There is a terror that has crossed our borders. It is a terror we must not stop talking about, a terror we must not stop highlighting.

There is a terror that has crossed our borders. It is a terror we must not stop talking about, a terror we must not stop highlighting.

This terror is that the people of Zimbabwe are being destroyed by their own leader, President Robert Mugabe.

They have no food, no jobs, nothing but the clothes they stand in.

And they are now in South Africa. They work as accountants, as lawyers, as journalists, as clerks, as domestic workers, as gardeners. Some even beg on the streets and at traffic lights.

They are not here because they like it. They are here because if they stayed in Zimbabwe they would die of starvation.

Zimbabwe is a ruined country, a joke and a Mickey Mouse land that is beyond laughter. It is a tragedy on a massive scale.

There are many people in our country who talk about Mugabe as though he is a hero. They say he has restored to Zimbabweans their dignity simply because he has given his cabinet ministers some white farmers' land.

Some people say we South Africans are stupid. They say we should take land away from white farmers by force and give it to black people - it does not matter whether they are farmers or not.

These same people seem to believe that this is what freedom means.

Indeed, I have had the same argument thrown at me by some Zimbabwean refugees. The fact that these same Zimbabweans have fled their own country does not seem to make an impression on them.

Thankfully, our government has not gone the route of Zimbabwe in dealing with the seriously fraught and complex land question in this country.

We can find better solutions than ruining our land for a few hectares of land to be handed over to a cabinet minister who does not even know what a tractor looks like.

So, as we begin a new year, I say this to you: Pray for the people of Zimbabwe.

A tyrant is squeezing them to death.