ith the flood of desperate humanity.
Horrific reports have hit the world media stage this week of farmers in the northern border areas, hardest hit by the human tsunami, taking the law into their own hands as the police and other authorities fail to deal with it.
President Thabo Mbeki’s abject failure to deal decisively with the crisis caused by Robert Mugabe, despite Africa and the world having placed their trust in him to do so, has resulted in an administrative vacuum.
Faced with thousands of hungry Zimbabweans, some farmers in the area have responded with typical laager mentality – and not a small measure of panic we suspect – hunting down undocumented immigrants and handing them over to the police.
But the blame must lie squarely at Mbeki’s door. The Zimbabwean crisis has become a humanitarian disaster and must be dealt with in a compassionate manner. Simply rounding people up and transporting them back across the border, crammed into trucks and trains like cattle – without food or water – is inhuman, short-sighted and futile.
The thousands fleeing Mugabe’s rule are starving and hopeless. Many have been brutalised. Many are ill and weakened by years of malnutrition and grinding poverty. They have nothing to go back to.
We do not expect South Africa to shoulder the burden alone. But the authorities must acknowledge the extent of the disaster in order to harness the world’s resources to help. Until SA admits that it is being inundated with refugees from Zimbabwe, the UNHCR cannot act.
Mbeki’s stubbornness in acknowledging the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe under Mugabe’s insane and vicious policies is nothing short of despicable and deserves international condemnation.
By refusing to admit they are refugees, Mbeki denies these people their rights. This is a complete disgrace in a country that is supposed to be a pillar of principle and justice in Africa.
Word for Today
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose … If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously tive us all things? … Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 8 28-34