Opinion / Columnist
Musewe the truth is Mugabe is Don Quixote on 'pink face' charge to hide misrule
06 Feb 2016 at 20:02hrs | Views
Comrade Vince Musewe set out to tell the President and the nation at large the truth as to why Africa and Zimbabwe in particular was in such a political and economic mess in his article "If the truth be said Mr President". He was responding to President Mugabe's usual bombastic attack of the West at the AU summit. Vince ending up asking irrelevant questions and giving the wrong and equally irrelevant answers; he succeed in mudding the waters and telling a dangerous lie.
"The questions we therefore need to ask ourselves are why the West has developed so fast and continues to dominate on the international geopolitical agenda and why the East is fast rising in dominance on the economic front and is demanding and rightly entitled to the same political rights as the West," he asked.
These questions are irrelevant because they only seek to give mileage to the lie that it is the West and more recently China that are holding back Africa. We are our own worst enemies in having mismanaged our nations economically and politically. Any roles outsiders have played in our downfall have been minor and they did so because we let them.
The single most important lesson Africa should have learnt by now is accept we, Africans, have failed ourselves and to stop hiding behind the finger and blame outsiders. President Mugabe has become the self-appointed Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote, out to fight for justice Zimbabwe's sovereignty, Africa's permanent seat at the UN Security Council, etc.
Don Quixote: on a full single cavalry charge!
For the last 20 years President Mugabe has used every international platform lead his one Sir Knight Cavalry charge at the West, like Don Quixote charging at the windmill and all to no consequence. Even those who had supported UN reforms in the past must have dropped the idea like a hot potato; who would want a foul-mouthed President Mugabe on the Security Council wielding a veto?
If anything Zimbabwe's knight in shining armour has used his Don Quixote battles to draw attention away from the evil he is has been doing. Corruption is rampant in Africa and when his history is finally uncovered President Mugabe will be one of the most ruthlessly corrupt leaders in the world.
In 2012 Africa Partnership Canada reported that President Mugabe pocketed $2 billion in that year alone from the grand theft of Marange diamonds. His looting assumes it full enormity when viewed in the light of the heart breaking poverty and despair gripping the nation; most towns and cities have no clean running water, there is a 18 out 24 hours power cut, etc. because there is a serious shortage of cash!
"First, we must stop being a consumption society and move towards being a productive society. Second, we must stop being a continual recipient of international tied aid and developmental loans and create our own capital base while creating environments in Africa, which offer real investment value and then some to the international free market capital sector," Musewe answered his own irrelevant question.
Zimbabwe is facing its toughest year yet since independence with the country in a real economic and political mess. After 36 years of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness the national economic is in total meltdown and still the regime continues blame the West instead of dealing with the underlining problems. The economic meltdown has trigged an all-out fight for power in Zanu PF as the party leaders fight over a piece of the shrinking cake. They are not paying any attention to the dangerous situation the nation is in.
The El Nino induce drought is making the situation even worse; 3 millions are facing starvation.
President Mugabe was very slow off the mark in declaring the drought a national disaster so the international community can step in a help. He did not want to do so before he had delivered his anti-West speech at the AU summit. Still, he is appealing for help from the West, the very people he rubbished in his speech, calling them "pink face"!
What is sad is that even now after 36 years with Zimbabwe in the gutter because of his corrupt and tyrannical misrule, there are still Zimbabweans who fail to see President Mugabe's Don Quixote antics for what they are tactical diversions to draw attention away from his misrule.
"The questions we therefore need to ask ourselves are why the West has developed so fast and continues to dominate on the international geopolitical agenda and why the East is fast rising in dominance on the economic front and is demanding and rightly entitled to the same political rights as the West," he asked.
These questions are irrelevant because they only seek to give mileage to the lie that it is the West and more recently China that are holding back Africa. We are our own worst enemies in having mismanaged our nations economically and politically. Any roles outsiders have played in our downfall have been minor and they did so because we let them.
The single most important lesson Africa should have learnt by now is accept we, Africans, have failed ourselves and to stop hiding behind the finger and blame outsiders. President Mugabe has become the self-appointed Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote, out to fight for justice Zimbabwe's sovereignty, Africa's permanent seat at the UN Security Council, etc.
Don Quixote: on a full single cavalry charge!
For the last 20 years President Mugabe has used every international platform lead his one Sir Knight Cavalry charge at the West, like Don Quixote charging at the windmill and all to no consequence. Even those who had supported UN reforms in the past must have dropped the idea like a hot potato; who would want a foul-mouthed President Mugabe on the Security Council wielding a veto?
In 2012 Africa Partnership Canada reported that President Mugabe pocketed $2 billion in that year alone from the grand theft of Marange diamonds. His looting assumes it full enormity when viewed in the light of the heart breaking poverty and despair gripping the nation; most towns and cities have no clean running water, there is a 18 out 24 hours power cut, etc. because there is a serious shortage of cash!
"First, we must stop being a consumption society and move towards being a productive society. Second, we must stop being a continual recipient of international tied aid and developmental loans and create our own capital base while creating environments in Africa, which offer real investment value and then some to the international free market capital sector," Musewe answered his own irrelevant question.
Zimbabwe is facing its toughest year yet since independence with the country in a real economic and political mess. After 36 years of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness the national economic is in total meltdown and still the regime continues blame the West instead of dealing with the underlining problems. The economic meltdown has trigged an all-out fight for power in Zanu PF as the party leaders fight over a piece of the shrinking cake. They are not paying any attention to the dangerous situation the nation is in.
The El Nino induce drought is making the situation even worse; 3 millions are facing starvation.
President Mugabe was very slow off the mark in declaring the drought a national disaster so the international community can step in a help. He did not want to do so before he had delivered his anti-West speech at the AU summit. Still, he is appealing for help from the West, the very people he rubbished in his speech, calling them "pink face"!
What is sad is that even now after 36 years with Zimbabwe in the gutter because of his corrupt and tyrannical misrule, there are still Zimbabweans who fail to see President Mugabe's Don Quixote antics for what they are tactical diversions to draw attention away from his misrule.
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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