I recently traveled to Tsholotsho, after about a two year absence. I once stayed in Tsholotsho for about four years. I was a teacher there until I decided writing poetry, drama and raising a few opinions about what Mugabe and company are doing wrong once in a while was more fun than breaking chalk.

For years now I have been getting the same warning from family and friends.

“Wazakubulala wena.” Meaning they will kill you, like they have killed countless others who dared be in opposition with them.

I recently visited Tsholotsho and as expected Mbamba sub-station is manned by police officers who all come from other provinces other than Matabeleland. They can hardly speak the Ndebele language and how the ‘government’ expects them to be effective boggles the mind. The fact that Shona police officers have been imposed on us did not surprise me really – that has been the case since Gukurahundi.

What really shocked me was that the Shona boys who are police office officers at Mbamba sub-station think it is within their rights to beat up citizens. They have even convinced the villagers that the law allows them to beat up villagers. The time I was there the boys beat up three married women old enough to be their mothers and had the audacity to summon the headman of the village and ‘punish’ him for not teaching his people the law.

And we dare say Zimbabwe is a democracy?

This entry was posted on July 9th, 2009 at 9:26 am by Mgcini Nyoni and is filed under Activism, Governance, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.