Opinion / Columnist
Zhuwao says Mugabe will contest 2018 elections - economic meltdown will force regime change before 2018!
31 May 2015 at 18:50hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, has told the Sunday Mail that Mugabe plans to stand as Zanu PF presidential candidate in 2018 and only step down at the end of his second presidential term, as stipulated in the country's new constitution, in 2023.
Given that Zimbabwe is a de facto one party state, thanks to MDC's failure to implement even one democratic reform designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and the nation's no expense spared attitude when it comes to securing Mugabe's longevity; Zhuwao's statement is not as wishful thinking as it sounds.
In a country where life expectancy has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2004; one would say a 91 years of age Mugabe is already living on borrowed time and therefore not likely to live another 7 more years. The reality is the nation has already shown its willingness to sacrifice everything and everyone to keep him alive and there is no reason to believe this will stop.
Gweru Provincial Hospital is the referral hospital for the whole of Midlands Province with a population of 2 to 3 million and yet it is so poorly funded, it does not have something as basic as a dialysis machine, for example. The same regime that has no money for a dialysis machine Gweru Provincial Hospital has paid for Mugabe's regular medical check-ups in Singapore. In 2012 alone, Mugabe made no fewer than eight such trips with each costing $ 3 million.
What makes Zhuwao's assertion of Mugabe standing in the 2018 elections, life and health permitting - even the rich will die, laughable is that die-hard Mugabe loyalists like him are ignoring the seriousness of the country's worsening economic meltdown and its potency as the instrument for change.
Three and half decades of mismanagement and corruption have taken a heavy toll on the national economy. After rigging July 2013 elections Mugabe was convinced he would rig economic recovery with his $27 billion ZimAsset plan. Instead of finally doing something to end the criminal waste of resources through misrule, Mugabe planned to throw lots and lots of cash at the wasteful in the hope that some of the money will trickle through and achieve the desired economic recovery.
Sadly, Mugabe failed to get any donors to bankroll the plan. Not even his "all weather friends", the Chinese, would fund such a hare-brain scheme. With ZimAsset is dead in the water and no plan B; the national economy has gone into a dangerous nose dive.
Many companies have closed in the last two years with no new companies opening up to take their place. Unemployment has soared to 90%, 16% of our people are now living in abject poverty, the government itself is struggling to pay the civil servant wages let alone pay for everything else, etc. Like it or not the country is facing a very serious economic meltdown and it is laughable that even die-hard Mugabe loyalists would pretend not to have noticed the problem.
Even is Mugabe and his cronies pretend not to notice; the reality is unemployment rate of 90%, 16% living in abject poverty, etc. are socially and politically unsustainable. And yet, as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF remain in power, the economic situation is bound to get even worse! It may take a year or two years for the number of those living in abject poverty to double. Will the 32% living in abject poverty trigger the social unrest; nobody knows. What is certain is the present situation cannot last for much longer.
Continued Mugabe and Zanu PF rule of the country is no longer socially and politically sustainable.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to bring about regime change. Mai Mujuru and her followers schemed to force Mugabe out of power but they too failed. And yet regime change is now as certain as day and it is the economic meltdown that has brought it about.
There is no doubt that this Zanu PF regime will spare no expense to keep Mugabe alive and in power; whether he will live to stand for re-election in 2018 is in the lap of the Gods. The regime's failure to rig economic recovery had produced a new political adversary for the regime - economic meltdown which Mugabe has failed to bribe and cheat. It is the economic meltdown that is going to force Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to accept the dreaded accept regime change long before the 2018 elections.
Given that Zimbabwe is a de facto one party state, thanks to MDC's failure to implement even one democratic reform designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and the nation's no expense spared attitude when it comes to securing Mugabe's longevity; Zhuwao's statement is not as wishful thinking as it sounds.
In a country where life expectancy has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2004; one would say a 91 years of age Mugabe is already living on borrowed time and therefore not likely to live another 7 more years. The reality is the nation has already shown its willingness to sacrifice everything and everyone to keep him alive and there is no reason to believe this will stop.
Gweru Provincial Hospital is the referral hospital for the whole of Midlands Province with a population of 2 to 3 million and yet it is so poorly funded, it does not have something as basic as a dialysis machine, for example. The same regime that has no money for a dialysis machine Gweru Provincial Hospital has paid for Mugabe's regular medical check-ups in Singapore. In 2012 alone, Mugabe made no fewer than eight such trips with each costing $ 3 million.
What makes Zhuwao's assertion of Mugabe standing in the 2018 elections, life and health permitting - even the rich will die, laughable is that die-hard Mugabe loyalists like him are ignoring the seriousness of the country's worsening economic meltdown and its potency as the instrument for change.
Three and half decades of mismanagement and corruption have taken a heavy toll on the national economy. After rigging July 2013 elections Mugabe was convinced he would rig economic recovery with his $27 billion ZimAsset plan. Instead of finally doing something to end the criminal waste of resources through misrule, Mugabe planned to throw lots and lots of cash at the wasteful in the hope that some of the money will trickle through and achieve the desired economic recovery.
Sadly, Mugabe failed to get any donors to bankroll the plan. Not even his "all weather friends", the Chinese, would fund such a hare-brain scheme. With ZimAsset is dead in the water and no plan B; the national economy has gone into a dangerous nose dive.
Many companies have closed in the last two years with no new companies opening up to take their place. Unemployment has soared to 90%, 16% of our people are now living in abject poverty, the government itself is struggling to pay the civil servant wages let alone pay for everything else, etc. Like it or not the country is facing a very serious economic meltdown and it is laughable that even die-hard Mugabe loyalists would pretend not to have noticed the problem.
Even is Mugabe and his cronies pretend not to notice; the reality is unemployment rate of 90%, 16% living in abject poverty, etc. are socially and politically unsustainable. And yet, as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF remain in power, the economic situation is bound to get even worse! It may take a year or two years for the number of those living in abject poverty to double. Will the 32% living in abject poverty trigger the social unrest; nobody knows. What is certain is the present situation cannot last for much longer.
Continued Mugabe and Zanu PF rule of the country is no longer socially and politically sustainable.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to bring about regime change. Mai Mujuru and her followers schemed to force Mugabe out of power but they too failed. And yet regime change is now as certain as day and it is the economic meltdown that has brought it about.
There is no doubt that this Zanu PF regime will spare no expense to keep Mugabe alive and in power; whether he will live to stand for re-election in 2018 is in the lap of the Gods. The regime's failure to rig economic recovery had produced a new political adversary for the regime - economic meltdown which Mugabe has failed to bribe and cheat. It is the economic meltdown that is going to force Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to accept the dreaded accept regime change long before the 2018 elections.
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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