“You are hereby fired,” the Queen of England must have muttered, when stripping Mugabe of his honorary Knight Grand Cross in the Civil Division of The Most Honourable Order of Bath. “The elections are an outright sham!” squealed George Bush. “We will not recognise the outcome of the elections!” declared Europe as one, showing for the first time in history some sort of an internal unity. “The situation in Zimbabwe is ‘out of control’!” said our very own Jacob Zuma, breaking the deafening never-ending political silence we in South Africa got so very much used to. “We need the UN and SADC to intervene in Zim!” he added.
The world is gnashing its teeth about what is happening in Zimbabwe. Yes, the world is pissed off, fuming, furious, and worried about the lives of Zimbabweans. The world wants the madness, which has cost 86 lives since the elections took place on March 29, to stop. According to the opposition, 10 000 people were injured and maimed. They were sjambokked, raped, and beaten to pulp just because they put a cross behind the ‘wrong’ person’s name. Yes, the world has every right to be angry.
The world in the first place should be angry at itself, as this international call for action comes a tad too late. The world knew about opposition supporters who died because they did not back Mugabe — yet we did nothing. We knew about civilians who were beaten to pulp, just because their children were MDC-members. We knew about Zimbabweans who were terrorized by Zanu-PF militias — yet we kept quiet. We were aware of farmers and their employees who were harassed, injured, killed and chased off their properties. Yet, nothing was done. We watched how the Zimbabweans economy went down under, impoverishing millions of Zimbabweans and chasing three million refugees across the border. Yet this was answered with silence.
In case the world has missed it: The situation has been out of control for years, and the elections of March have been a sham. And Robert Mugabe, he should have never been given the position of Knight in the first place. Coming back to that: Why would a nutter whose hands are drenched in blood deserve to be distinguished and praised in such way? Thanks to his warped and evil mind, thousands of Matabeles were killed in the 1980s. Yet, about 14 years after these horrific deeds, this brain behind them was declared a knight. And the world nodded. Why didn’t we award him with the Nobel Peace prize, while we were at it?
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