INTOLERANCE RESULTS IN CONFLICTS

Sir,

One of the most negative, insidious and deadlist of humanity’s frailty, which has brought untold misery to the human race since the dawn of creation, has been and still is intolerance.

Those who know their Bibles (not the spiritual pick pocketing tricksters who ply their trade under the guise of being men of God) can testify to the fact that intolerance began in the covetous and depraved mind of that serpent of old - Satan the devil - who became intolerant of God’s divine and sovereign right to rule over

His creation, rebelled against God’s authority and was thrown out of the hallowed halls of the heavenly courts, together with a third of his
cohorts - demons, now calling themselves ancestral spirits.

permissive attitude
Tolerance is described as a fair, objective and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins etc, differ from one’s own.  As you and me are quite cognizant of this fact and have been victims of this infernal of human flaws at one time or another, none of us is immune from this Achilles’ heel of human weaknesses. Intolerance has resulted in numerous conflicts between individuals, nations, families, has been responsible for ethnic violence and a host of other miseries around the globe.

Come to think of it, I have even observed animals displaying intolerance on each other - an imperfection I thought was exclusively reserved for humans.  For instance, if you watch documentaries on wildlife on television, have you noticed how for instance, lions growl, threaten and become aggressive towards each other, especially to their young during feeding time after a kill?

I am currently reading the history behind one of the most brutal and tragic effects of intolerance which resulted in the horrible massacre of close to 800 000 people during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. It is said in a period of 100 days, Rwandans mostly of the Tutsi tribe, brutally lost their lives at the hands of members of the Hutus after a plane carrying president of the time Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down above Kigali Airport.
The current president Paul Kagame, was a rebel leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front at the time.

discrimination and intolerance
It is suspected he and his rebel group were responsible for the incident, but it was never proven. During the genocide, it is alleged bodies of massacred Tutsis, who it is

claimed have Ethiopian roots, were thrown into rivers by the killers who said they were sending them back to Ethiopia!
What brutality in the name of intolerance! Blame it on the discrimination and intolerance of the Tutsis was put on former colonialists, the Belgians, who regarded them superior and educated than the Hutus. After independence in 1962, the tables turned and Hutus became dominant - and intolerant of the previously advantaged Tutsis. The assassination of their president triggered a brutal chain of spine
chilling events which sadly culminated into the now historical genocide.
The reader might be scratching his or her head over what I am up to with this narrative about a dead and buried Rwandan history. It is an open secret that in this beautiful and scenic country of ours, one of the sickening national traits that run in our veins is intolerance, especially on the political landscape.

Brilliant minds
Dissenting voices are viewed with contempt and some of these voices have been incarcerated and put behind bars for exercising their freedom of expression; some of our brothers and sisters are in exile because of standing for what they perceived as truth. Brilliant minds like those of Judge Thomas Masuku are raising the judicial flag of foreign countries; brilliant academics and intellectuals are making it big in foreign countries because their skills were not tolerated, were a threat to those who got positions through grovelling.
The seeds of intolerance have even been planted in our future generation - our youth. Last year we incessantly warned our leaders of their folly of being intolerant of the rights of students, but they stubbornly turned a deaf ear. The result? Near anarchy in tertiary
institutions. We see ongoing and looming labour unrest, simmering under the facade of and illusionary peace. On the surface, our authorities may think all is blissful and rosy, but scratch beneath the veneer of calm, people are resentful at the lack of tolerance by our leadership to their cries of distress for meaningful progress in their lives.
Let us as a nation heeds the lessons of Rwanda and more recently Zimbabwe. Let us be tolerant of dissenting and differing views. Let us bring back our exiled sons and daughters who fled to neighbouring countries because of fear brought about by lack of tolerance by our
leadership. I am envious of Rwanda because as I read of their unity after the scars of the genocide, of their fledgling and vibrant economy which is becoming the envy of their African neighbours. Their strategy?

- Alex Nxumalo 76058449

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