News / National
Robert Mugabe defies age
13 Aug 2014 at 13:55hrs | Views
At 90, President Robert Mugabe, who is among those who played a prominent role in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, but who now stands accused of running down a once vibrant economy, continues to defy age.
On Saturday night while Zanu-PF youths were dozing off or snoring, sprightly Mugabe was still awake at 4am, following a night of vote tallying after elections for his Zanu-PF Youth League.
The chaotic elections ran well into early morning on Sunday. Youths who had gone to bed on empty stomachs after travelling long distances on Thursday, failed to keep pace and dozed off.
But an energetic Mugabe was up all night, and went on to deliver a damning speech against vote buying by senior officials in his party, at 4am! What a feat for a man at his age.
Critics say Mugabe agewise is past his prime as president but he deserves some kudos because of his physical prowess.
Despite an international outcry over his human rights' record and an economy on the brink of collapse, Mugabe has resolved to hang on to power and steer his beleaguered party, Zanu-PF.
At the recent Zanu-PF Youth League conference, the 90-year-old repeatedly denounced the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Pasi naTsvangirai (Down with Tsvangirai)," he thundered. Of course, he has chanted this slogan many times but it has failed to bring food on the table for the impoverished Zimbabweans.
Critics say his rabid obsession with his political opponent, Tsvangirai is an example of Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule and his apparent determination to discredit, intimidate and repress the opposition.
"This is not a game," Mugabe told his ruling Zanu-PF youths.
Mugabe, hailed by his supporters as a true liberator from white Rhodesian rule, has pinned his political hopes on a programme to seize majority stakes in foreign-owned firms to give to blacks.
At the youth conference last week, Mugabe attacked his opponents as traitors, polarising opinion among his countrymen as never before.
He touted his land reform programme, aimed at redressing colonial-era injustices but has been marred by violent invasions of white-owned farms by pro-government militants, as a success story of his revolution or Chimurenga.
Born on February 21, 1924, at Kutama Mission northwest of the capital Harare, he qualified as a teacher at the age of 17.
He took his first steps into politics when he enrolled at Fort Hare University in South Africa, where he met many of southern Africa's future black nationalist leaders.
He then resumed teaching, moving to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Ghana before returning to Zimbabwe in 1960.
As a member of various nationalist parties which were banned by the white-minority government, he was detained with other nationalist leaders in 1964 and spent the next 10 years in prison camps or jail.
He used those years to consolidate his position in Zanu and emerged from prison in November 1974 as Zanu leader. He then left for Mozambique from where his banned party was launching guerrilla attacks on Rhodesia.
Economic sanctions and war forced Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to negotiate.
Mugabe's renamed Zanu Patriotic Front, which drew most of its support from the ethnic Shona majority, swept to power in elections which ended white-minority rule in 1980.
Mugabe announced a policy of reconciliation with the country's white minority. But most have left and there are now between 70 000 and 80 000 whites in the country, less than one percent of the population.
In his early years, Mugabe was widely credited with improving health and education for the black majority but social services later declined.
In 1990, he unsuccessfully tried to establish a one-party State along Chinese lines.
In October 2001, with inflation at 85 percent, unemployment over 50 percent and foreign currency reserves exhausted, Mugabe declared an end to market reforms and a return to socialism.
The decision was criticised as an electoral ploy that "had no relevance to the problems the economy is (was) facing". Subsequently, the economy collapsed as inflation ran riot.
Now, about 80 percent of Zimbabwe's 13 million people live below the poverty datum line. Mugabe "continues to defy age and works very long days.
"I wake up at about 4.30 am and brush my teeth and exercise for (up to) one and a half hours," he said in a recent interview
"I survive on one meal a day, just one good meal. There is no time for two meals ... but one needs a good breakfast. I have porridge and an egg in the morning.
"The egg is boiled for just a minute to ensure that its nutritive value is not reduced by overcooking."
If he serves his full term, Mugabe will be 94 when the next elections are due. At the funeral of his sister Bridget in January, he mused: "I do not know how I have lived this long. It is all in God's hands."
On Saturday night while Zanu-PF youths were dozing off or snoring, sprightly Mugabe was still awake at 4am, following a night of vote tallying after elections for his Zanu-PF Youth League.
The chaotic elections ran well into early morning on Sunday. Youths who had gone to bed on empty stomachs after travelling long distances on Thursday, failed to keep pace and dozed off.
But an energetic Mugabe was up all night, and went on to deliver a damning speech against vote buying by senior officials in his party, at 4am! What a feat for a man at his age.
Critics say Mugabe agewise is past his prime as president but he deserves some kudos because of his physical prowess.
Despite an international outcry over his human rights' record and an economy on the brink of collapse, Mugabe has resolved to hang on to power and steer his beleaguered party, Zanu-PF.
At the recent Zanu-PF Youth League conference, the 90-year-old repeatedly denounced the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Pasi naTsvangirai (Down with Tsvangirai)," he thundered. Of course, he has chanted this slogan many times but it has failed to bring food on the table for the impoverished Zimbabweans.
Critics say his rabid obsession with his political opponent, Tsvangirai is an example of Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule and his apparent determination to discredit, intimidate and repress the opposition.
"This is not a game," Mugabe told his ruling Zanu-PF youths.
Mugabe, hailed by his supporters as a true liberator from white Rhodesian rule, has pinned his political hopes on a programme to seize majority stakes in foreign-owned firms to give to blacks.
At the youth conference last week, Mugabe attacked his opponents as traitors, polarising opinion among his countrymen as never before.
He touted his land reform programme, aimed at redressing colonial-era injustices but has been marred by violent invasions of white-owned farms by pro-government militants, as a success story of his revolution or Chimurenga.
Born on February 21, 1924, at Kutama Mission northwest of the capital Harare, he qualified as a teacher at the age of 17.
He took his first steps into politics when he enrolled at Fort Hare University in South Africa, where he met many of southern Africa's future black nationalist leaders.
He then resumed teaching, moving to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Ghana before returning to Zimbabwe in 1960.
As a member of various nationalist parties which were banned by the white-minority government, he was detained with other nationalist leaders in 1964 and spent the next 10 years in prison camps or jail.
He used those years to consolidate his position in Zanu and emerged from prison in November 1974 as Zanu leader. He then left for Mozambique from where his banned party was launching guerrilla attacks on Rhodesia.
Economic sanctions and war forced Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to negotiate.
Mugabe's renamed Zanu Patriotic Front, which drew most of its support from the ethnic Shona majority, swept to power in elections which ended white-minority rule in 1980.
Mugabe announced a policy of reconciliation with the country's white minority. But most have left and there are now between 70 000 and 80 000 whites in the country, less than one percent of the population.
In his early years, Mugabe was widely credited with improving health and education for the black majority but social services later declined.
In 1990, he unsuccessfully tried to establish a one-party State along Chinese lines.
In October 2001, with inflation at 85 percent, unemployment over 50 percent and foreign currency reserves exhausted, Mugabe declared an end to market reforms and a return to socialism.
The decision was criticised as an electoral ploy that "had no relevance to the problems the economy is (was) facing". Subsequently, the economy collapsed as inflation ran riot.
Now, about 80 percent of Zimbabwe's 13 million people live below the poverty datum line. Mugabe "continues to defy age and works very long days.
"I wake up at about 4.30 am and brush my teeth and exercise for (up to) one and a half hours," he said in a recent interview
"I survive on one meal a day, just one good meal. There is no time for two meals ... but one needs a good breakfast. I have porridge and an egg in the morning.
"The egg is boiled for just a minute to ensure that its nutritive value is not reduced by overcooking."
If he serves his full term, Mugabe will be 94 when the next elections are due. At the funeral of his sister Bridget in January, he mused: "I do not know how I have lived this long. It is all in God's hands."
Source - dailynews
