Betraying our people of Zimbabwe

The 14^th July 2017 was a very auspicious day for me.

It was when I met one of those incredible human beings who simply refuses to succumb to inhumanity, cruelty, persecution and to all those pernicious ways that those with power treat the powerless and ultimately render them homeless.

He is sitting next to me in this picture taken outside the Holy Trinity Church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa.
He is Bishop Paul Verryn. He is sitting next to a bronze figure of “Homeless Jesus”, lying on a nondescript bench as his home, covered only by a theadbare blanket.

Please be reminded that it is this human being that opened the doors of his Church to provide sanctuary, safety, sustenance, comfort and love … love … love to our brothers and sisters who had been rendered homeless by a diabolical oppressor in whose grip was/is our Zimbabwe.
For this Paul, it is what he insisted I call him, was vilified, threatened and persecuted by local politicians, staunch supporters of the corrupt Robert Mugabe regime of systemic terror and violence.

In my extraordinary life I have met “important” people such as Julius Nenyere, Samora Machel, Robert Mugabe, Festus Mogae, the Chief Justice of New South Wales and others. None of these meetings moved me as this meeting, because Paul is a man who is powerful of spirit, and is “extraordinary” despite being “ordinary”. He epitomizes that fundamental exhortation that He gave the world … “Love thy neighbour as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

We spent the rest of the day listening to stories, evidence and submissions from some of the oppressed … some of the refugees … some of the tormented … some of the now “homeless” from our beloved country, Zimbabwe.

I have spent most of my life in the Courts of law and justice listening to stories of human suffering.
Here I was feeling like starting a swim in a beautiful pool, then being pulled under by some unseen force …
walking in a beautiful forest, then struggling to avoid sinking into quicksand …
looking at a beautiful painting, only to see it start to smudge and crack …
climbing up a beautiful mountain, only to feel it start to wobble and break up …
sitting down to a mouthwatering meal, only to see it turn into dog’s vomit …
holding a beautiful baby, only to see it sprout fangs and blood red eyes …
walking in a beautiful park, only to see it turn to a desert ...
floating on a cloud of happiness, only to see it turn into a bed of thorns ... 
holding a beautiful woman, only to see her turn into Satan himself ... 

I was being shaken, moved and violently disturbed at the very core of my being.

We are all aware of the diabolical machinations of the Mugabe ZANU-PF regime. But when you hear about it from the mouths of those who experienced it … it freezes your brain … chills your heart … suffocates your spirits … in indescribable ways.
Can you even start to imagine what it is like to hear an eyewitness depose to the slaughter of everyone over the age of 18, just because a plastic toy pistol was found in a village ... leaving all the children without parents???

“These elections are a sham … a farce … a cover up” said one witness … confirming what was increasingly apparent to all of us.

They are. Without a credible Truth Commission, they are just that. They will serve to -
a) secure political power for new politicians; and/or
b) retain power for the architects, perpetrators and the monsters of the past
no more; no less … because
c) lack of accountability, closure, peace of mind, reconciliation will be the casualties for millions

of our people;
d) and our nation will not be healed .. it will remain fractured at its very core.

e) the oppressors will not have been disempowered ... and the oppressed will not have been empowered.

f) Our people are captive. They now have no idea of what freedom is. They are grateful to ZPF for just being alive.
A process is needed to imbue them with what freedom really is ... BEFORE any elections.

In this picture, I am sitting next to Homeless Jesus as, like millions of our people, I too have lost my home ... my dignity ... part of my humanness.

Zimbabwe tried this before. Led by South Africa's "no crisis" President Thabo Mbeki, who used something called "quiet diplomacy" the African Union forced a "Government of National Unity" on our people after the 2008 elections.

Inhumanity, oppression ... remained ... because covering up the diabolical past is an act of ultimate hypocrisy.

Just the fact that millions of our people in the diaspora are being denied the vote is sure proof of the pernicious agenda being played out.

If there is no customized "Truth Commission" first, nothing is likely to change.

Please … please … please … share this message with your leaders and across the world. 

And PLEASE go here and submit your stories ... or just inbox me ------ http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/index.html