The reason(s) General Chiwenga 'stole' Mugabe's Resignation Speech!

As the whole world waited impatiently for the former president Robert Mugabe (and I don't miss him at all)  to deliver his last speech, but when the moment of truth came he then read what we believed to be the "wrong speech". It was indeed a wrong speech in the sense that he never said the very statement or word we wanted to hear!

The Champagnes had to go back to fridges, it was literally a very heart-breaking moment to the majority of people I must say. Even with a goodnight message it turned out to be a sleepless night. But then there was an interesting incident which the world witnessed and began to speculate about it. That moment General Chiwenga seemingly took away some papers from the desk and hid them under his chair.

We all witnessed that incident when the speech the whole world waited to hear was taken away from Mugabe. There are a number of different perspectives that have been discussed around the very incident on the basis of assumptions that it was the real resignation speech. One such perspective is that it was to be a constitutional crisis for Mugabe to announce his resignation because he has to notify the Speaker of Parliament who then has to announce to the nation on his behalf. That became the actual procedure followed as we all now know.

Another analysis is that it was not proper for Mugabe to declare his resignation in the presence of Army Generals, as that would have confirmed the fact that his situation was a coup. But, the Generals had told the nation it was not a coup but merely a "step-in" or a corrective measure code-named operation Restore Legacy.

However, there is another deep seated perspective to consider about the incident, whatever the contents of those papers which we were denied an opportunity to know what exactly was scripted in them. The incident fully captures the extent of rot in the Mugabe administration, and brazen stealing of national resources which was taking place under Mugabe's rule, snatched right under his nose, and yet he would turn a blind eye or let alone say anything meaningful about it for many years.

I know my choice of the word "stole" is treasonous, but I meant to use it as a synonym of "took away" to emphasize the underlying factors of this perspective. Soldiers are obviously man and women of action, so General Chiwenga had to illustrate what they meant by the actions of "criminal elements" surrounding Mugabe. They have been stealing the nation's resources without conscience, and under the full watch of everyone as we are "cameras" for the wealth of the nation and our future generations.

Inasmuch as we all aspired to hear the resignation speech on that day, we got robbed of such an opportunity. It is exactly what the looters of our national resources have been doing robbing us of our aspirations and a brighter future. They have been taking the very things that matter the most which are part of the nation's wealth and hiding them so near to Mugabe yet so far from us.

All this has been the case by people right next to the long gone Mugabe as the chief custodian entrusted to preserve our wealth. And, he has been doing absolutely nothing much regarding the arrest of such brazen levels of corruption.

A conservative figure of $15billion worth of diamonds is the most recent incident where our resources went missing under the Mugabe administration and he said he doesn't know what happened to them. Someone is still seated on such enormous wealth; and am not saying it is General Chiwenga because I don't know that fact; just like I want so much to know the contents of that resignation speech that disappeared into the archives of history.

In the same wavelength as a citizen it is not a far-fetched request to get to know what actually happened to such wealth taken away from us in the form of diamonds. My own future has been at stake until the criminal elements give up and surrender the resources back to the rightful owners.

These are some of the vital lessons and important reflections to have from the last moments of Robert Mugabe. In any case he literally left us with nothing as a nation except speeches and quotable quotes!

When he said goodnight, he acknowledged that the sun had set on such bad leadership, so we need a new sunrise to move us ahead.

Ilanga lingatshona sokumele kuphume elinye. Kodwa elakoMugabe vele belitshisa kakhulu; noma njalo elakoMunangagwa lingavutha kakhulu. Asante sana!

Written by Mthokozisi Ndiweni in his personal capacity to make reflections on the damage caused by the cancer of corruption that has been left unchecked for many years and has left us a dead nation in need of a truly Lazarus moment or a new lease of brighter lives.