Opinion / Columnist
'Mugabe is a self serving tyrant'
20 Dec 2013 at 10:19hrs | Views
The comment in Sunday mail 15-21 Dec on page 7 gave an entirely different topic to its content. It started off with singing praises to the tyrant Mugabe. The praises are out of place. Mugabe has actually made worse the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
So while the Sunday mail editorial kneels down and worship, the ordinary people wriggle with wrath. Mugabe has not promoted democracy in Zimbabwe, he has on the contrary managed to stay in power through oppression and his divide and rule strategy. He has managed to stay in power perhaps to until his death, but at an immense cost to the Zimbabwean economy and therefore its people. He leaves every service delivery on its knees.
Mugabe is a self serving tyrant who does not care about his people, there is absolutely nothing patriotic about Bob. Mugabe is not a leader, is not a builder and I for one have completely lost any respect for him. Though Mugabe's biography may sound strikingly familiar to anyone familiar with Nelson Mandela's, but where Mugabe differs is that Mandela unified people of different races, religion and different political dispensations. Mugabe has sought to establish black over white dominance. So while Mandela is highly honored, Mugabe will highly be dishonored because Mugabe destroyed his land and killed his own people.
The heading on the Sunday mail front page should have read: "I let you down, we are not together says president." For indeed Mugabe is no longer with the people and neither does he still have the strength to run around addressing the challenges affecting the people. The extent of Zimbabwe problems go beyond economics, but can be traced to the corrupt politics of the Robert Mugabe. The Sunday Mail spends a lot of effort taking us through some history of Mugabe escaping through a window in a bid to portray him as a hero. Heroes make peoples' lives better. Heroes don't ruin their peoples' lives. Heroes are loved by their own people not only worshiped by a government controlled press.
The liberation struggle took a turn when Mugabe usurped the leadership of the struggle. Zanu-PF then changed its strategy and took a terroristic dimension. All participants in Rhodesian war used vicious tactics but Mugabe used a particular ruthlessness that ought to have indicated what sort of ruler he might one day become. In 1978 four black moderates announced that they have reached an internal settlement with the white regime paving way for democratic elections. One of these leaders, Ndabaningi, sent 39 envoys to meet representatives of Mugabe. These envoys were captured murdered and according to Time magazine, their bodies were paraded at a roadside as a warning to local tribe's people. Words like sellouts, nhunzvatunzva, came into vocabulary under Mugabe's leadership and then many people were being killed much the same way they are being killed today at the leadership of Mugabe and at the hands of Zanu-PF.
Girls and women were being raped much the same way they were in 2008 and its aftermath. In all its history under Mugabe,s leadership, Zanu-PF has fought and under-privileged the people of Zimbabwe. Zanu-PF has cared about staying in power above anything else. Zanu-PF has killed and maimed to stay in power. But in all this Mugabe has been on the forefront spewing hatred, urging his party on in the use of violence. Mugabe fueled with his words all atrocities Zanu-PF committed. Mugabe is synonymous with Zanu-PF and all the innocent blood spilled by Zanu-PF lie squarely on the party and on the tyrannical Mugabe.
In the 1980s Mugabe executed what arguably might be the worst of his atrocities, a campaign terror against the minority Ndebele tribe in which he unleashed a Perence Shiri led North –Korean trained army unity that killed up to 25 000 unarmed civilians. Yet in the midst of these various crimes Mugabe never lost his fan base in the West. Just as he was just completing his genocide against the Ndebele, Amherst University of Massachussets bestowed an honorary doctorate of laws on Mugabe in 1986.
University of Edinburgh had conferred a doctorate to Robert in 1984. Mugabe was also inexplicably given an honorary Knighthood by Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth II.
It was only when Mugabe started going after whites that the world began paying attention. The British media helped turn Mugabe into an international villain the moment he began killing white people. In the eyes of the Westerners, Mugabe killing other blacks did not actually trigger their emotion. That Mugabe did not immediately ruin Zimbabwe's economy or force the whites out, as Amin did in Uganda, is a large part of why the West did not portray him as a villain.
That having been alluded to, it seems likely that natural causes will be the only thing to topple the 89-year-old's rule. Of his likely successors, Joyce Mujuru has been subject of numerous personal sanctions from Western countries for embezzlement and illegal mineral trades. On the other hand Munangagwa a leader of terror campaigns in the revolutionary war is perhaps the most feared people min Zimbabwe. Both have links to the powerful military, making a military rule a terrifying possibility.
I would like to congratulate the latest Sunday mail edition comment the title for which the title read Zanu-PF emergies stronger. The commentator was just short of admitting Zanu-PF failure. The critic wrote in paragraph 8 that "Zanu-PF has to guard against service delivery failure, corruption, undemocratic behavior and incompetence." Many writers have castigated Zanu-PF over these issues and the Sunday mail has on many occasions been on the forefront in defending Zanu-PF. This sudden u-turn is welcome but should be maintained.
The next paragraph went on to say that the party has been too tolerant incompetence such that some comrades were still assured of posts despite failure to carry out tasks. In another place the writer acknowledged that the party is not responsive and accountable. The writer also admitted that Zanu-PF knows that it has not been putting the people first by not being responsive.
It was good to read Zanu-PF's paper castigating Zanu-PF, some kind of self introspection, saying, Zanu-PF can no longer depend on its liberation track record to garner support of the masses and remain in power. In correct words the writer was saying the party should no longer take the whole nation hostage because of the liberation struggle.
For me this is a way Zanu-PF is throwing in the towel or has to immediately do so. This is the first time in the 34 history of Zimbabwe that Zanu-PF publicly admitted to failure, corruption and incompetence and undemocratic tendencies. But I think many people can only believe Zanu-PF after it has actually changed its attitude. It is easy to want to change, but harder to. Zanu-PF may want to change but the party is deeply rooted in corruption and therefore it may not be possible for it to achieve the needed change. Corruption, incompetence and undemocratic behavior are Zanu-PF's trademark.
The Sunday Mail comment concluded by saluting the Zim Asset saying it is the only game in town. Several economic programmes have been proposed by Zanu-PF over the decades, bright ones too, but they have not been implemented. Zanu-PF through the ZBC, Sunday mail and the Herald, is into the habit of fooling people by talking too much about a programme, but doing nothing in the implementation thereof.
Zimasset is just one other programme Zanu-PF uses to lie to people to make them think Zanu-PF can still do or is doing something. Zanu-PF has failed the people already and cannot deliver. People should not have any hope whatsoever in Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF has not been sincere in its bid to bring prosperity to the ordinary Zimbabwean.
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Zanda Shumba can be contacted at zekishumba@gmail.com, St Johns, Bag 113 Nyazura
So while the Sunday mail editorial kneels down and worship, the ordinary people wriggle with wrath. Mugabe has not promoted democracy in Zimbabwe, he has on the contrary managed to stay in power through oppression and his divide and rule strategy. He has managed to stay in power perhaps to until his death, but at an immense cost to the Zimbabwean economy and therefore its people. He leaves every service delivery on its knees.
Mugabe is a self serving tyrant who does not care about his people, there is absolutely nothing patriotic about Bob. Mugabe is not a leader, is not a builder and I for one have completely lost any respect for him. Though Mugabe's biography may sound strikingly familiar to anyone familiar with Nelson Mandela's, but where Mugabe differs is that Mandela unified people of different races, religion and different political dispensations. Mugabe has sought to establish black over white dominance. So while Mandela is highly honored, Mugabe will highly be dishonored because Mugabe destroyed his land and killed his own people.
The heading on the Sunday mail front page should have read: "I let you down, we are not together says president." For indeed Mugabe is no longer with the people and neither does he still have the strength to run around addressing the challenges affecting the people. The extent of Zimbabwe problems go beyond economics, but can be traced to the corrupt politics of the Robert Mugabe. The Sunday Mail spends a lot of effort taking us through some history of Mugabe escaping through a window in a bid to portray him as a hero. Heroes make peoples' lives better. Heroes don't ruin their peoples' lives. Heroes are loved by their own people not only worshiped by a government controlled press.
The liberation struggle took a turn when Mugabe usurped the leadership of the struggle. Zanu-PF then changed its strategy and took a terroristic dimension. All participants in Rhodesian war used vicious tactics but Mugabe used a particular ruthlessness that ought to have indicated what sort of ruler he might one day become. In 1978 four black moderates announced that they have reached an internal settlement with the white regime paving way for democratic elections. One of these leaders, Ndabaningi, sent 39 envoys to meet representatives of Mugabe. These envoys were captured murdered and according to Time magazine, their bodies were paraded at a roadside as a warning to local tribe's people. Words like sellouts, nhunzvatunzva, came into vocabulary under Mugabe's leadership and then many people were being killed much the same way they are being killed today at the leadership of Mugabe and at the hands of Zanu-PF.
Girls and women were being raped much the same way they were in 2008 and its aftermath. In all its history under Mugabe,s leadership, Zanu-PF has fought and under-privileged the people of Zimbabwe. Zanu-PF has cared about staying in power above anything else. Zanu-PF has killed and maimed to stay in power. But in all this Mugabe has been on the forefront spewing hatred, urging his party on in the use of violence. Mugabe fueled with his words all atrocities Zanu-PF committed. Mugabe is synonymous with Zanu-PF and all the innocent blood spilled by Zanu-PF lie squarely on the party and on the tyrannical Mugabe.
In the 1980s Mugabe executed what arguably might be the worst of his atrocities, a campaign terror against the minority Ndebele tribe in which he unleashed a Perence Shiri led North –Korean trained army unity that killed up to 25 000 unarmed civilians. Yet in the midst of these various crimes Mugabe never lost his fan base in the West. Just as he was just completing his genocide against the Ndebele, Amherst University of Massachussets bestowed an honorary doctorate of laws on Mugabe in 1986.
University of Edinburgh had conferred a doctorate to Robert in 1984. Mugabe was also inexplicably given an honorary Knighthood by Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth II.
It was only when Mugabe started going after whites that the world began paying attention. The British media helped turn Mugabe into an international villain the moment he began killing white people. In the eyes of the Westerners, Mugabe killing other blacks did not actually trigger their emotion. That Mugabe did not immediately ruin Zimbabwe's economy or force the whites out, as Amin did in Uganda, is a large part of why the West did not portray him as a villain.
That having been alluded to, it seems likely that natural causes will be the only thing to topple the 89-year-old's rule. Of his likely successors, Joyce Mujuru has been subject of numerous personal sanctions from Western countries for embezzlement and illegal mineral trades. On the other hand Munangagwa a leader of terror campaigns in the revolutionary war is perhaps the most feared people min Zimbabwe. Both have links to the powerful military, making a military rule a terrifying possibility.
I would like to congratulate the latest Sunday mail edition comment the title for which the title read Zanu-PF emergies stronger. The commentator was just short of admitting Zanu-PF failure. The critic wrote in paragraph 8 that "Zanu-PF has to guard against service delivery failure, corruption, undemocratic behavior and incompetence." Many writers have castigated Zanu-PF over these issues and the Sunday mail has on many occasions been on the forefront in defending Zanu-PF. This sudden u-turn is welcome but should be maintained.
The next paragraph went on to say that the party has been too tolerant incompetence such that some comrades were still assured of posts despite failure to carry out tasks. In another place the writer acknowledged that the party is not responsive and accountable. The writer also admitted that Zanu-PF knows that it has not been putting the people first by not being responsive.
It was good to read Zanu-PF's paper castigating Zanu-PF, some kind of self introspection, saying, Zanu-PF can no longer depend on its liberation track record to garner support of the masses and remain in power. In correct words the writer was saying the party should no longer take the whole nation hostage because of the liberation struggle.
For me this is a way Zanu-PF is throwing in the towel or has to immediately do so. This is the first time in the 34 history of Zimbabwe that Zanu-PF publicly admitted to failure, corruption and incompetence and undemocratic tendencies. But I think many people can only believe Zanu-PF after it has actually changed its attitude. It is easy to want to change, but harder to. Zanu-PF may want to change but the party is deeply rooted in corruption and therefore it may not be possible for it to achieve the needed change. Corruption, incompetence and undemocratic behavior are Zanu-PF's trademark.
The Sunday Mail comment concluded by saluting the Zim Asset saying it is the only game in town. Several economic programmes have been proposed by Zanu-PF over the decades, bright ones too, but they have not been implemented. Zanu-PF through the ZBC, Sunday mail and the Herald, is into the habit of fooling people by talking too much about a programme, but doing nothing in the implementation thereof.
Zimasset is just one other programme Zanu-PF uses to lie to people to make them think Zanu-PF can still do or is doing something. Zanu-PF has failed the people already and cannot deliver. People should not have any hope whatsoever in Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF has not been sincere in its bid to bring prosperity to the ordinary Zimbabwean.
--------------
Zanda Shumba can be contacted at zekishumba@gmail.com, St Johns, Bag 113 Nyazura
Source - Zanda Shumba
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