Mzembi accuses Mnangagwa's govt of 'tarnishing' Mugabe's legacy

SELF-exiled former cabinet Minister, Walter Mzembi, has accused the government of trying to tarnish and undermine late President Robert Mugabe's legacy.

Tuesday marked three years since the late veteran leader's death in Singapore, leaving a conflicted legacy after his ouster through military assisted coup in 2017.

Mugabe died after falling out with erstwhile colleagues in Zanu-PF who engineered his resignation, replacing him with his then deputy President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mugabe endorsed opposition leader Nelson Chamisa as a show of displeasure against ZANU-PF over his ouster from power.

Mzembi warned the current leaders against tempering with the dead.

"Regrettably he was forced off the stage by his own trusted Lieutenants who have been competing with him even from his grave deleting his legacy, revising history," said the former tourism and foreign affairs minister.

"My warning to them is dead men rule this world , their philosophies are indestructible, its advisable to acknowledge contributions, build on it and write our own legacies because soon we will also be dead and we wouldn't want to be deleted from national memory or our legacies desecrated.

"So, in the future we will reset history not from a selfish and narcissistic angle as they are doing but as a national redemption exercise. It's coming soon."

After his death Mugabe's family refused to have the octogenarian buried at the national heroes acre in Harare preferring his rural village of Zvimba.

This led to squabbles with the Mugabe family which was ordered a year later to bury the former leader at the national shrine with matters spilling into courts.

Recently Zanu-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa made a chilling comment saying Mugabe's stranglehold on power was backed by war veterans.

Mzembi said despite his conflicted legacy, Mugabe should be credited for the land reform program which was rolled out in early 2000s.

"President Mugabe was not an angel; human beings err, falter – and politics has never been a calling for the faultless.

"That said, (giving) land to successor generations is the highest honour and legacy for any generational leader for Land is God ‘s concept of empowerment and no Land Reform anywhere in history has transferred hands like an engagement ceremony of two lovers .

"There are consequences in land revolutions; those dispossessed are monied and strong lobby voices and they did a good job in ostracising Mugabe, right up to designing and plotting his exit.

"The rest is history. So, we remember him for his shrewd Pan African principled-ness and his sharp intellect unchallenged to this day."