Zimbabwean black lives matter too

THE world was recently seized by a series of demonstrations dubbed Black lives matter triggered by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in the United States of America.

The incident drew condemnation across the world and sparked demonstrations of a global scale. Even our own rogue regime could not be left out.

However it is sad that while the authorities condemn the killing of an American citizen by our own police in that country, they have not done anything about the rampant killing of citizens by the State security agents since 1980.

There is a well documented history of State-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe. The most recent cases are that of August 1, 2018 where six unarmed civilians were fatally shot by the military for demonstrating against the delay in the announcement of the presidential election results and the January 2019 killings again by the military and police over fuel price hike protests.

Of all the killings, no justice has been delivered or seems close to being delivered. Despite the government setting up a commission of inquiry to establish what transpired, two years down the line no one has been held accountable.

Black Lives matter protests are focused on the eradication of racism and all racism-related killings especially by the police and soldiers.

No one has a right to take another person’s life — black or white. The death of Floyd should be an awakening call to all of us to fight not just racism-motivated deaths, but any murders perpetrated by the State security agents against citizens.

As Zimbabweans, we should rise and protest against Statesanctioned killings. No one should die like Floyd again in Zimbabwe or anywhere in the world.

The State security agents should protect citizens and desist from molesting them. Let’s join Americans and the whole world in protest against killings of fellow countrymen.