Paul Nyathi|A popular Holy Bible section warns against speaking to other people’s situations before attending to your own similar issues that may even be of a higher magnitude.
Matthew Chapter 7 Verses 3 to 5 narrates:
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
The above teaching may very well need to be brought to the attention of President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has rushed to condemn attacks on civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo while he fails to say a word when his own soldiers and police brutalise innocent citizens.
Speaking as the SADC Chairman on Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, Mnangagwa is quoted as having expressed “deep concern and strongly condemns” the attacks on civilians and the resultant violent demonstrations against United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) peacekeepers.
“The attacks in Beni have resulted in the death of approximately 80 people, as well as the injury and displacement of many people,” he said.
Shockingly when similar attacks on citizens hit his own country, Mnangagwa is always accusing the western countries for supporting the protests that come as s result of how own failures.
In January this year at least 12 civilians died and hundreds more were injured following a joint police and military crackdown on citizens.
“We regret the loss of life but we needed to protect property as well as other citizens not involved in the protests,” was all that Mnangagwa could say on his own citizens.
“We have told the western countries that they cannot turn around and raise concerns when they are the ones sponsoring the violence,” the privately-owned NewsDay newspaper quoted Mnangagwa as saying.
When he took over from Robert Mugabe in 2017, Mnangagwa pledged to revive the moribund economy and attract foreign investment by ending the country’s international isolation due to its history of violence on citizens.
Speaking on the violence that has erupted in the DRC, Mnangagwa called on the government there to protect citizens something which his own government has failed to uphold back home.
“SADC calls upon the Government of the DRC to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of civilians, and end the violence perpetrated on peacekeepers,” he said.
He said SADC reaffirms its continued commitment to support the DRC to restore peace and tranquillity and enable the country to return to political normalcy