By Dr Masimba | In recent years Zimbabweans living in South Africa have been living in hell, as they are systematically targerted for gruesome and most barbaric murders. All this is done in the name of ridding South Africa (SA) of unwanted migrants.
The SA government, it seems, has outsourced its Immigration Control Policy to vigilantee groups of murderers and lawless thugs. Blood sucking ignorant thugs torment foreigners black foreigners on camera with no shame and no fear.
The South African government believes it is cool and civil to turn a blind eye to ethnic cleansing. Many despots in history have beaten that path and it has left a stain in history. Hitler, Musolin and Idi Amin began that way, demonising respective groups for political expediency.
South Africa must learn from history that a political approach of using an identified ethnic group or nationality to divert from systemic internal problems is not only morally perverse, it is also a sure recipe for self-destruction. Similarly, no government or political party can gain political milage from the vicious ostracising of people from an identified nationality who live within its boarders.
SA is a giant in the continent. Surely it has sufficient resources to design and implement an effective immigration policy and control of its boaders. It does not have to depend on those who decend to the abyss (home of demons) to murder and maim fellow human beings.
It is incredulous to think or believe that the SA government does not know the forces that are targeting Zimbabweans and Africans at large. It does because these things are not done by ghosts. The crimes are committed in broad daylight by boisterous villains. Clearly these people have sponsors. They pride in their cruelty by doing it on camera without fear.
Further, Zimbabweans are denied basic public services such as health services when they seek such. These Zimbabweans work and pay taxes in South Africa. They have contribted enormously to the economy of that country. The SA government is aware of this crude treatment of Zimbabweans by its civil servants. Yet there are no consequences This fortifies the belief by many that SA has adopted a hostile policy against Zimbabweans and in the very least has passively sub-contracted its implementation to organised crime and criminals.
Why Zimbabweans? When SA became independent in 1990, it had a high rate of illiteracy. The economy and the civil service was run by whites. Zimbabweans came to the rescue. They occupied high jobs. This triggered jealousy and resentment from locals.
It is also known that even as far back as the 1970, Zimbabweans worked in gold mines (Wenela) and in various manual work positions.
Whichever way you look at it, the SA economy owes a huge debt of gratitude to Zimbabweans. No one is saying that this gives Zimbabweans a blank cheque or a free pass for existence in SA without abiding by the country’s immigration laws. It simply means that no amount of flouting a country’s laws justifies a deliberate policy of turning over the offenders to abnoxious thugs and murderous vigilantes. They must be subjected to due process.
SA is a member of several international organisations, including the United Nations and its various organs. Therefore it has international obligations to protect any person within its territory. It must do so by ensuring that their person and dignity are inviolable; that such persons, regardless of immigration status, are not molested. In this regard SA is in breach of its international obligations towards Zimbabweans.
It is argued, without evidence, that Zimbabweans have amongst them the most notorious criminals in SA. Even assuming that were proven, it does not justify a primitive policy of self-help and brutalisation.
Moreover, most victims of SA homophobia are the powerless and innocent, including women and children. There is no evidence that the organised and sponsored thugs attack armed and dangerous criminals. They dare not. So this argument that they are ridding their country of Zimbabwean criminals is as false as it is hypocritical.
What the South Africans are doing while their government turns the other way is a disgust to Africans. SA is not the only country facing immigration issues in the world. Countries in Europe, America and Asia have the same challenges. It is unheard of that a state would gleefully adopt a passive ethnic cleansing policy in the name of dealing with immigration.
Surely the South African government is a willing criminal partner and an accomplice in the human rights abuses taking place under their nose.