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Zimbabwe: South Africans Are Sitting On a Time Bomb
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The Zimbabwe Guardian (London)
OPINION
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 2 May 2008
Itayi Garande
PRESIDENT Mugabe, on his last visit to South Africa, received an ovation from black South Africans. Many people read it in different ways. To me it was a symbolic gesture--a reminder that most South Africans had not forgotten one of the ANC's promises--that almost a third of arable land would be redistributed by 2000. Today the figure is less than 4 per cent, and the target year has been altered to 2015.
The hard truth is that South Africa today sits on a time bomb.
Every time I read about the response of South Africans and their media--especially the independent media--to the crisis in Zimbabwe, I am concerned that many do not seem to understand the extent of the problems they face today, and are likely to face in the future--and how those problems will be a déjà vu to what is happening in Zimbabwe today.
I have listened to various programmes and broadcasts and read individual statements on blogs and various fora by South Africans, who have harshly criticised the government and people of Zimbabwe, whom they have labelled docile and incapable of helping themselves.
But this is only a handful of South Africans--the middle class, and new middle class that is benefiting from South Africa's 'independence' and so-called black empowerment initiatives.
It beggars belief that a handful of people--in a country with millions living in abject poverty--can mock a country that had a protracted war of liberation to free itself, when in fact they had a negotiated settlement.
Zimbabweans, who today opt for peaceful means and not take to the streets to resolve their crises, know the struggles of yesteryear and the meaning of 'war'--in real terms--and its disastrous consequences on the physical and mental being of human beings.
Zimbabweans experienced a protracted guerilla war against colonialism, against white settlerism, that saw many casualties incomparable to anywhere in Africa--innocent and combatant. No other country on the continent experienced what Zimbabwe and its peoples, its parties including the main ones Zanu PF and PF Zapu--the liberation war parties that brought successfully fought for independence--experienced.
Ironically, at exactly the same time, Zimbabweans were involved in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Some of us literally grew up with members of the African National Congress living in our midst getting help to crumble the evil system.
Today, South Africans, especially those sitting comfortably, and oblivious to the impending problem, need to realise that they are sitting on a time bomb.
South Africa in 2008
"Our country belongs to all who live in it," says the opening words of the ANC's Freedom Charter, declared more than half a century ago. Do these words ring true today in South Africa?
A young author and friend of mine, a South African (born and bred) tells me, "On Sunday we celebrated Unfreedom Day -- not Freedom Day." His feelings were echoed by South African shack-dwellers' movement, Abahlali Basemjondolo, who aptly summarized their problem:
"Since the last UnFreedom Day we have been beaten, shot at and arrested on false charges by the police; evicted by the land invasions unit; disconnected from electricity by Municipal Security; forcibly removed to rural human dumping grounds by the Municipalities; banned from marching by the eThekwini City Manager; slandered by all those who want followers not comrades; intimidated by all kinds of people who demand the silence of the poor; threatened by new anti-poor laws; burnt in the fires; sick in the dirt and raped in the dark nights looking for a safe place to go the toilet."
18 years after the release of Nelson Mandela by the President F.W. De Klerk--an event many people prefer to call 'independence'--many black South Africans still live in abject poverty and are victims of a 'post-independence apartheid system', perpetuated through a racist extreme Right Wing South Africa and a corrupt police force.
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Mandela, on his release on 11 February 1990 said, "On this occasion, we thank the world community for their great contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle. Without your support our struggle would not have reached this advanced stage. The sacrifice of the frontline states will be remembered by South Africans forever."
How quickly they forgot--especially in relation to Zimbabwe.
Mandela also said, "Today the majority of South Africans, black and white, recognise that apartheid has no future," yet 11 years later, the 'apartheid system' is still alive and well, and millions of black South Africans are still living in slums without running water or electricity--with no material change to their lives. Poor South Africans are fleeing the country to Europe and America in more numbers than during the apartheid era.
Any article that still refers to Apartheid and Verwoed and past racism has no relevance in South Africa today. There are merely a blind which the ignorant, the ill-informed, and the uneducated use. No doubt the figures quoted for land transfers and crime etc have some factual base, but quoting figures even if they can be proved, is one thing, drawing valid conclusions from them is another. There is no government in the world today, nor any administration of government, that does not have its good and bad points. Colonial Britian had as many bad faults as good benefits... [Read Full Text]
I note that the reply that I wrote was flagged as abusive. How would you then flag the actions of the Zimbabwe government in destroying the houses of thousands and thousands of its citizens in the middle of winter. I suppose on the basis of your one sided and unilateral flagging of my reply as abusive, you would flag that action as being 'benign' or good, but then if I wrote to you about it you would flag that article as abusive.
I fully agree with this comment and it is a sad commentary on Africa that we too often fail to learn not only from others mistakes but from our own. I was born in Zim and it is wothout doubt a jewel but what is it today? In the end we will all be judged on what we have done with what we have been given. What has Mugabe done?
i cannot agree with you more on all Zimbabwe issues......however on I do not understand why would you confuse UBUNTU with a sickness. Maybe you need to go and research what exactly is ubuntu.....If I may tell you UBUNTU is the reason why Africans were robbed off thier land by colonialism. Africans are the people filled with humility and humbleness, and that was seen as a weakness by POWER HUNGRY, AND GREEDY COLONIALISTS...........but hey! You seem to know better.
Maybe you've never lived in a homeland and see the conditions of black man and women.....and you are telling me Colonialism... [Read Full Text]
LOL, your comment reminds me of a Monty Python scene from Life of Brian which ends with:
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
What absolute rubbish to describe Mugabe as the leader of a former "liberation" movement against "colonialism." Zimbabwe was already a fully independent country even under the previous racist white regime. Britain and other non-African countries did not recognise and had no influence whatsoever over the regime of Ian Smith, who had made his own "unilateral declaration of independence" from British rule.
Britain itself through its sanctions did as much to get rid of Smith's racial regime as Mugabe did, and probably much more.
The war that was started and prosecuted by Mugabe and Nkomo was purely and simply a... [Read Full Text]
WOZA (woman of Zimbabwe association) which is sponsored by a white wealth anglo is actually a political party representing Rhodesian Interests. WOZA pretends to be some kind of NGO representing women interest in Zim, but they are actually an imperialist sponsored organisation.
WOZA, The chinese, and our neigbors (Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia) are our friends. You are free to call them whatever you want. Yes, they supported the liberation of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and they did an excellent job. Zimbabwe also invited her friends to observe their elections and it is a good think.
You're talking rubbish again Phiri. Anyone who wants to know the truth can look here:
http://wozazimbabwe.org
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