It is almost one month after the ‘democratic’ election in Zimbabwe. The next head of state? Your guess is as good as mine.

Fact is, the election results are not being recounted; rather the voices of so many suffering Zimbabweans are being rigged in a bid by Robert Mugabe and his regime to steal an election victory.

With news headlines flooded by the political unrest in Zimbabwe and a South African president who sees no need to admit that there is a largely out-of-control crisis, our country continues to turn a blind eye to the fact that the Zimbabwean people are pleading for help.

In a joint statement signed by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, church leaders all called for help to put an end to the unrest.

“Organised violence perpetrated against individuals, families and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the ‘wrong’ political party…has been unleashed throughout the country,” the statement said.

“We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hotspots in Africa.”

Instead of preventing this maniacal mass murderer and his regime from arming themselves, we, South Africa, have been fuelling his evil efforts.
 
South Africa’s attitude: when a Chinese cargo ship filled with mortar grenades, bullets and other weapons arrived in South Africa last week, the government said there was no legal reason to stop its cargo from being unloaded and transported to Zimbabwe.

There was no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe.

The ship sailed from South Africa, while private parties and government officials in countries like Mozambique, Angola and Namibia raised objections against the weapons. Nothing was done until the Southern Africa Litigation Centre persuaded a judge to block the weapons from crossing South Africa to the landlocked Zimbabwe.

The question to ask, while the entire world sits by and watches, is what is happening to the innocent citizens of Zimbabwe who are being robbed of their basic human rights?

More so, what are we going to do? What is the world going to do while Robert Mugabe continues to live a life of luxury, siphoning billions from the starving people in Zimbabwe?

My weapon of choice: my pen, or in this case, my keyboard. Here’s hoping it makes some sort of difference.

I have to say, it’s not always easy to think up ideas for a blog. Which is strange for me, considering that blogs are merely made up of words, and words are an integral part of my daily fare.

Blogs are also a form of self-expression; the electronic version of carving one’s initials into the bark of a tree. “I was here, this is me.”

And we wonder, who will read it? Who will choose to follow this particular strand of the worldwide web, and end up face to face with a little part of me? Or we worry, what if no one reads it at all? Then the words we spend so much time planning carry little more significance than a guttering candle lost against the vastness of a starry night.

It’s a strange form of communication: a definite ’sender’ speaking out, despite the possibility that there will never be a ‘receiver’ on the other end of the message.

How many of us are aware that most of the time we are probably only writing to ourselves? But we do it anyway. We write anyway. We link the words together; we fluff up a concept; we try to be wise, helpful, funny, different.

We want to be heard, so we find something to say.