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Mugabe laughs at his image in the mirror

07 Jun 2017 at 23:29hrs | Views
Mugabe runs the country in his own image best described as a dictatorial, totalitarian, autocratic, tyrannous and authoritative. Those that have been inducted, indoctrinated and trapped in the Mugabe doctrine and creed have lost their self-dignity electing to worship and idolise Mugabe with acts of blasphemy likening him as the Angel, Jesus, God and Almighty.

Mugabe has fostered around him a cult of personalities creating a culture of hero worshipers in which the public is feed propaganda declaring him as divine. The thinking of Mugabe is about him. His demeanour drives him to pursue overtures of a prejudiced national character that thinks in duress and not about individuals' convictions, beliefs and persuasions.

The opinions of the general public and those of his own political base are constantly assessed not according to the political truth or credibility, but according to whether their opinions are politically correct within the framework of his thinking. The resultant political discourse by Mugabe is that of compelling the public to forgo principles and freedoms of thought to self-regulate and edit to justify the general expectation of Mugabe and his establishment.

The dogma propounded by Mugabe is that individual citizenry should be loyal to him not to country and not to the constitution. Mugabe places himself above the country, law and everybody else by reinforcing a false credence that he is the only one that has the political esteem to lead Zimbabwe now and into the future even when his prowess has been eroded by geriatric.

His imposition of self-image and interest in the minds and hearts of people is by employing, investing and executing a repressive political economy that seeks to dismantle the independence of the judiciary; suppress free speech and freedom of the media; restrict civic liberties and political pluralism; pursue patronage politics; promoting rent seeking policies; expropriate private properties and defuse technological and economic growth.

The fundamental objective is to maintain and maximise power by exerting fear, silencing and disempowering people so that people become submissive and subservient to him. Mugabe has effectively traded our civil liberties to expand his doctrine of despot, tyranny and illegitimate hold on power by investing huge national resources in personal repressive capacities that have adversely distorted our national identity, self-esteem and confidence.

Mugabe has always pursued a self-interested political economic agenda that camouflages and props up his political survival by adopting self-centred incentives and economic programmes that have led to negative consequences to the national economy. He runs a political economic model of a self-interested leader that prioritise the establishment of political driven prisons that are not associated with rehabilitative themes of criminals but imprisonment of those with the voice of reason; training the riot police to disenfranchise the freedom of civil society; increasing the size of CIOs to spy and annex private liberties of citizens; and using the militias to infringe all rights and freedoms of innocent citizens.

Mugabe's policies have always been increasing the role of an unprofessional army in politics often used during constitutional political contests and peaceful protest to shoot at civilians.

The Zimbabwe army is good at crashing civilian soft targets that would not retaliate but shamefully rated as one of the weakest armies in Africa. The economics of Mugabe is greatly titled to the production and purchase of repressive military and riot police hardware and equipment to supress the freedoms of the people contrary to the values and ethos of the liberation struggle of emancipation the Zimbabwe black populace from oppression and segregation. The defence and police national budgets are the highest ensuring that these oppressive instruments have enough repressive resources in pursuit of policy objectives that have little relevance in improving the lives of ordinary people but intended to galvanize Mugabe's hold on power

The financing of his repressive agenda is the practice of rent seeking policies that expropriate private businesses and property; using the army to run mining and other lucrative business ventures, imposing illegal and unethical taxes and surcharges on the citizens and asking for protection and business venture bribes with consequences that have also increased the incentive for his political and social base to become corrupt and harvest where they have not sown anything. Mugabe's ego- economic policies ignore the laws of economics.

They have led to economic destruction mainly because Mugabe is apprehensive about a good economy. He worries that a good economy would create strong public institutions which may become largely independent and may induce a national leadership transition. His doctrine is that a financially independent society poses a threat to his power base so he attempts to run a closed economic policy.

Mugabe channels economic resources onto repression to maximise the hold on power. His thinking is that more power makes it easier for him to make more money and thereby increase his power that positions himself at an advantage to siphon off resources to build his personal wealth outside Zimbabwe.

Source - Themba Mthethwa
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