News / National
Robert Mugabe's generation almost gone
04 Apr 2018 at 13:33hrs | Views
THE generation with which President Robert Mugabe lived and worked during the liberation struggle leading to Independence is almost gone with the death of Zanu-PF politburo member Nathan Shamuyarira on Wednesday.
Besides Mugabe (94) the only surviving members of the Chimoio special congress which elevated Mugabe to the presidency of the party in 1977 are Vice-President Joice Mujuru, Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Out of the inaugural 20-member cabinet at Independence in 1980 (with 13 deputies) which included Shamuyarira, only four are still alive in Dzingai Mutumbuka, Mnangagwa, Mujuru and Sekeramayi.
Mugabe has publicly lamented the loss of his colleagues stating that he now feels lonely as he is now surrounded by "small people" he cannot relate to on an equal footing because of age differences.
Mugabe said the only person who came close to him on maturity and age was the Zanu-PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa, who was the first speaker of the House of Assembly at Independence.
Mutasa, born in 1935, is 11 years Mugabe's junior.
". . . They are gone (his age-mates) and those who remain, you look down upon them because they are young. And so you can't discuss with them things that happened in the 1930s or even 1950s. They will not know. There is that limitation," Mugabe said in an interview with ZBC to mark his 89th birthday.
"You take my cabinet as it is, there is no one I can talk to about how we used to approach girls or we would go to this and that place, riding bicycles. There is no one. There are others like Mutasa. He comes close, but others are just children."
Besides Mugabe (94) the only surviving members of the Chimoio special congress which elevated Mugabe to the presidency of the party in 1977 are Vice-President Joice Mujuru, Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Out of the inaugural 20-member cabinet at Independence in 1980 (with 13 deputies) which included Shamuyarira, only four are still alive in Dzingai Mutumbuka, Mnangagwa, Mujuru and Sekeramayi.
Mugabe has publicly lamented the loss of his colleagues stating that he now feels lonely as he is now surrounded by "small people" he cannot relate to on an equal footing because of age differences.
Mutasa, born in 1935, is 11 years Mugabe's junior.
". . . They are gone (his age-mates) and those who remain, you look down upon them because they are young. And so you can't discuss with them things that happened in the 1930s or even 1950s. They will not know. There is that limitation," Mugabe said in an interview with ZBC to mark his 89th birthday.
"You take my cabinet as it is, there is no one I can talk to about how we used to approach girls or we would go to this and that place, riding bicycles. There is no one. There are others like Mutasa. He comes close, but others are just children."
Source - the independent
