Mugabe should take leaf from the Pope Benedict XVI

Next week, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will be turning 89 and I so happen to share a birthday with him. While he cuts his cake in Harare, I will be cutting mine somewhere in exile. There seem to be no shame from Mugabe that at his age, he still wants to continue ruling the country, taking it to further ruin. Pope Benedict XVI, a catholic like Mugabe announced his retirement on Monday this week, paving the way to handover the baton to someone younger. But it does not need a rocket scientist to predict that Mugabe, as he celebrates his old age next Thursday, he will be insisting on standing in the presidential race. He might use the occasion to announce what he thinks are his fresh and new ideas on how Zimbabwe will move forward. We all know that Mugabe is just gearing himself to die in office because he is afraid of all the blood that he has in his hands.

Lest you forget, President Mugabe is directly responsible for murdering more than 20 000 Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans in Matabeleland during the early 1980s political disturbances. He directed the North Korean-trained Fifth brigade to murder innocent civilians in Matabeleland and its hinterland. So he is afraid of leaving power because under his watch, corruption has been left to ruin a

As elections loom

But as we approach elections, there are two major concerns that seem to threaten the staging of free and fair pools. The harassment of human rights workers and journalists has been intensifying in the past few days, raising fears of the return of the dark days of 2008. Police on Monday intensified what the civil society organisations perceived as a systematic crackdown on civil society organisations by raiding the offices of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) and seized several documents and other materials. Five members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police stormed the ZPP offices in Harare's Hillside suburb, where they searched the organisation's offices for "subversive material and illegal immigrants". In run-up to the 2008 elections, state security agents raided the same office and later arrested its boss human rights activist Jestina Mukoko. She was held incommunicado for nearly a month where she was subjected to inhuman treatment, including being tortured. Freedom of speech is now questionable and one wonders how we are supposed to debate issues that affect us in general. Just last week, a friend of mine was sentenced to six months in prison for allegedly insulting President Mugabe in a suspected pub brawl with ZANU-PF supporters. While it is stated in the Global Political Agreement that the public and private media shall refrain from using abusive language that may incite hostility, political intolerance and ethnic hatred or that unfairly undermines political parties and other organisations, I suspect my friend was treated in an unjustly way as witnesses say he was attacked by the said Mugabe supporters and no one seems to know what he said exactly. It is only in Zimbabwe where such things happen. We have become a country where our judiciary is afraid of dealing with real issues like corruption and other illegal practices in favour of dealing with the weaker man on the street that is given no chance to express his feelings about things. Without freedom of speech, there is no chance in hell that the outcome of election results will be accepted as fair.

Will Mugabe say yes?

It looks like Kenya has taken a lead in trying to open politics in Africa. Last week presidential candidates in the forthcoming Kenyan polls participated in a televised public debate that was seen by millions of Kenyan voters. While there may be other problems in the preparation for elections in that country, I think Kenyan politicians should be applauded because they have just given voters a chance to know who amongst them knows what they are talking about and doing. We wait such a day in Zimbabwe when our leaders can agree to take their policies to a public televised debate. Not trying to dismiss Zimbabwe's leaders, I suspect people like Mugabe are very much afraid of such a move. For many years, they have been protected by a one sided media which only broadcasts what they want to say in their comfortable zones and calling them to a live debate would be a taboo. At his age, I doubt if Mugabe can be able to sustain a heated debate. Part of him may be afraid that questions may raise his high blood pressure which may result in him collapsing and becoming the first president that died in a live public debate. We need those debates as of yesterday.