By Patience Rashai
South African (SA) opposition activist, Mmusi Maimane has attracted criticism for meddling in Zimbabwe’s political affairs, intending to seek relevance despite dismally failing to resolve SA problems.
In an effort to lure international and regional recognition, Maimane pleaded with twitter – the social media giant, to tabulate and promote hashtag #ZimbabweLivesMatter.
Appealing to twitter, he said “Dear Twitter please make a graphic for this hashtag. #ZimbabweanLivesMatter. I think it deserves recognition in the same way that #BlackLivesMatter has a graphic. Can you make something happen.”
This has sparked rage from locals and South Africans, who disparaged such behaviour and castigated the opposition activist for intending to grab limelight for the wrong reasons.
Political Analyst Raymond Mwando said, “This clearly shows that he is out of touch with reality and the situation obtaining on the ground in Zimbabwe. Only last week the same Zim Government initiated aggressive lockdown measures to ensure citizens’ protection from corona virus, after calls by opposition for a protest which would have promoted wide spread of the virus, surprisingly he never came out condemning such reckless behaviour, if Zimbabwean lives indeed matter to him.”
“Likewise, the fact that this hash tag is being promoted by renegades such as Jonathan Moyo is enough to tell you that this is a political stance than real welfare issues for the Zimbabwean people.”
Similarly, South Africans also took a swipe at him for being a hypocrite. “Why didn’t u ask a graphic about #PutSouthAfricansFirst hebaan na gare ke eng ka di politicians le ma foreigners? People are being retrenched everywhere while the rate of unemployment in SA is increasing. What happened to charity begins at home?”
Ntate Mduli also voiced in, “You are a hypocrite. You are failing to deal with gangs and criminal empires namely Americans, Hard Livings and Numbers gangs (26, 27, 28) which are raping, killing people and have become a defacto government with an estimated 200,000+ members in Western Cape alone.”
Political analysts across the political divide generally agreed that South Africa had no right to comment on the Zimbabwean situation given that they were failing to contain problems in their own backyard.
The all-knowing activists seem to be foregoing facts on the ground, that 11 South Africans were killed during lockdown, and yet no death has been recorded in Zimbabwe during the same period.
