Zimbabwe’s downward slide continues and the propaganda machine has upped the ante…wasting money to broadcast lies and to misinform the people at a time teachers, doctors, nurses and some public servants are either on stayaway or are at loggerheads with the government.
The one thing that is happening in Zimbabwe is that people are suffering. Nothing is happening in Zimbabwe and, every day, the people of Zimbabwe must fight off not only their government but hunger, abuse, abuse from police and the army.
I have never ceased to wonder how people survive because I know the natural limitations that exist, not to mention those imposed by a selfish government. The situation in Zimbabwe is as serious as a funeral and it has been like that for almost its entire post-independence period…only getting worse.
In America today, there is a lot of noise being made about the alleged abuse of children who were separated from their parents when they entered the United States seeking protection and asylum.
What touches my soul is that there is always a heartbeat of concern that transcends borders, nationality or geography.
I salute the noise made by Europeans when one of their nations goes errant. There is obvious concern over human rights concerns in western countries. They checkmate each other.
I see how Australia jealously guards not only its borders but protects its citizens. This is a natural thing to do: watch out for each other and cross the crocodile infested river.
There is accountability, not only within a precinct but in a nation and beyond. But I just do not understand the African mentality.
What really does “the African Union” mean? United against who? It certainly cannot be unity against America, Britain, France or the European Union because African countries cannot break their ties to these countries even if they wanted to. Just take a look at how much “foreign aid” these countries, including the African Union itself, get from western countries.
So, since African countries are unable to break whatever kind of relationships they have with Europe and western countries, who is the African Union united against?
These old, retrogressive, outdated organisations were formed to deal with the citizens of Africa. To date, their biggest achievements have been to protect genocidal African rulers and presidents and protecting each other in the face of serious human rights violations.
No nation shames Africa more than Zimbabwe.
The political filth in Zimbabwe that has been flowing like a burst sewage drainage pipe, should never have been tolerated by any government or by the people of Zimbabwe, let alone by the so-called Southern African Development Community (SADC). Apparently, this is SADC’s idea of development.
It is painful that organisations that pass themselves off as sentinels of the people of Africa are the very ones who are conniving to strip African people of their rights and wealth, offering death and displacement.
And this has nothing to do with colonialists; this is Africa untainted.
But I am not surprised; I know a couple of millionaires who made their stash as junk dealers and toilet-sludge transporters; SADC wants a whiff of it too and it found its calling as purveyors of the innocent souls of the people of Africa… a niche in the old trade of selling Africans. The African Union taught SADC very well.
What more can we say? SADC was supposed to be the guardian of the welfare of the region’s citizens. Forget about the ‘development’ part of their name. SADC is too retrogressive and does not know which way is forward.
It hurts so much that this nonsensical organisation is given the respect to speak on behalf of the people from countries that make up SADC. Yet they look the other way when leaders abuse these same citizens.
One would have hoped that SADC and the African Union would by now have noticed the gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe that are reported daily in the press.
One would have hoped that the African Union would, by now, have raised the alarm about the worsening practice of arresting teachers, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, opposition leaders, doctors and nurses.
Zimbabwe’s parliamentarians are being abducted, arrested and physically abused with the government not doing anything about it. The growing arrests of opposition supporters seem normal to both the African Union and to SADC.
Those who try to point out the excesses of the Zimbabwean government pay a heavy prize and both SADC and the AU have never issued an admonishment of the misbehaving government.
The peoples of Africa have been forced to rely on Non-Governmental Organisations for human rights protections, for food, education and all those things that a government is duty bound to offer to its citizens.
Then there is South Africa, a country that was helped by many African countries but that is now looking at other African countries as thirsty inconsequential beggars not worthy a cup of water.
No one gives a damn about South Africa if only South Africa could leave Africa alone and stop exploiting countries that are in human rights distress, like Zimbabwe. South Africa, because of its ineptitude, will never let Zimbabwe regain its footing.
It is, therefore, interesting to me that the one time that SADC does or says something noteworthy on Zimbabwe, it declares today, 25 October, as Anti-Sanctions Day.
To SADC, what sanctions are we talking about?
Who is targeted and how?
Why were those sanctions imposed?
Who imposed those sanctions?
Have the reasons that caused the imposition of those sanctions been rectified to warrant those nations to lift the sanctions?
Have SADC and the directionless African Union ever considered so much as imposing sanctions on African governments that abuse, murder and abduct its own citizens?
It is pathetic how the word “solidarity” is being interpretated and abused by Africa’s wrongdoers.
South Africa’s ANC always talks about its ‘solidarity’ with political parties that brought independence to their countries yet it never fought a battle of liberation, but was only liberated by sanctions against the white minority government while countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique were made to suffer and bore the brunt of deadly incursions and cruelty while South Africans blacks were busy necklacing each other.
Zimbabwe is Africa’s shame but more so the African Union, SADC, South Africa’s.
To them, I say, do not worry about sanctions, please, concern yourselves with the right and safety of the people of Zimbabwe.
And, yes, you make me sick.
Tanonoka Whande writes in his personal capacity.
