Ouch!

I don’t usually take much notice of the BBC when they warn me that what they are about to show me may be a bit distressing. Am I a man or a mouse? And how much of the news isn’t rather distressing, if one thinks about it? But I’ve just found myself almost wishing I’d heeded the warning.

On the BBC website there is a first-person account of a former torturer employed by the Zimbabwe secret police. “A first aid box was opened - and inside were pliers and screwdrivers. We asked the man to choose between the two. The captain then took the pliers and called us near. He got near his genitals, then got one of his balls, pressed it with the pliers, and popped it. There was a lot of blood.”

This has had me crossing my legs ever since. Good for the bloke, though – he got out of it, and has fled the country. But how did he come to get into it? “If you're me, and you don't know about the secret service, all you know is that it protects the sovereignty of your country - it's not a difficult job to do.” The sovereignty of your country. Of course. And now we know what that means: the right to have your balls “popped” by someone of the same skin colour as yourself.

Let’s Make Sovereignty History, folks. What did Mugabe call his recent political cleansing effort against the poor living in shanty towns? Operation Murambatsvina – “clear out the rubbish”. Yes – let’s clear out all the trash and vermin in the souped-up Mercs. Let Assassination Thrive.