The Seven Deadly Sins

Greed, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Pride and Anger, these are the Seven Deadly Sins. They date back to the 6th Century when theologians attempted to find a conceptual framework that described man’s worst human traits and, per se, to attempt to persuade mankind to be less of a sinner.

Let he without sin, cast the first stone! I am not without sin and in consequence I hesitate. But someone has to put the Zimbabwean ‘thugocracy’ into context.

What has prompted the ZANU PF regime to act in the manner it has done over the past nine or more years – not forgetting the ‘gakurahundi’ that was driven against the Matabele people in the early 1980’s and the consequent killing of some thirty odd thousand of them? It is surely something to do with envy and greed, pride and anger and a lust, if not for human flesh, for power.

Today we are told that President Mugabe has once again urged the west to ‘drop illegal sanctions which have impacted negatively on the ordinary people of Zimbabwe’. How long does he think he can keep up this pretence that the ordinary people have suffered from sanctions? One thing is for sure, sanctions must be hurting him and his cronies for this demand to be raised again and again and again.

And we are also told by him that those who have been arrested for ‘plotting the overthrow of his government by force and other acts of banditry’ will remain in custody until their crimes have been heard by the courts of law and due process followed’. Fair enough. I like that. I guess all of the accused persons will like that too. But why have they not been brought before the courts before? Why have they been refused access to lawyers for so long? Why have they been refused medical attention? Why are they made to languish in faeces and urine infested cells? They are of course, like so many who have gone before, being punished before any conviction. And more to the point, why were they beaten, humiliated and tortured by their captors and will those same captors who are accused of such acts, be duly processed through the courts as well?

Then there are a whole lot of others, literally thousands and many of them in positions of high authority who should also be allowed due process through the courts of law.

One hopes so. Then we – and the remaining Mugabe praise singers who are currently preparing for his 85th birthday bash this coming weekend – will all learn the real truth of what has happened since ZANU PF took control of this once so beautiful and prosperous little country.

We all desperately need to know the truth.