Maravi

(ZIMBABWE GUARDIAN) Zimbabwe setting a precedent for South Africa

Zimbabwe setting a precedent for South Africa
By: Peter Chimutsa
Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 8:02 am

SOUTH African right wing elements are running scared as Zimbabwe sets a precedent of black empowerment on the continent. Reading opposition politics in that country, one is inclined to think the Zimbabwean government is part of the South African government.

The Democratic Alliance in that country, the main white opposition group, quotes the Zimbabwean government in the media more times than say the opposition in Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique, all countries that share a border with Zimbabwe.

Many white Rhodies emigrated to South Africa in defiance of black majority rule in Zimbabwe (or then Rhodesia), supported Apartheid and started fighting against black rule in Zimbabwe. They still do this is South Africa.

Today, they have nowhere to run to as black majority rule entrenches and consolidates itself in South Africa, in particular, and in the region as a whole.

Racist right wing elements in that country are determined to see President Mugabe fail, so that they can criticise the African National Congress of President Jacob Zuma, if it tries to empower the blacks in South Africa.

The Right Wing element in that country is still very much alive and much of it would like white rule to return through the back door.

South Africa is in a mess, despite the optimistic and positive news about that country. The crime rate is surging. There is a homicide every minute in that country, paramilitary groups and vigilantes roam the streets of Johannesburg. Drug cartels run chunks of towns and cities and the country boasts some of the worst political officers in the history of the profession.

Millions live in abject poverty in Soweto and other places, with no running water or proper sanitation.

South Africa's bubble will burst, and the white farmer and industrialist enjoying life in that country without helping redistribute wealth in that country is sitting on a time bomb. The same situation happened in Zimbabwe before.

Freedom fighters will not relent in their quest until real change has occurred. They will not forget the Sharpeville Massacre, the death of Steve Biko, the marginalisation and second class citizenship of the Apartheid era, their day-to-day poverty.

Rich white farmers, their associations and Right Wing opposition groups in South Africa are on a journey to nowhere if the black person remains marginalised in South Africa. They should not sleep and hope for the best like what the rich white commercial farmer did in Zimbabwe.

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The writer Peter Chimutsa can be contacted via peterchimutsa@yahoo.com

Labels: LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 1:51 PM