Flowers By The Grave

My Tribute to Senzo Meyiwa- Tony O

Our society is rapidly becoming a habitat for hypocrites and a juggle for those that are truly brave. The wise has being tamed foolish while the foolish parade them selves as the wise ones. I’m not sure whose fault this is though. We live in an era where people would rather contribute to your funeral after you are dead than helping you overcome whatever illness that is threatening your life before their very eyes.

 A friend of mine once said to me, “when I die, I do not want any one to bring flowers to my grave side as  dead men has no need for flowers. How true is this statement to us today? Have you noticed that while you are alive, you could actually count the number of times you received flowers from the people around you? But once you’re dead, you will be surprised at the numbers of flowers that get laid by your grave side. I don’t really know what we mean by that, but the truth is, we seem to be celebrating the dead more than we celebrate the living.

When someone is living a double life style around us we pretend not to care, by saying after all it’s their life, but once they are dead due to their double life style we suddenly rush to the scene and start trying to do things and say words all in the name of preserving their legacy or should I say memory. I’m beginning to believe that the majority of us are hypocrites. We are all drama kings and queens. And this needs to change.

We need to realize that dead men do not see us when we run around, no matter how much we run around while they are already dead. We need to take cognizance of the fact that a living dog as the scripture puts it in Ecclesiastes 9:4 is better than a dead lion. Again this is why Jesus would never prefer any one dead even if they are chief sinners before extending His hands of compassion and love towards them.  Show me a man who died in his or her sin and I will show you a person who has refused corrections and despise God’s rebukes. 

We most realize that even the devil works for God and he is there to punish those who have taken light God’s rebuke and despised God’s corrections through what ever means they were sent to them. Let’s stop being hypocrites. If you could not (send flowers) advice a friend from giving up habits and characters that puts his or her life in danger, then I think you do not deserve to lay by his or her grave side a leaf not to talk of putting a bunch of roses. The truth is dead men do not smell the rose so why waste your time and money.

On Sunday evening at about 11:15 pm, I logged on to the internet to continue my research on a project I was working on, but what I discovered was nothing short of a heart breaking news. I was so shocked as one of the headlines on the news page reads “Senzo Meyiwa is dead” I thought to my self just when I was contemplating joining the Bucs because of this same  talented goal keeper haven being a chief fan behind the veil for years.   What a chattered hope for so many others like myself who truly admire the courage and talent of this very fine soccer player. After going through the story as to what lead to his death I was left with just one question in my heart, and that question is, who killed Senzo Meyiwa?

Was it the gun man who stormed his girl friend’s resident on that fateful Sunday night? Or was it the government, his friends or perhaps the more than 50 million South Africans including foreigners residing in the Republic? I realize failure to accurately answer this question posed to me would mean that in no short space of time we could be losing another very important citizen, which could be you reading this article right now.  At this point friends I believe the gun man only pulled the trigger, but we all, I mean all of us mentioned above killed him. Oh Yeah, we did!As his friends, we killed him the day we found out about his extra marital affair and refuse to protest against it like we would normally protest against our government when we are asking for jobs and increment of salaries. We killed him the day we told him it’s a man thing to have an affair outside his matrimonial home as almost every men indulge in such act including our very selves. As fellow citizens and foreigners residing in the republic we killed him either by refusing to speak against infidelity within our immediate environment or by giving reasons why it wasn’t our place to speak up. Most of us killed him by giving in to the huge pressure of following the crowd even when we have the knowledge of where they were heading.

Someone once said “for evil to prevail all the good men must just sit and do nothing”. As a government we killed him by passing bills and laws that enslave our youth in the name of democracy. We killed him by forcing most good people who would have probably literally go after him in a bid to get him to retrace his  steps to think of the consequences of a possible fine from the law enforcement agents.  As a  government we didn’t only kill him, we have also set in motion a proceeding- if not careful that is capable of killing brilliant sports and state future  leaders by allowing laws that are capable of binding the hands of most parents while washing their children throwing their future away all in the name of freedom of expression.

Can you truly leave a piece of fish with a hungry cat while going out and expect to have it in good shape when you return?  If your answer is no, why then do you expect a child or a teenager to know how to manage freedom when it has being handed to them at a stage when they are no different from a hungry cat with a piece of fish in it custody.

Most of us often wonder why our children find it very difficult to listen to us as parents when we try to show them what morality is, amidst the immoral environment they are being raised in- little wonder Senzo refused to hear the call of his parents to retrace his step about his relationship with his mistress. Like the saying goes “ you cannot teach an old dog new tricks” . The mind of a child is not different from that of soft clay and as such it’s easily influenced by the affirmation of the majority. When an individual learns a particular habit as a child or teenager, it will only take the help of God to unlearn it, even after becoming a Christian. This is one reason why the scripture passage in proverb 6:22 “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” should be a watch word for every parent.

As it stands our government is really doing a great job by training our children in the way they should go by passing immoral laws and bills that is shaping the mind of our future leaders.  No wonder they are not departing from it even as leaders of various sectors within our community.

While humans has the ability to shape the mind of a child- Only God can change the hearts of grown ups. This is one reason it become almost impossible for an adult to unlearn thoughts and habits they have learnt from child hood.

I believe as a country, a government, friends and parents of the late talented Senzo Meyiwa the best condolence and tribute we could pay to him right now is not the laying of roses by his grave side or the rendering of eloquent speeches at his funeral but simply taking our stand and pledge our allegiance to make sure we will never lose any of our future sports and states men in such a manner. Let’s take the responsibility upon our selves to train our future leaders in the way they should go while we still have the privilege to shape their future by refusing to affirm things and habits that are hazardous to their moral formation. Let’s say no to crime in South Africa, No to crime in Africa and No to crime in the globe!

Rest In Peace Senzo