And they perfectly replicated lessons borrowed...
However, in retrospect what has just happened in South Africa should be one
of the gruesome, heartless, ghastly occurrences to have hit the southern parts
of Africa in the recent past.
When the nation’s police corked their deadly guns,
sprayed bullets into the hapless men and women demonstrating against poor pay
for excruciating mining activities last Thursday, they opened another heartless
chapter reminiscent of some horrible happenings in the past decades when dozens
of protesters against the reigning pro-apartheid regime were mercilessly shot
and none of the gun-holders taken to court.
Former President Nelson Mandela, the ageing global
icon of peace, captures well in his book, Long
Walk to Freedom, some of the bloody, dreadful occasions where protests
against the white pro-apartheid regime, turned peaceful demonstrations to
shooting fields where harmless protesters were shot at by police.
The latest smacks of the past incidences as
faithfully captured by the former President who won the battle against
apartheid when he became the first head of state elected by the majority.
Such dreadful use of guns is known only in the
movies but it seems South African police were eager to showcase their pieces of
knowledge on the acted shootings.
The shooting now a big hit on the internet, where
several gory videos showing the police spray bullets on onrushing miners, armed
with blunt objects—spears and machetes—not only fans peoples’ hatred towards police but also shows that the uniformed
men and women in the so-called the most developed country in Africa are yet to control
their trigger-happy fingers.
The deadly incident that took place at a platinum
mine in Marikana, north-east of the country, tops other recent disgusting acts
from Africa that were well-captured and posted on the internet. The Zimbabwean
security forces actions in 2008 when they attacked Morgan Tsvangirai supporters
and killed some of them is among them. Then
came Libyan forces massacre of participants of an uprising against President
Muammar Gadaffi. The Libyan security seems to have borrowed a leaf from their
Egyptian counterparts who had earlier downloaded their whole weaponry on
citizens against ageing Hosni Mubarak. Ugandan forces thought of copying the
same script from continental colleagues but never really got the script well
last year.
Some may say Kenyan police were pacesetters in this
trigger-happy race when in 2008 in the heat of the post-election violence
planted bullets in demonstrators. Well, it could be. But it seems they arrived
at their pacesetting endpoint. Now South African police has taken over.
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