Police Minister Fikile Mbalula’s penchant for tweets in his new job saw him accused of xenophobia on Sunday, although the minister strongly denied this.
He tweeted late on Sunday afternoon that five Zimbabwean nationals had been arrested in connection with the robbery of a jewellery store at the Hyde Park shopping centre in Sandton on Thursday.
He used the hashtag “#WanyaTsotsi”, which is a bit of a rude way of telling criminals to get lost. It literally means “criminals will defecate” or any other less polite way you can imagine putting it. It’s a phrase Mbalula already tried to popularise in the years when he was deputy police minister.
Twitter users soon took him to task to challenge him on why the suspects’ nationality was relevant, with some going so far as to accuse him of stoking the fires of xenophobia.
The minister was not taking this lying down, as he tweeted two hours later: “Why shouldn’t I mention the nationality Why? When a South African is arrested elsewhere what do refer to him /here Mr And Miss somebody….”
He also said that he would only have been guilty of xenophobia if he had been generalising and making false accusations.
“Fanning flames of xenophobia is falsely accusing people of crime and generalizing as if it’s done by certain people only,” he wrote.
He said the fact that the suspects were Zimbabweans was relevant because of the need to work with law enforcement officials from Zimbabwe.
Mbalula also enjoyed many tweets in support, and others congratulating him. One person identifying as a Zimbabwean even told him that he was in favour of the arrests and how Mbalula had reported it since he had himself fallen victim to Zimbabwean criminals.
It is still not clear how much money or jewellery were stolen on Thursday from the centre, though shots were fired during the crime and getaway.It’s expected the suspects will appear in court soon. – Citizen
What dignity to preserve, when you are a Tshona – cant you see that is a contradiction in itself?
I dont give a shit about your fcuken Ndebele wife – seeing that marrying one is always a life’s achievement in the Shona culture – not to mention the mere act of setting foot in Mthwakazi, at least once in one’s life. Nor do I care about your Lozwi Empire guruswa rubbish.
Those are all about Tshona inferioritry complexes – that is your problem alone – not ours in Mthwakazi.
All I care for is that you got the message; that is what is important – now shut the hell up!!
Eish with such vitrol let me rest my case. My initial post was actually to dissuade tribal innuendos in public spaces. It looks like some people have deep rooted vendettas against certain tribes and I believe to preserve my dignity I will not comment further. I have a very beautiful and respectful Ndebele wife who has been accepted unconditionally by my clan and similarly I feel at home in any part of Mthwakazi. Whether you like it or not every holiday we visit both the Rozvi Empire and Guruuswa.
We can not crowd out anyone anywhere because we dont breed like flies the way you do, you idiot. You clearly cant get it, neh?
How do you as a people, ever hope to solve your problems if you cant even diagnose the source of the problem?
There is nothing innovative about you Tshonas – its your breeding habits that make you scatter all over. So to you, fucking with irresponsible reckless abandon, in this era of condoms and family planning is a skill? There is nothing innovative or skilled about that.
This is the source of your problems and you are now making it our problem in Mthwakazi. The average Shona family has 8 children, with zilch income – you dont get that in Mthwakazi. Imagine Tswangirayi had 8 kids with one wife, Susan – since her death; the number has increased. There are millions of Tswangirayis out there among you Tshonas. Even dogs are better!!
You come running to Mthwakazi because you have now crowded each other out of every job in Mashonaland; and using your usual tribalism and nepotism, you call each other from afar and start dishing jobs to friends and relatives who know nothing about those jobs and have no skills whatsoever; hence the now dead economy and parastatals all over the country. Yet you keep blaming everyone else, but yourselves.
Please, sort yourselves out doti zabantu!!
Your lack of versatility allows you and your lot to be crowded out. You and your lot must also crowd out shonas in their own turf. But because you and your lot are not skilled enough and innovative enough to compete you resort to engaging in nefarious and heinous crimes. You are extremely despicable to say the least. I wish your obsession of hating a particular tribe could earn you and your lot a livelihood.
Voetsek, idiot. Get out out of our Mthwakazi provinces and leave our Mthwakazi jobs to our Mthwakazi people. You are the cause of all this.
Every province in Zim is well endowed; if only you Tshonas could learn to control your population breeding habits. Your provincial population growth rates should always be below your provincial GDP growth rate numbers – but you idiots are always well ahead of the provincial GDP numbers – hence the poverty; whose fault is that?
You breed like flies in your provinces, and then because you are now too many, you crowd us out in our regions, looking for jobs in the name of your rights to settle anywhere. You then have the guts to come here, and talk about crimes by our people – who started it all? Idiot!!
Not that I am tribalistic but there is a guy who calls himself Zamo and another one who calls himself Shona Hater, it may interest these guys to concentrate their efforts on educating brothers from their tribe to refrain from crime. 99% of crimes perpetrated by Zimbabweans in our neighbouring countries are at the instance of the other tribe, not Shona of course but by and large the damage will be on the Zimbabwean brand not Shona/Ndebele/Ndau/Tsonga brand. It therefore requires of us to attack the action and not the tribe of the perpetrator. Saka PASI nevano attacker my tribes evamwe tiri mhuri imwe ye Zimbabwe.