SA Needs Guns of Peace

African Warlords: Cycle of War and Destruction Must Come to an End

- Sandile Memela

I am glad that I am neither a soldier nor a mercenary. Both are instruments of war and destruction. Nobody should ask me to put on a uniform to go into some strange country in the heart of Africa to fire high-calibre machine guns and drop bombs on fellow Africans, whose leader got into power through a violent coup and not democratic elections.

Thus, I will not draw guns and fire mortars at the sight of marauding African rebel forces that are products of poverty, unemployment and neglect by African political elites who do not put the interests of the people first.

Many men who are soldiers on this continent think and believe they have no option but to be dogs of war. Some have little option but to enlist in so-called rebel armies in order to find a job, food, shelter and security.

If they refuse to join these marauding armies that do not hesitate to rob, rape and kill women and children, they are shot down like dogs.

So no, I will not go into the heart of the African continent to fight against fellow brothers when they, too, are fighting on the instructions of some greedy man who wants to get into power by hunting down and trying to get rid of another greedy man who got into power through crooked means.