievous misinterpretation of the President’s remarks by some media and opposition political circles for inflammatory purposes,’’ Moyo said.

“It is common cause that every statement has a context. The remarks in question were made against the backdrop of unsubstantiated allegations that horrific xenophobic attacks in South Africa were because governments in the region are allegedly pushing their citizens into South Africa. President Mugabe corrected this.

‘’There was also a related allegation that the Zimbabweans in South Africa are involved in serious crimes as if that would justify the xenophobic attacks if true. Again President Mugabe corrected this.

“Therefore, President Mugabe’s remarks were made not only against these unfounded allegations but also he took into account the migration of Zimbabweans to South Africa which predates our independence.

“In this context, it’s a matter of history that before Independence there was a stereotype that Zimbabweans who crossed into South Africa were mainly Kalangas from Matabeleland South who did not have much formal education which they were denied by successive colonial regimes.

“According to this stereotype, these Zimbabweans would allegedly engage in petty crimes in South Africa but would not and in fact do serious or violent crimes because of their proper and exemplary upbringing notwithstanding their lack of formal education.

‘’So what the President said is a commonplace stereotype. It should be said that stating, recalling or highlighting a stereotype is not at all the same as endorsing or recommending it.

‘’The fact of the matter is that, while its negative connotations might still linger on, the pre-independence stereotype about Kalangas actually ended with Zimbabwe’s Independence in 1980 when President Mugabe introduced education for all Zimbabweans including Kalangas.

“That is what matters the most. Thanks to that education policy led by President Mugabe and assiduously implemented by his Government we can today say with national pride that Kalangas are among Zimbabwe’s best educated sons and daughters of the soil.

‘’In the same vein, it is notable that since 1995 all of Zimbabwe’s provinces including Matabeleland South have been benefiting from the Presidential Scholarship personally initiated by President Mugabe.

‘’As such, the President’s commitment to uplifting the education of all Zimbabweans without exception across the length and breadth of the country speaks for itself in ways that are loud and clear. There’s no amount of media or political opportunism that can obfuscate or erase President Mugabe’s unparalleled record of pushing education for all Zimbabweans,” Moyo said.