Mugabe vs Mnangagwa, Venue: Youth Interface Rally

Zimbabwe experienced another sad day on 8 September 2017 as the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace sunk to new lows at a so-called youth interface rally in Bindura, a town just north of the capital city, Harare.

This was the eighth of the ten rallies the President must address across the country. Going by the heralded headlines for the rally, I personally expected to hear the President talk about the acute joblessness amongst the youth, corruption, social inequalities and how he intended to address these issues.

What came out however, is the intention by Mugabe and his wife to get the Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa. If one listens carefully to Mugabe when he speaks, he sounds like he is talking of a dead Mnangagwa. It sounds like Mnangagwa was supposed to be gone by now and the speech was already in place. The Mugabes have seriously exposed themselves.

First, it is now obvious that Mugabe-Youth alliance was meant to advance Mugabe's wishes. This is something Mugabe has done throughout his political life; there was the Mugabe-Army alliance that sidelined the Central Committee, the Mugabe-War Veterans alliance that pushed the white commercial farmers out, Mugabe-Women's league alliance that propelled Joice Mujuru to be a Vice President, and now Mugabe-Youth alliance. Why the Youth Alliance now?

There are several things going on at the same time. Mugabe wants to push his wife to be the next President of Zimbabwe, and the interface rallies provide a huge opportunity for the Gushungo business and that of their immediate families.

To achieve the first goal, Grace realizes that the Mugabe-Army alliance reached during the war of liberation stands in her way. Now she is out to dismantle that alliance under the guise of the youth interface rallies. Her focus is Chiwenga.

Think about it, the Vice President who is sick and is reported not to be able to stand for 15 minutes but is frog marched to a rally to chant dictated slogans. On the other hand, Grace is given unlimited time to address the rally. She proclaims to abide by party rules then declares what the party will do in the same sentence. In Bindura, she said the passing of no confidence on Kasukuwere was null and void. The party decided and was overruled by Grace, you go figure who is in charge.

On the second goal; Grace announced before that her son, Russell provided the goods that were dished at the rallies. Russell is a nice guy but he is not charitable; ZANU PF is his biggest customer and Grace understands this very well, Mnangagwa understands this very well, Chiwengwa understands this very well and something is going on here. Did someone complain?

In addition, Bona found herself heading a censorship board. On what qualification or merit? Did Mnangagwa or Chiwengwa say something about it that irritated the first family. As Mugabe said, Moyo-Mnangagwa tiff is personal, can the Mugabe - Mnangagwa tiff ironically be personal?

Remember there are tenders going on in the country. One very lucrative being Masvingo Road dualization project. The Masvingo rumor mill has it that the tender went to Robert Junior. This is public information so those who care to know can find out. That makes me wonder, what other tenders went to the Mugabes?

And where do we find our youth again? At the useless youth interface rallies, being used like used condoms. How stupid can our youth be? Why not ask for a stake in the Masvingo road dualization instead of going to giggle at the despot's shrills and sinking so low with attacks on Mnangagwa's person?

What about the army? For how long is the army going to stand by when the country is abused by one family? And the media, why not expose these tender gates?