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Theresa Makone has boobed again, and again it is with the connivance of a Zanu PF minister.
On Thursday the newly appointed Home Affairs co-minister with her counterpart Kembo Mohadi dismissed the xenophobic attacks on Zimbabweans in South Africa and the resultant influx of Zimbabweans returning home as something that has not yet been officially brought to her attention.
Confronted by the media the two bedfellows professed ignorance of the xenophobic attacks saying their South African counterparts had not communicated such developments to them. They said they would not depend on media reports.
Makone herself is quoted as saying: “Our citizens have not yet communicated with us. We cannot rely on media reports.”
Not only does this betray her contempt for the media, it also shows naivety nonpareil.
There is an avalanche of returning Zimbabweans at the Beitbridge border post. South African media have highlighted the plight of Zimbabweans who are sleeping on the roadside trying, mostly in vain, to get transport to Zimbabwe. The whole thing constitutes a humanitarian crisis but our Theresa is not aware of this because it has not been communicated to her officially and because she cannot depend on the media!
It is understandable if Mohadi is non-committal in the whole thing because Zanu PF’s attitude towards this crisis is: Why did they run away in the first place! Zanu PF, and Mohadi was complicit in this, created the crisis that led to millions of Zimbabweans seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa. They are not welcoming the returnees as prodigal sons but as errant children who have earned their comeuppance.
On the other hand, the MDC-T, which Makone purports to front at Home Affairs, must know pretty well that these returnees were victims of a political system that used intimidation and torture and denied them food aid because of their political affiliations.
Most of them suffered because they supported Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC and when they had nowhere to run in the face of the continued Zanu PF onslaught they skipped the border into South Africa.
Now seeing the semblance of political stability wrought by the global political agreement, which has produced an organ on healing and reconciliation, these people might be thinking that it is better to go home than be killed by xenophobic mobs.
But what welcome do they get from the party they sacrificed their lives for?
Faced with a similar crisis, the Mozambican government has engaged the South African authorities and has said they would air, at the forthcoming Sadc summit, their revulsion at what is happening in South Africa. The difference between Mozambican government officials and Makone is that the former read newspapers and listen to decent radio and television broadcasts so that they are always aware of what is happening to their people living in other countries.
Recently Makone was left with egg on her face when she tried to spring an accused person from lawful police custody because he is the son of a colleague she has known since the 1970s while in exile in the United Kingdom. Only, the man she sought to shield from the law is the son of none other than Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa, arguably the man at the forefront of suppressing human rights in Zimbabwe.
Ironically, she had not made a similar effort to track down Farai Maguwu, a human rights campaigner, when he was locked up for pointing out rights abuses in Marange.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai has been patently weak in dealing with Makone in the first instance, seriously damaging the credibility of his party. This point is most poignant when we consider that only a few weeks ago he had tried to give the country the image of a decisive leader who dealt firmly with non-achievers.
Civil society has in recent months been pointing out the sense of betrayal they now feel towards Tsvangirai and his motley crew in the inclusive government who seem to have occupied a comfort zone and couldn’t care less what happens to the people with whom they fought in the trenches.
The crisis in South Africa may seem a trifle exaggerated but there are people there and at our border posts who need comfort and security.
Makone should take a lead in helping them!
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To our prime minister I say it's high time you got a grip of the situation because at the moment you look as though you are completely out of your depth.
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