SMOKE THEM OUT!
By Herman Moyo
At every moment of our lives we all have one foot in the sun and the other in the shadows. South Africa’s moment in the sun was during Mandela’s time.
Reconciliation, inclusivity and the idea of the rainbow nation had captured the imagination of the world at the dawn of independence, so too had the promise to be the personification of an African dream, an envisaged departure from mainstream African politics where democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and equal opportunity for all, were hanging by a thread.
And inheriting the second largest economy in the continent was not too bad either. Possibilities were endless!
South Africa had arrived and was ready to play with the big boys on the world stage, but the big boys were not so sure.
The correct sound bites had been made, but “proof of the pudding” was yet to be proved.
So, when she volunteered to mediate between Saddam & George Bush snr during the desert storm troubles, she was summarily ordered to sit down.
Sit she did, but the grandiose ambition to hobnob with amamonya ipapo still burned deep in her soul.
In the meantime, Denel and Thales happened, Shabir and the Gupta brothers happened, xenophobia happened, Marikana and Phalaphala farm with its furnishings, both hard and soft happened.
The center could no longer hold! The rainbow colours had lost their shine! The dream inexorably turning into a nightmare!
But Mzansi’s beating heart remained fixated with the elusive world stage, all of the foregoing not withstanding.
Verily, when the opportunity presented courtesy of dumbstruck Arab neighbours to Gaza, she made her move. One must hand it to her, that was ballsy.
Taking America’s proxy to court needed that: it was noble, it was humane and indeed it was Ubuntu, coming at the time when it was neither popular nor fashionable: somebody had to stand with the Palestinians.
However, South Africa is still dealing with the challenges of understanding her own identity and self perception: The ANC charter says she belongs to all in there and most politicians beg to differ
Another paradox, all the inhumanity that they had hauled Israel to The Hague for, is being perpetrated against their very own in some disused mineshaft i.e; stopping food and water supplies from reaching them and pointedly refusing rescue services from getting to the site to help get the artisanal miners out as they have been weakened by lack of food and water. And there’s over four thousand of them
Minister in the presidency, Ntshaveni gave an interview that would have left the minister of Israel defence at the beginning of the Gaza siege, green with envy. She was defiant, (no food and water), boisterous (no rescuing criminals) and promised to “smoke them out” as if the people down there were mere pests to be fumigated.
It has taken a court order to reverse that mindset.
Israel must be laughing their lungs off. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
