Opinion / Columnist
Your Excellence 'Cde Robert Mugabe' are you serious about BaKalanga?
30 Apr 2015 at 10:55hrs | Views
IT is disheartening that one head of State has the guts to lambast our people for migrating to neighboring South Africa yet it is common knowledge that successive governments under the Zanu-PF administration have failed our people since 1980.
Addressing journalists yesterday, Mugabe said the Kalanga people are an uneducated lot who go to South Africa to work in farms. "...Why do this? Come back home..." Mugabe was aired speaking on State broadcaster ZBCtv yesterday much to our chagrin.
Why are BaKalanga uneducated if Mugabe's notion is anything to go by? Where are the 3-million jobs which his party promised in 2013? It's sad that the few jobs in government departments and parastatals in Kalanga Constituencies are clandestinely allocated to Shona people outside our province yet the aging leader has the guts to say 'please come home'.
It's sad that this man continues to perpetuate the 1980 grand plan which is characterized by Zezuru hegemony and the systematic oppression of our people.
Mugabe's statements smack of nothing but tribal bigotry. Why single out BaKalanga when its a public secret that in the past decade his people - the Shona have been migrating to South Africa in search of greener pastures? Who doesn't know that Shonas are begging from every corner in South Africa? Is it because they are uneducated?
Just recently we heard that buses ferrying Zimbabwean xenophobia escapees from South Africa never went to any of our Kalanga Communities, but went straight to Mashonaland carrying thousands of Shonas fleeing attacks by angry South Africans. Were they BaKalanga? While it's a fact that some Zimbabweans commit heinous crimes in South Africa, it is malicious to single out BaKalanga as chief architects of crime in that country. Unless if the president used figurative speech to mean that every Zimbabwean in S. Africa is Kalanga.
I call upon all Kalanga people in the content to condemn the Statements by his Excellency. Many a times nasty stereotypes have been peddled about BaKalanga in a bid to make them inferior and not participate meaningfully in the development of their communities. It is sad that to this date, even the president himself peddles falsehoods about baKalanga. BaKalanga will never be downtrodden.
We continue to work hard to uplift our communities. We believe that the current government will never be sympathetic with our cause. Only self-determination and sacrifice shall uplift our people. Against the backdrop of drunk abandon and mockery by the State, we call upon all non-State actors and agencies to join us in our quest to bring development to our communities.
Addressing journalists yesterday, Mugabe said the Kalanga people are an uneducated lot who go to South Africa to work in farms. "...Why do this? Come back home..." Mugabe was aired speaking on State broadcaster ZBCtv yesterday much to our chagrin.
Why are BaKalanga uneducated if Mugabe's notion is anything to go by? Where are the 3-million jobs which his party promised in 2013? It's sad that the few jobs in government departments and parastatals in Kalanga Constituencies are clandestinely allocated to Shona people outside our province yet the aging leader has the guts to say 'please come home'.
It's sad that this man continues to perpetuate the 1980 grand plan which is characterized by Zezuru hegemony and the systematic oppression of our people.
Just recently we heard that buses ferrying Zimbabwean xenophobia escapees from South Africa never went to any of our Kalanga Communities, but went straight to Mashonaland carrying thousands of Shonas fleeing attacks by angry South Africans. Were they BaKalanga? While it's a fact that some Zimbabweans commit heinous crimes in South Africa, it is malicious to single out BaKalanga as chief architects of crime in that country. Unless if the president used figurative speech to mean that every Zimbabwean in S. Africa is Kalanga.
I call upon all Kalanga people in the content to condemn the Statements by his Excellency. Many a times nasty stereotypes have been peddled about BaKalanga in a bid to make them inferior and not participate meaningfully in the development of their communities. It is sad that to this date, even the president himself peddles falsehoods about baKalanga. BaKalanga will never be downtrodden.
We continue to work hard to uplift our communities. We believe that the current government will never be sympathetic with our cause. Only self-determination and sacrifice shall uplift our people. Against the backdrop of drunk abandon and mockery by the State, we call upon all non-State actors and agencies to join us in our quest to bring development to our communities.
Source - Hangoyapalala waTjibundule
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