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South
Africa: The battle against cowardice
Rejoice Ngwenya
August 26, 2010
Considering
the new wave of xenophobic attacks against black Zimbabweans, some
black South Africans now have conceded that they are a brood of
insecure, spineless cowards. I grew up with these cowards, lived
with them in exile, conferenced, drank and shopped with them in
their fancy boulevards and arcades. Under that veneer of happy-go-lucky
hypocrisy, their limited intellect seethed with nothing but venomous
contempt for other Africans, especially - Zimbabweans, Mozambicans,
Zambians and Malawians. Sales- assistants in South African
shops have shown me contemptuous hatred and suspicion. Even when
I check into five-star hotels at Rosebank, I have to grope around
for ideal seating while the receptionists scurry around for the
attention of Japanese guests in anticipation for a tip. I acknowledge
that Ubuntu has not been upheld in spite of the three hundred years
of plunder and mental abuse by the Boers.
Fear and cowardice
have gripped much of Africa and there is a common historical strand.
Here in Zimbabwe, after thirty years of violent repression, a typical
Zimbabwean will not say much against political order or any system
for that matter without glancing over their shoulder. The consequences
are devastating. We have become so accustomed to service delivery
abuse that mediocrity and compliance are now in the DNA and our
social behaviour. Zimbabweans wait for someone to say something,
and they join with a 'we knew it all along- chorus.
Fear and coward mentality!
But there was
an exception; Mr Dzikamai Mavhaire, a close ally of Robert Mugabe
who, at the height of ZANU-PF-s one party state euphoria in
the 1990s, bravely defied his personal friendship with the president
and publicly declared; "Mr. Mugabe must go; he should give
way to new party leadership." There was hue and cry from his
delusionary party, but he became an instant cult hero in the 'democratic
movement-.
As you read
this rebellious treatise, twelve million Zimbabweans of progressive
political ideology would want to show Mr. Mugabe the flashing political
exit, but we have had absolutely no clue on how to go about this
noble democratic exercise since 1985. Villagers have been pummelled
into prostrate submission while urbanites are routinely reduced
to dysfunctional robots that worry too much about day to day survival
at the expense of long-term political wisdom.
The neighbouring,
South Africa, has not made it any easier, at petrol service stations,
councils, churches, schools, public buses - Zimbabwean citizens
are abused, but the most they can do is to wait and see, hoping
that the next day will bring better tidings. Grocery supermarkets
compel us to buy merchandise we do not need because they stock no
loose change, and we take this punishment without so much as twitching
an eyebrow but the hope that maybe one day we will return home.
As for now we still have one question still lingering on our minds;
" Hee bakithi, sizophindela njani ekhaya uMgabe esabusa?."
["How on earth can we return to Zimbabwe during Mugabe-s
reign? ].
My advice to
the South African ruling government is that xenophobic attacks on
my countrymen are not an illusion, but a direct result of false
promises of jobs and housing for South Africans. For my fellow citizens
in Alexander, Kya Sands, Soweto and Westham -it is only an
insecure, good-for-nothing pea brain that would kill someone solely
on the basis of ethnicity. I say swallow your pride, rid yourselves
of fear and return home to fight against fascism. The battle is
about to be won.
*Rejoice
Ngwenya is director of coalition for liberal market reforms in Zimbabwe,
and affiliate of AfricanLiberty.org and IMANI. This article is a
sequel to an earlier
one published in 2008.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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