The ZANU PF Youth League has called on the ANC Youth League to pile pressure on the South African government so that it moves with speed in arresting the killers of a Zimbabwean national, Elvis Nyathi in Diepsloot, Gauteng province.
In an open letter to the ANC Youth League, the ZANU PF Youth League’s Acting National Deputy Secretary for Youth Affairs, Comrade Tendai Chirau said Zimbabweans are worried about the rise of xenophobia and particularly, Afrophobia, racism and disrespect of black African lives, which has now become a defining feature of South African social conscience and mindset.
“The ZANU PF Youth League registers with utter horror, the unchecked rise of xenophobia, ethnic brutality and Afrophobia being carried out against African non-South African citizens by vigilantes calling themselves “Operation Dudula”, inspired by inflammatory utterances from charlatans like Herman Mashaba, and fronted by Rhodie pawns such as Nhlanhla Lux. This depravity recently culminated in the brutal and needless lynching of Mr. Elvis Nyathi, a Zimbabwean national in Diepsloot, Gauteng province,” he said.
He described the killing and many other broad daylight cynical Afrophobic attacks and murders as heinous crimes against humanity, made especially more outrageous by the fact that they are being perpetrated against fellow Africans by fellow Africans.
“As the ZANU PF Youth League, we remain forever alive to the fact that black South Africans, including all fellow Africans, are our brothers and sisters with whom we share a bond of history, identity and culture which predates the artificial boundaries and ethnic divisions forced upon us by the racist colonial powers during the 1884-1886 Berlin Conference, which our ancestors were never party to. We are all Bantus who migrated from one point of origin, and our “Ubuntu” ethos has consistently united us against all forms of adversity. Africa is the home for all indigenous “brown” people,” said Cde Chirau.
He challenged the ANC Youth League to speak out strongly against the worrisome trend and implored “our brothers and sisters to call for more decisive action by the South African government to ensure justice is served, and to bring an end to this festering inhumanity.”
“Now more than ever, should be time for us to collectively work together, just as our heroes and elders worked together to defeat apartheid. Afrophobia is but a form of neo-colonialism designed to divide us; the ultimate goal being to reverse the gains realized by our struggles for liberation.
“‘Operation Dudula’ and its backers are not only archaic, but patently retrogressive. The revolutionary and progressive youth of Zimbabwe are confident that ANC Youth League will play a key role in calling some misguided elements within the great rainbow nation to order. Together, we can shame the enemies of human progress. Let us ask ourselves if killing each other makes us richer or if it diverts our focus from dislodging white monopolies in Africa,” he said.
Elvis Nyathi was dragged from his shack and burnt to death in Diepsloot, Gauteng province, by a vigilante group of South Africans who unlawfully demanded cash and travel documents from him.
The incident has sparked fears of renewed xenophobic attacks targeted mainly at Zimbabwean nationals in South Africa.
— ZBC
