This dictator is swallowing all of us
Phoenix, my fish that survived the ZINWA water ordeal that saw all my other fish die, swallowed her young one in an unprecedented move yesterday. I bought several other interesting fish to replenish the tank and ease her loneliness but somehow she perceived the other fish a threat – especially the hyperactive, ugly black gouramis and the red-tailed guppy.
Sometimes I wonder how many Zimbabwean mothers, who have no idea where the next supper is going to come from or where to get school fees, wishes she could just swallow her children and shield them from the cruel hell this country has degenerated into. I heard on etv yesterday that the South African government is currently debating the legality and practicality of deporting a two-year old whose mother died of cholera at Musina after illegally crossing the border to seek medical attention. Had the mother known this was to be the fate of her child isn’t it possible she would have wanted to ‘swallow’ him before she died in order to forestall the misery brought on by petty party politics and the hellish bureaucracy that dogs the lives of refugees at the hands of some xenophobic South Africans?
Meanwhile the Elders delegation was stuck in South Africa at the weekend because they were denied entry into Zimbabwe by the invisible government. It is obvious that the leaders of the invisible government have something to hide and as Carter rightly put it, are “very immune to reaching out for help for their own people.” They will not even allow critical humanitarian assistance to flow in where whole communities stand a chance of being wiped out by cholera and starvation.
SADC turned its back on the people of Zimbabwe, so did the AU and let’s hope that the Elders are not just going to give up. Unnecessary diplomacy and bureaucracy will see many a dictator thrive if the international community does not soon devise interventionist policies regarding Mugabe, especially where the welfare of a whole nation is at stake.
Not wishing to see another Iraq-style invasion, sometimes it is necessary to use force in order to oust a dictator and save the lives of innocent, defenseless people. This has become a matter of urgency because this dictator is swallowing all of us, not to protect us but to annihilate us.