Shame on you South Africans; shame on you African leaders!

Of late, we’ve come across harrowing and heart wrenching videos on social media whereby foreign migrants are forcibly and ruthlessly prevented from accessing healthcare in public health facilities in South Africa in an operation called DUDULA.

In one video, a South African woman is seen declaring to the entire world, she’s proudly xenophobic…..she hates foreigners; while in another one that made us cry for mother Africa, a heavily pregnant woman is turned away at the gates of a health facility by fellow women.

What the heck is dudula?

Tracing its roots in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, Operation Dudula is a fascist movement that prides itself explicitly xenophobic! It has become known for violently threatening and targeting both legal and illegal migrants of African origin. The movement has since rapidly spread like a cancerous disease to other parts of the country. “Dudula” means to “force out” or “knock down” in isiZulu, and refers to the movement’s goal to expel migrants.

How dare you forget easily, South Africans! You don’t have chicken memories, do you?

When the Apartheid regime regarded you as lesser beings…..worse than pigs, and condmned you to the heavily populated squatter camps where you were systematically denied basic human rights, it was countries like Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique and Ethiopia that opened their borders to you. You lived in our homes, ate our food, attended our schools, easily accessed medication and even enjoyed our beer without any encumberances. Our country had to pay for it through a barrage of bombings for hosting your future leaders in Lusaka – Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo, Joe Modise, Pallo Jordan, Ronnie Kasrils among others! Is this the way you should pay us back? Shame on you!

And as for you our so-called African leaders, what manner of curse has come upon you? You continue defiling and raping the sanctity of the aspirations of our forebearers…..the gallant men and women that loosened our chains of captivity! You engage in senseless tribal wars, shamelessly pillage our resources, lamentably fail to invest in infrastructure and can’t provide jobs for our people.

And when the excruciating pangs of hunger hit your people where it hurts the most, they begin trekking to South Africa where they are treated worse than stray mongrels. Shame on you!

Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst
Zambezi