adminMuchadura Dube
HORRIFIC events unfolding in South Africa with fellow black South Africans wantonly killingly other Africans made sad news to all people across the progressive world.
These gruesome acts on African brothers and sisters ostensibly being undertaken by these heartless individuals on the pretext of these so-called “foreigners” taking their jobs is and will never be sufficient justification to these crimes against humanity. It is interesting how some people have such a short and effectively bad memory.
These acts of barbarism being done by people who just a few years ago were housed by the whole of the continent as they battled apartheid South Africa. The entire continent suffered the bruises of cleansing South Africa of this evil called apartheid.
We remember how the comrades from South Africa were given succour and sanctuary during these trying times. South Africa was one of Africa’s nations to be taken hostage by foreigners who ultimately became the colonisers and it was to be Africa’s last outpost of indignity to the African, which Africa and the entire world collectively destroyed.
Isn’t it then mind-boggling to have those same people who received the support of the entire globe being breaking the Guinness book of records by being the first such folks to torment fellow black Africans? It is heart-rending to watch television footages of a fellow human torching one of the same folk in broad daylight and even having the guts to use a butcher knife to kill another in cold blood. This happening in the full view of a frightened audience invokes trauma.
I had difficulties calming my inquisitive daughter, Ropafadzo Whitney, who at her tender age of eight asked me whether the events unfolding in South Africa were a film script or reality. It was a difficult time explaining to her these grotesque anomalies. It is surprising how these xenophobes have amassed incredible energy and artistry to ostracise fellow black people, yet they failed on their own to dislodge the real enemy during the apartheid era. It needed the whole world to remove the stubborn apartheid architects from the political hegemony.
Still these apartheid aristocrats control the economic levers of the so-called Rainbow nation. Instead of advocating for the peaceful transformation of their economic architecture to a permanent scenario which empowers the locals, here they are exerting their energies on the wrong target, vulnerable fellow kith and kin from Africa.
There are reports that Zulu king King Goodwill Zwelithini orchestrated the current suffering which the African populace is currently facing mainly in his area of jurisdiction, KwaZulu-Natal with Durban being the epicentre of the violence. Those well versed with King Zwelithini intimate that the Zulu royalty has always been covertly pro-white yet exhibit an Afro-centric inclination publicly. Even during the apartheid era, King Zwelithini never fought with the freedom fighters of that country; rather he was ensconced in the comfort of the little crumbs which accompany royalty.
It is not surprising for such characters to fan commotion since they derive benefits and plaudits from the enemies of Africa. If there is one aspect that differentiates Africans from the rest, it is our firm cultural values and ethos which our traditional leadership espouse and perpetuate, values which they inherited from our revered elders, which they are also expected to bequeath to the next generation.
It is therefore expected that a chief or any other traditional leader for that matter will be the voice of reason and caution which propagates positive moral values that engender ubuntu, a philosophy that invokes the African virtues which naturally gravitates in our Africa conscience.
For King Zwelithini to be merely fingered in such callous acts which have drawn the attention of all Africans and the world is an insult to the notion and dictates of Ubuntu. The damage has already been done, lives are being lost and hard-earned property is being looted and at times burnt by criminal elements which have taken advantage of such irrational and diabolic sentiments being attributed to King Goodwill Zwelithini.
On April 20, 2015, attempts were made by King Zwelithini to douse the flames of a seemingly Afrophobia violence scheme which of course has been coined xenophobia by holding an imbizo meant to promote peace.
A case of too late an action, given the unjustified and senseless atrocities committed to date. There was no sense of urgency on the part of government and the accused royalty to grind these insane acts to a halt.
Some African countries have retaliated to the unsavoury acts being perpetrated by South Africans by demanding the ouster of South Africans from their countries.
The Mozambicans could not stomach the daylight slaughter of Emmanuel Sithole, whose case invoked the emotions of the world after videos and pictures were splashed on internet and newspapers being deliberately killed by South African nationals.
Anyone who thought that the long held facts by different surveys that South Africa is not a safe destination was a farce have now opened their ears and eyes to the tragic reality. Even the famous hoodlums of New York are safer than the criminal-infested jungles of South Africa.
These scenes of African turning on their own as if they are prey shall be a permanent feature of South African society given that there is a generation of seriously illiterate people in in that country who need to be counselled for the trauma they experienced at the hands of the apartheid regime who denied them even the basic of education. These people can easily morph into imbeciles by any force which desires to strain and paint Africa with a dark brush.
When the architects of apartheid are watching gleefully, laughing their heart out at the insane acts by fellow Africans, and the continent mourns the victims of these sordid acts. For now, two Zimbabweans were beheaded by these unruly elements, one of them being Pepukai Museyi of Zaka, who lost his life at the hands of marauding Zulu thugs who killed him in full view of his fleeing cousin, Climate Mushanga.
The racist white world has remained extraordinarily quiet, evoking the suspicion that they cherish chaos in any part of Africa for they will capitalise and ransack anything which their eyes lay on.
For the Southern African Development Community (SADC), these acts by South Africans is not only a betrayal, but insults given the immeasurable help they rendered during the liberation struggle of their country.
It is a fact, bombs were dropped by the racist apartheid regime as they pursued African National Congress freedom fighters. For Zimbabwe, the likes of former president Thabo Mbeki enjoyed the comfort of Harare as they plotted the downfall of this racist regime.
It can only be treacherous for anyone on that other side of the Limpopo to think that fellow Africans have therefore became an albatross in that country. As much as multitudes of Africans from other countries have entered South Africa searching for greener pastures, for South Africans to be the second largest economy in Africa, it is the sweat of the entire black Africa which made it to be the strong economy that it is.
Has anyone ever thought the consequences to the South African economy if Zimbabwe was to revenge these senseless acts by these barbarians masquerading as economic activists? Of course given the rational minds in the two governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa, diplomacy will prevail and dialogue as usual will take precedence over anything else with the result being strengthening the already existing strong mutual bonds.
Xenophobia and all its related ills have no space in a civilised Africa let alone Africa’s second largest economy. Instead of discriminating against fellow blacks, South Africa needs its brothers and sisters in this continent.
Even its economy is where it is today due to the numerous efforts by various African initiatives. South Africa therefore needs Africa more than Africa needs it for its economy is largely anchored by the same people its unruly citizens are callously slaughtering using heinous methods ranging from necklaces and spears. The government of President Zuma has more work to do if events that are emerging are anything to digest.
Leaving government work to firebrand Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema is just but a sign of dereliction if its duty. At least Malema warned his country against murdering fellow black brothers and sisters for they are eking out an honest living.
The wanton killing of fellow humans is an expression of a deficit in essential surviving life skills. It is abhorrent as much as it is disgusting for those are Stone Age terror tactics that have no place in a civilised community. Those senseless acts need to stop now.
Muchadura Dube is a Nyanga-based farmer and political analyst.
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