Ndebele, Shona tensions reach boiling point

Tribal tensions between Zimbabwe's two main ethnic groups,the Shona and the Ndebele have reached the boiling point.The country's leaders have turned a blind eye to the time bomb waiting to explode anytime.

The leaders keep deceiving the world about the situation in the country.Others say Zimbabweans are united while the opposite is the reality.Unlike in other African countries where tribal wars are started by ordinary people,the tragedy in Zimbabwe is that the government is directly responsible for the rising tensions that could plunge the country into a civil strife.

The government's tribal policies effected in 1980 have reduced tribes in Matabeleland to second class citizens.Ethnic groups in the province and some parts of the Midlands have been subjected to worst forms of institutionalised tribalism and it is getting worse.

The tensions between the two ethnic groups have spilled over into social media.I had the opportunity recently to log onto facebook hate groups run by both Ndebeles and Shonas.

The language used by the two rival tribes can leave you breathless.You would for forgiven for thinking you are reading messages from hate organisations such as America's anti-black Ku Klux Klan.One post in the Ndebele group called on the youths of Matabeleland to attack Shonas wherever they find them in the townships of Johannesburg.

A few days after reading the post, there was a report of Shona speakers who were attacked by a mob in the township of Thembisa, north of Johannesburg in the East Rand.The victims said the people who attacked them spoke Ndebele and some wore "Free Matabeleland " t-shirts.

It was clear to the victims that the attackers were from Bulawayo.According to one of the victims,the attackers threatened them with war.They told them the beatings they got were just the beginning of what was coming to them in South Africa.

One posting on the Shona facebook group urged Shona leaders in government to intensify the deployment of Shona teachers in Matabeleland and the oppression of the Ndebele.The Shona group also threatened to deal with Mthwakazi activists advocating for seccession.With such kind of tensions,leaders can ignore them at their own peril.The battle lines have been drawn.It's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.

Ndebele activists both at home and in South Africa have banned the Zimbabwean flag and the singing of the country's national anthem at their meetings as retaliation for what they called "cultural and language genocide in the province" and the illtreatment of their people by the government.

The government's continued deployment of Shona teachers in Ndebele schools has pushed the inhabitants of the province including chiefs and politicians to the limit.When Zanu leaders went to war in the 70s they had two objectives-to win it and thereafter seek revenge on their enemies,the Ndebele.

The Shona had waited for more than 100 years to get their revenge on the Ndebele,the once powerful and feared warrior tribe of Matabeleland.They were to be punished for the sins allegedly committed by their ancestors against the Shona during the reign of Kings Mzilikazi and Lobhengula.

If the Ndebele descendants of Mzilikazi were to be tried,the charge sheet would include launching illegal raids on Shona villages,destruction of property,looting of cattle,murder,treating defeated Shona people as slaves and forcing Shona to pay tax to the Ndebele King.The information the Shona possess is from history books written by British colonists who also promised to protect them against Ndebele raids.

The Shona have harboured that hatred of the Ndebele since those stone age days and their descendants have to pay for the crimes allegedly committed by their ancestors.

That opportunity for revenge presented itself in1980 when the Shona won the elections.After getting into power,they put into motion,the Grand Plan,a Satanic and tribal anti- Ndebele programme crafted by Zanu leaders in Mozambique.

Ndebele people who were promoted by the Rhodesian government were removed from their positions in Matabeleland.Shonas were brought in to replace them.This was the beginning of what became known as Zanu's "Shonalisation" of Matabeleland programme,some form of revenge against the Ndebele.

Heads of tertiary institutions in Matabeleland were removed so were Doctors Jahalamajaha Dlamini and Sipho Zwane superientendents of Mpilo and Bulawayo central hospitals respectively.

Shona officials were also appointed to be in charge of student registrations at colleges in Bulawayo.The aim was to limit the number of Ndebele students who made up 80 percent of trainees at teacher colleges and nursing institutions in the region before independence.

In the military,Ndebele officers from Zipra who had passed the officers courses were removed from their positions a few weeks after being promoted.The government had realised that the majority of those who had passed the military officers course were from Zipra.

 Zanla who had no experience in conventional warfare performed badly during the training by B-MAT-the British Military Advisory Team that supervised the intergration of guerrilla armies and the Rhodesian forces.Throughout the war,Zanla never launched a major military operation or won any battles against the Rhodesians.

They were the weakest of the two guerrilla armies.On the other hand,the Rhodesians gave Zapu credit for producing a well trained army which was let down by its political leadership.The Rhodesian commanders even tried to lure Zipra into joining South Africa's special operations commandos known as Recces.

The new rulers could not accept a situation where Zipra headed most of the battalions in the new national army hence the decision to remove them from their positions.The British trainers questioned the decision to remove the Zipra officers but they were overruled by the government.

Zipra had managed to pass the course because its officers had already in charge of regular army battalions that were deployed in 1978 in the northern front in an operation Zapu code-named "The Turning Point."

During the liberation war,Zapu had managed to train a conventional force separate from its guerrilla wing.The regular army was trained in Zambia to prepare for a military takeover of Rhodesia with Russian and Cuban backing in 1978.

Under the operation,co-ordinated by KGB officer Vladimir Bukeyev,Zapu was to deploy battalions from its regular army for a military invasion of Rhodesia through the northern front to establish liberated zones and set up civil administrative centres.

While the new rulers continued with their purge of the so called "cockroaches" in the government,senior Zanu leaders were secretely planning genocide of the Ndebele and their allies, the Kalanga,Venda,Sotho and Xhosa people.

White Rhodesians,realising their services were no longer wanted by the new black rulers who had just returned from refugee camps in Mozambique,packed their bags and headed south in what became known as "Operation Winter."