Opinion / Columnist
Deputy minister's remarks frightening
04 Sep 2019 at 09:03hrs | Views
I was expecting people like Dr Masimba Mavaza to come out guns blazing to condemn the remarks by Deputy Minister Energy Mutodi that alleged that Zimbabwe accommodated South Africans and allowed them to settle in Matabeleland in 1836.
The historical hallucinations deserve no comment. It is the fact that a Government Minister can issue such reckless remarks were he openly declares Ndebeles as foreigners in Zimbabwe that must be fully interrogated. Does this explain the slaughter of more than 20000 unarmed civilians in Matabeleleland from 1980 to 1987? Whilst a few Shona people have come out to condemn the unconscionable insult, the majority like they did during Gukurahundi have been loud in their silence with some of the ardent tribalists even celebrating this genocidal statement which must be reported to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights. This Harare Government is brewing tribal strife and will soon reap the whirlwind.
It it lost to these tribal zealots that Zimbabwe was richer than Botswana in 1980. It is ironic that South Africa the last bastion of colonialism is today the most attractive country on the continent with blacks from all over the world fighting for it after decimating their economies. There is no reference in this empty speech to the failed state that Zimbabwe has become with its women buying used under wear from all over the world and death traps as hospitals. In the meantime the leaders of these failed states are in Singapore and China enjoying first medical facilities while their independent and sovereign followers wallow in abject and stinking poverty drinking sewage water. This a subject for another day. Violence has no place in any society. The root of the problem is the failed states that expect South Africa to be a haven of its citizens while the black elite in those states squander resources and loot national coffers. Zimbabweans that Deputy Minister referred to as the owners of the country have called South Africans lazy, uneducated, dull, backward and all manner of uncharitable names. Yet they will with their education rather die on the streets of South Africa than return to the shameful ruins that will never be a colony again for its so derelict nobody will ever want to colonize.
It is nauseating that a Deputy Minister can insult another tribe and refer to them as refugees in their own country while pretending to be against xenophobia in South Africa. The temerity to say Ndebele people are South Africans accommodated in Zimbabwe is mind boggling and must make everyone cringe at the prospect of another genocide. While the Ndebele people again be slaughtered like sitting ducks by their masters? What is worse Deputy Minister the murder of innocent civilians and children by a armed militia sanctioned by the Government or the turmoil among different nationalities which the South African Government has already condemned and contained? When the Ndebele state fought and defeated the British in 1893 at the famous Allan Wilson Patrol battle become one of the only two (the other were Zulus at the battle of Isandlwana) to conquer the British with the assegai, were they fighting as foreigners or as South Africans? The two liberation wars gallantly fought by the Mthwakazi people were for the liberation of their masters? This level of thinking is dangerous except that it fully explains the policy of marginalization of the Ndebele. After all they are South Africans.
I have heard all manner of insults by this coming from a Government official is the ultimate genocide recipe. As a full citizen of this country I am expecting that the Deputy Minister will resign his position while the impact of his poisonous and divisive comments are fully investigated. There is no hate speech worse than claiming to have allowed South Africans to settle in Zimbabwe referring to the Ndebele people. It is outrageous. The pattern of this abuse of Mthwakazi is so pervasive and requires a string hand to resist it. One of the weekly Independent newspapers carries weekly articles denigrating Mthwakazi people and mocking their culture by one gentleman who Admire Gukurahundi. Its a stain on the moral conscience of this country if it has any and this stoking of tribal fires will one day take this country to another level. Ukuhamba Kuzala Inkosi we say in Ndebele.
The historical hallucinations deserve no comment. It is the fact that a Government Minister can issue such reckless remarks were he openly declares Ndebeles as foreigners in Zimbabwe that must be fully interrogated. Does this explain the slaughter of more than 20000 unarmed civilians in Matabeleleland from 1980 to 1987? Whilst a few Shona people have come out to condemn the unconscionable insult, the majority like they did during Gukurahundi have been loud in their silence with some of the ardent tribalists even celebrating this genocidal statement which must be reported to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights. This Harare Government is brewing tribal strife and will soon reap the whirlwind.
It it lost to these tribal zealots that Zimbabwe was richer than Botswana in 1980. It is ironic that South Africa the last bastion of colonialism is today the most attractive country on the continent with blacks from all over the world fighting for it after decimating their economies. There is no reference in this empty speech to the failed state that Zimbabwe has become with its women buying used under wear from all over the world and death traps as hospitals. In the meantime the leaders of these failed states are in Singapore and China enjoying first medical facilities while their independent and sovereign followers wallow in abject and stinking poverty drinking sewage water. This a subject for another day. Violence has no place in any society. The root of the problem is the failed states that expect South Africa to be a haven of its citizens while the black elite in those states squander resources and loot national coffers. Zimbabweans that Deputy Minister referred to as the owners of the country have called South Africans lazy, uneducated, dull, backward and all manner of uncharitable names. Yet they will with their education rather die on the streets of South Africa than return to the shameful ruins that will never be a colony again for its so derelict nobody will ever want to colonize.
It is nauseating that a Deputy Minister can insult another tribe and refer to them as refugees in their own country while pretending to be against xenophobia in South Africa. The temerity to say Ndebele people are South Africans accommodated in Zimbabwe is mind boggling and must make everyone cringe at the prospect of another genocide. While the Ndebele people again be slaughtered like sitting ducks by their masters? What is worse Deputy Minister the murder of innocent civilians and children by a armed militia sanctioned by the Government or the turmoil among different nationalities which the South African Government has already condemned and contained? When the Ndebele state fought and defeated the British in 1893 at the famous Allan Wilson Patrol battle become one of the only two (the other were Zulus at the battle of Isandlwana) to conquer the British with the assegai, were they fighting as foreigners or as South Africans? The two liberation wars gallantly fought by the Mthwakazi people were for the liberation of their masters? This level of thinking is dangerous except that it fully explains the policy of marginalization of the Ndebele. After all they are South Africans.
I have heard all manner of insults by this coming from a Government official is the ultimate genocide recipe. As a full citizen of this country I am expecting that the Deputy Minister will resign his position while the impact of his poisonous and divisive comments are fully investigated. There is no hate speech worse than claiming to have allowed South Africans to settle in Zimbabwe referring to the Ndebele people. It is outrageous. The pattern of this abuse of Mthwakazi is so pervasive and requires a string hand to resist it. One of the weekly Independent newspapers carries weekly articles denigrating Mthwakazi people and mocking their culture by one gentleman who Admire Gukurahundi. Its a stain on the moral conscience of this country if it has any and this stoking of tribal fires will one day take this country to another level. Ukuhamba Kuzala Inkosi we say in Ndebele.
Source - Lizwe Dube
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