When lies become facts and facts are relegated to the bottom rung, we should all be worried. It is a fact that the people of Zimbabwe are frustrated about their living conditions and where their leaders are taking their country.It is a lie that the frustrations and anger we see today in the streets of Harare are sponsored by foreign hands. This lie has been peddled before and has taken a shape of truth.It cannot be that a nation of millions can all be captured and told to be angry.It was disappointing to hear ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe telling us that the people of Zimbabwe lack thinking capacity and their anger today is controlled from elsewhere.If we use Mantashe's logic we can argue that the service-delivery protests we see in South African streets today are sponsored and South Africans lack the capacity to think for themselves. Mantashe should know better the struggles of the marginalised. It is troubling that a lie peddled as fact has taken centre stage.Another lie being pushed down our throats is that the majority of people in this country (read black) are lazy and just want handouts.The fact is that the majority of those classified as lazy today were for years denied opportunities to advance themselves and take charge of their destiny. Their "laziness" is derived from a system that relegated them to the bottom rung of the economic scale.Unfortunately, today the lie is still being peddled by some of our leaders and those who have found comfort in the status quo. They do not see the tired faces every morning of mothers and fathers who wake up at 3am to be there to make us hot breakfast and clean up after us as we drive to work.It is such lies masquerading as facts that feed into the racist attitudes we see popping up all over the place. As we head to the local elections, we should guard against those who constantly engage in deceitful innuendo.As Karl Marx opined: "Man must prove the truth in practice."..