By Austin Kaluba –
THE camel’s nose is a metaphor for a situation where the permitting of a small, seemingly harmless act will open the door for larger, clearly undesirable actions.
The fable refers to an Arab miller who allows a camel to stick its nose into his tent, then other parts of its body, until the camel is entirely inside and kicks the owner of the tent out.
In real life, we can cite the Zimbabwean land incident that started on a low note before spiralling out of control and attracting world attention.
I am referring to Zimbabwe’s former liberation fighters who became a household name for all the wrong reasons.
This so-called war veterans (I say this because some were just political thugs) organised themselves in an organisation they called Zimbabwe National Liberators War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) under the leadership of Chenjerai ‘Hitler’ Hunzwi, a charismatic but thuggish leader whose claim to being a war veteran was highly questionable.
Using violence and threats of violence, Hunzwi and his acolytes put pressure on President Robert Mugabe which was not met.
However, the war veterans pressed on, forcing Mr Mugabe to succumb to their demands in view of elections that were imminent.
Without consulting Cabinet, Mr Mugabe unilaterally offered approximately 50,000 war veterans cash gratuities of Z$50,000 each, free healthcare and education for their families and Z$2,000 monthly pensions for life.
This resulted in an immediate crash of the Zimbabwean dollar which halved its value overnight in what some economists called ‘Black Friday’ in November 1997.
The rest is history.
Now Zambia whose case is far from that of Mr Mugabe who ascended to power after a violent liberation struggle called Chimurenga is grappling with fanatical demands from people who want land that does not belong to them.
Fortunately to remind this misguided ilk, police in Lusaka recently arrested 42 suspected political cadres for alleged conduct likely to cause breach of peace.
Lusaka Province Commissioner of Police Charity Katanga said the suspects aged between 21 and 52, who have since appeared in court, were arrested on Church Road near Lusaka Central Police Station.
The cadres marched while carrying placards demanding land, a move that was precipitated by their colleague identified as Gift Ng’andwe who was arrested in connection with alleged illegal land transactions at the Galaunia Farm in Lusaka’s Chamba Valley.
Ms Katanga warned that police would not allow lawlessness and advised people to use the right channels to air their grievances.
Police had earlier raided part of Galaunia Farms in Mutumbi area of Lusaka, where people, including suspected political cadres, were allegedly illegally allocating land with part of the group suing Galaunia Farm.
The advice to the Government is never to succumb to such demands which will lead to other bigger demands and entrench lawlessness and anarchy in the country.