Open letter to Jacob Zuma

Dear former South African president, please allow me to wish you well as you go through this trying period of your life. I understand how it feels for a person who was once an imperial president in a continent where presidents are but demigods.

The other day a little bird told me that it heard people saying they’d love to see you convicted for the crimes pertaining to corruption since you exacerbated their poverty and sufferings.

I hope you’ve been told about the carnage that ensued in your name. More than 200 people lost their lives. I hope no member[s] of your family is a victim since they’re not paupers who depend on opportunistic attempts to survive, forget about living. 

Many businesses were vandalised, torched and infrastructure destroyed. As per preliminary researches, the economy of South Africa will take a hit at not less than three per cent resulting in acute unemployment, bankruptcy, poor supply of goods and service, and above all, poverty.

Dear Mr Zuma, have you spoken to current president Cyril Ramaphosa at least to apologise for what transpired? Do you still think that being jailed for contempt of court is a politically motivated case at all? I know how it feels for the person who believes he’s above the law in the country whose constitution doesn’t stipulate so. 

I know how bitter you’re to be subjected to loneliness, especially being away from your family. Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail. This must be the biggest lesson to African big men who fail or ignore to read the signs of time timely and accurately.

If you’re to remember what happened to you, what’d you do when it comes to those who helped you into the crises you are in? Would you jail or shun the Guptas? By the way, do you think that the chaos that ensued after being rewarded for your disrespect of the court of law will help you and the country? If you had the chance to talk to the criminals behind the riots we evidenced, what would you tell them?

Dear ex-president, let’s put some flesh on the bones. People need land as capital for their livelihood. Who owns the land? According to the Land Report (2017), the land audit revealed that Whites own 26,663,144 ha or 72 per cent of the total 37,031,283 ha farms and agricultural holdings by individual landowners who are just nine per cent of the population; followed by Coloured at 5,371,383 ha or 15 per cent, Indians at 2,031,790 ha or five per cent, Africans at 1,314,873 ha or four per cent, other at 1,271,562 ha or three per cent, and co-owners at 425,537 ha or one per cent.

Of all issues that are now dogging South Africa, land is number one. To address this issue, the government needs to come up with policies that harmonise land ownership by at least using quota system based on the composition of the population without forgetting the history of the country.

Can you see how your failure to address land issues, among others, though it isn’t your problem alone, is now biting hard? Can’t you see how hidden economic apartheid’s dangerously coming to the fore?

I know you’re going through much. Please, tell your successor to address hidden economic apartheid and corruption if you want peace and prosperity for yourself and your country. Please, don’t ignore the order of the court again.

Mhango is a lifetime member of the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador         [email protected].