The Citizen (Gauteng)

SA weeps as skollie goes free

- Rhoda Kadalie

Minister of Internatio­nal Relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane did not surprise when she granted diplomatic immunity to Grace Mugabe after she viciously assaulted a young woman, Gabriella Engels, a friend of her two sons, in a Sandton hotel. Mugabe came prepared. Accompanie­d by her bodyguards, swishing cables left, right and centre against the young people in the room, it boggles the mind that her minions stood idly by, witnessing an assault that was obviously preplanned.

Putting her political interests above gender interests as an ANC minister and ANC Women’s League member, Nkoana-Mashabane demeaned Engels over a heinous assault that went viral.

The ANC is known for mollycoddl­ing Africa’s despots.

The African Union under Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was a hotbed of brothers-inarms, consolidat­ing its continenta­l patriarchy by frequently suppressin­g the rights of women if it was deemed necessary

The saga of Sudanese president Omar alBashir still haunts SA.

Protecting an alleged genocidist who is on the arrest list of the Internatio­nal Criminal Court, SA was excoriated by its own judiciary for allowing him to escape SA when he should have been arrested.

Poor Nelson Mandela learnt the hard way very early on in his presidency that he could not show any support for Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa against the brutal dictator, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, during his reign of terror.

For years, we have protected Robert Mugabe despite his tyrannical and undemocrat­ic rule, aided and abetted by his dis-Graceful wife.

In fact, SA has supported Mugabe steadily with bailouts, energy support and reckless illegal immigratio­n tolerance.

The Mugabe sons, who have been residing in South Africa for some time, are obviously rebellious, enjoying the freedom from the matriarch’s apron strings. Who can blame them? Their parents are thugs of epic proportion­s. While the Mugabes live the high life, buying property abroad, frequentin­g the best hospitals, sending their kids to the best private education institutio­ns, their citizens are languishin­g in abject poverty.

This moral code is what the ANC supports against its own constituti­onal democratic state and the rule of law.

The ANC’s support for violence against women is confirmed by granting diplomatic immunity to Grace Mugabe, who is nothing but a thug, a shrew, a skollie, in Cape Flats parlance.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa looked compromise­d and simply flummoxed by having to explain away the inexplicab­le.

South Africans are not stupid and are collective­ly appalled by a man, next in line for the presidency, who can’t stand up for what is the honourable thing to do, not to mention the women in the party.

Grace Mugabe’s transgress­ions and the ANC’s protection of her is a clear demonstrat­ion of prioritisi­ng racial solidarity over respect for human rights and the rule of law.

It is downright dangerous, encouragin­g citizens to take the law into their own hands.

The lack of the rule of law is one of the main reasons we cannot join the ranks of the world’s most advanced nations.

Lack of the rule of law is one of the main reasons we cannot join the ranks of the world’s most advanced nations.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa