Boniface Manjeya ON January 12, 2022, I was held hostage by my fellow countrymen for three hours along Parklands main road in Cape Town, South Africa for shooting videos that highlighted the plight of my Zimbabweans in foreign land.
The anger that I witnessed, the desperation, the frustration and fear that was so pellucid on my colleagues got me into deep thoughts.
So many accusations were thrown at me, that I was a State agent gathering information that was likely to get some of them in trouble with the law enforcement agents in Zimbabwe, highlighting the fear instilled in people by the ruling party.
Mostly when these folks gather, the burning matters are political and economic. Varying political opinions crop up while they are waiting for an opportunity to rise and indeed candid comments are made in the process.
Some were accusing me of trying to enrich myself by posting these videos on social media platforms and yet my intention, if ever I were to do that, would not be to enrich myself or denigrate anyone but to show the world the emotional and psychological trauma that we have to endure in foreign land as a people, our dignity that is stripped to the bone, a place where we are reduced to nothing but beggars, a scenario that shows a people robbed of their hope and future.
It was an eye-opening traumatic experience as I mustered and siphoned so much within a very small space of time.
The gentlemen that were interrogating me (one of them ironically identified as BaTino — my first born’s name also) confirmed the fear that is innate in us.
He persistently asked me: “Watumwa nani…urikushandira ani” who sent you…who are you working for?)
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
It will take not only the citizens of the nation to bring about change in Zimbabwe but a lot needs to be done by the regional and international community to emancipate the people of Zimbabwe.
Someone, who is more than 3 000km away, has that fear of a government that is so far away.
The world needs to understand, like what Simba Chikanza, (ZimEye) said in his interview with Jeepy, the South African activist advocating for the #PutSaFirst movement, that there is more than what meets the eye in the Zimbabwe situation.
I once said the last thing people want is to be so far away from their family and friends.
The exodus of people that we all have witnessed in the past few years is a reflection of a deep crisis that our allies have been deliberately turning a blind eye to for reasons that are better known to themselves but the reality of the matter is we have a crisis.
This crisis has the potential to turn explosive and cause more problems for the entire region.
The stance that the South African government has taken on migration, noble as it is because it has to protect its own, is likely to ignite flames that will unfortunately, if not handled cautiously, burn the whole region.
A cornered and threatened animal, no matter how docile, can be extremely dangerous.
