I am livid!

 Well that’s how l feel right now. The positive side of anger is that if handled correctly it drives us to act. My anger has led me to write this blog which is about an incident that occurred in Zimbabwe yesterday.  Although Zimbabwe was once known as one of the most literate of most countries in Africa, our weakness as a people has been that we remained silent for so long whilst masses and masses of injustices took place and now the politicians in power have reached a point of no return. Personally, l can no longer stay silent about it and l refuse to be silenced.

Yesterday a Zimbabwean comedian called Samantha Kureya, (Gonyeti) was abducted from her home in the evening by masked gunmen. They turned up in 6 vehicles at her house, located in one of the suburban areas in Harare. They apparently stormed into their home, pointing their guns at everyone including children?  The masked gunmen then proceeded to subject the whole family to unimaginable maltreatment which included beating everyone with weapons.

After a while, they took away Gonyeti to an undisclosed location where they continued inflicting abuse on her by forcing her to undress and they ruthlessly whipped her naked body using all kinds of weapons! They also obtained sewage water and forced her to drink it whilst threatening to kill her mother if she ever told anyone about the abduction!

They then dumbed her naked and vulnerable late in the night in an unfamiliar suburb. As it was late and dark, she had to go through 6 houses before anybody could help. Unsurprisingly people were distrustful of being approached by an unclad stranger in a poorly lit environment asking for clothes and help.

Eventually, someone was kind enough to throw some clothes to our Gonyeti through the window and that’s how she was then able to go to the nearest police station to seek help. The police then reunited Gonyeti with her family. Her family took her to the hospital where she had scans performed which showed no fractures, but everyone remains concerned about her health because she was force fed sewage water.

 In my opinion this lady is a brave comedian who has been producing accurate and critical skits about the police and leaders of Zimbabwe on how they conduct themselves. She is a hero breaking down barriers because historically comedians have found it difficult to make jokes about the authority fearing jail or worse. She dared to do this in a country where political activists have been captured and disappeared for good.

I wanted her to know that l am standing together with her and the politicians need to understand that it’s impossible to silence people especially when they know they are in the wrong. I suggest that the politicians in Zimbabwe spend their energy and resources at correcting the problems of the country rather than punishing people for speaking up against them.