If you scrutinize the reasons behind the hiding of health information regarding
African leaders, in most cases there are
dirty reasons. In Malawi, when President Bingu wa Mutharika died of a heart
attack in his office, his body was flown to South Africa while his brother was manoeuvring
to take reign of the country by force. If it wasn’t for the South African government
that pressured the family to say the truth, President Mutharika might be still purported
alive, being treated in South Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
when Kabila was mysteriously assassinated by one of his bodyguards in his
presidential palace in Kinshasa, it was said that he died at the scene but was flown
to Zimbabwe to allow sometime for the planning of unconstitutional succession by
his son, Joseph Kabila, the current DRC President.
Few months ago I read an article of Dr Adekeye Adebajo of the Centre for
Conflict Resolution in the Mail Guardian in which he broke the news of the
passing of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi. To verify the news, a
colleague of mine phoned the Ethiopian embassy in Pretoria; they couldn’t
confirm nor deny the news. It took them four hours to say that they don’t know.
I kept on asking myself how the well-respected Dr Adebajo made a big mistake and announce that Prime Minister Zenawi had
passed on without proof, but it seems he knew what he was talking about. It was after months that Zenawi was declared
officially dead. It is then that I
understood that African leaders die twice. There is the first death which they
die but their deaths are kept a secret while their family members or allies are
exploring ways to disrespect constitutional institutions; the second death is
the real one when the machine is already set and the news is broken out and
they lie that the President died last night while their families have been
mourning for days or weeks. Commenting on
the murmuring of the Ethiopian
Government on Meles Zenawi ‘s
whereabouts, Afua HirschIt of the Guardian said that it is
not the first time that an African government has failed to confirm the illness
or death of a leader in office, prompting periods of mysterious absence.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/08/ethiopia-meles-zenawai-not-seen
Recently, when I was watching news, I was shocked to see the images of
our beloved Mandela. What shocked me is not actually his image; it is what President
Zuma said. “As you can see Madiba is up and about”, Zuma added that Madiba was
in good spirit. After the news, my 14 years old nephew asked me what does “to be up and about” mean? I told him that it
means to be strong. He doubted. We went
to check the dictionary (English is neither our first nor our second language)
and find out that “An example of up and about is someone who was ill for a
while and confined to her bed, but who is now able to go places and do things again.” My previous definition was almost
right, but the boy disputed that the image was not corresponding to what we
have just seen and heard from our President. No one expects Mandela at his age
to be dancing like Zuma does, but also lying about his health is not helping
ANC or anyone. Madiba left politics long-time ago, why do we need SABC camera
when visiting him. He deserves better. If we lie about his health now, what will
happen when the inevitable arrives? I guess the government will do as our African
countries do. Hiding for months!!!
Looking at the footage of ANC top leaders at Madiba’s home, it looked
like a Photoshop image. My nephew still argues that images seen were not
consistent, and he kept asking why we never see Madiba’s wife. It is being
rumoured that she is also being side-lined when it comes to her husband’s
health issue. South Africa should be a good example in EVERYTHING to the rest
of Africa.
