SA foreign affairs team must visit victims in DRC and Zimbabwe

Leah Chishugi, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and a trained nurse, went into the DRC and filmed the testimony of over 400 women who were raped and abused by militias in flare-ups in the eastern regions of the Congo. The Guardian (UK) carries footage of her coverage.

In November 2007 South Africa (and Angola) blocked a UN General Assembly resolution specifically focused on rape being used by government or other militias as a means to achieving military and political ends. Instead a watered down say-nothing version was adopted because according to South Africa’s ambassador, DUMISANI KUMALO (I’ve put his name in bold in case any ladies in the DRC have trouble making out the small print): “The original US draft appeared to concentrate on condemning rape when perpetrated for political and military purposes only. We felt strongly that this would have created two categories of rape. That is, rape by military and militia groups and rape by civilians.”

Mr. Kumalo said that the Africans had insisted on the changes “to balance the text by making certain that there was no politicisation of rape.” (New York Times)

Needless to say the reason furnished is the biggest crock of crap this side of sewage central – the reality being that the US tabled the bill and South Africa were going to oppose it. Pretty much the same as on Myanmar, gay rights and Zimbabwe where we took the opposing side to anything the western countries endorsed.

Even though they knew it would land us with the Nightmare on Elm Street called Zimbabwe and rape gone mad in the DRC.

The problem for me is that South Africa is sending assessors to Zimbabwe next week to ascertain the medical and food shortages (this is as it should be those people need our help) but not including a delegation of those who drove the bus called “Zimbabwe Meltdown”.

All those who were responsible for our policy of “quiet diplomacy” and particularly every member involved in blocking the UN Resolution on Zimbabwe (with Russia and China) should be compelled to go into Zimbabwe and immediately be turned over to the victims of their policies.

They must not be allowed arms or an escort, merely a loudspeaker so that they can tell these people that we have destroyed their lives and their country to protect them from western imperialism. That even now those western imperialists are waiting to pour aid into their country but we would rather watch them die, as we’re sure they would want to, than allow this which is why we have propped up Senor Satan, their 84-year-old president.

Before leaving (if this doubtful eventuality should take place – alive anyway) don’t forget to mention that time and again and despite their voting Mugabe out South Africa has kept him in. So he could watch them all die on television from his mansion, his sacrifice to the “war on western imperialism”.

Those survivors who leave Zimbabwe, if any, will join DUMISANI KUMALO on the road trip to the DRC. There, unescorted, he can tell those victims of brutal rape, by the very militias that the resolution he helped block was targeting, his garbage about the two categories of rape and not politicising it.

If you want to be a spectator at the event, make sure you book something else to go to afterwards — this should be over in about five minutes.

If South Africa wants to have foreign affairs policies that are not only disgusting to the majority of the planet but also harmful to our country and our region, then the very least we have the right to expect is that those who mastermind them go and explain it to the people who suffer the consequences of this disgraceful conduct.

They will be the only people on the planet with a life expectancy below that of Zimbabweans.