Mugabe cult imposed on his supporters and everyone

The campaign to instil a presidential adulation in Zimbabwe has taken many forms but one should note that it is a cult that has flourished from the top and has always been imposed on the millions of his supporters and more importantly to everyone.

To comprehend this one should take time to think of the millions of dollars that the Zanu-PF top officials have authorised in the last two months to print regalia and posters to shoot anyone else down and exalt the person of the president. Those sums of monies will seriously never receive such instinctive authorisation if they were not doing the job.

And who would have ever known that the Zanu-PF congress was going to be held at Robert Mugabe Square, Corner ZimAsset and Grace Mugabe?

The Herald newspaper in the meantime has stood the test of time in being the rule book keeper to make sure that the president is worshipped the right way. They have sustained a monopoly of the regime bible and they police all the semantics.

Other government departments and parastatals have been significantly influential in institutionalising the Mugabe cult through oversubscribing The Herald pages to deify the person of the president.

Just like we see many terrorists killing in the name of their prophets, institutionalising the cult of Mugabe has played a directly similar role in Zimbabwe. Through this Zanu-PF youths and state security have been granted justification for taking lives and dehumanising fellow countrymen whenever anyone appears to be an ‘infidel' to the cult.

Thanks to all these hideous manoeuvres, the state of our democracy has suffered unprecedented levels of violence especially in the post 2000 era.

The July 2013 election farce and others before aside, the recent changes made to the Zanu-PF constitution and elimination of internally opposing voices under the guise of fighting treasonous elements are all serving to ensure that the centre of focus is one and everyone else breathes at the mercies of the deity.

The spin doctors have made sure that there is the littlest room in the party and country's democratic space for anyone who resists seduction by the pervasive atmosphere of adulation.

Inscription of the name of the president is increasingly being used in many government programs and in most cases beneficiaries are allocated only with a precondition of pledging allegiance to Mugabe.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has recently revealed that the outcast bracket for refusing government food hampers has extended from including MDC supporters to including those that are perceived to sympathise with the former Vice President Mujuru.

Other public provisions like the Presidential Input Scheme are being distributed as hand-outs out of the magnanimity of the president when it is in fact the mercies of ordinary taxpayers through the Ministry of Finance budgetary allocations.

The Mugabe cult machinery has taken advantage of financial difficulties and the religious nature of the country to deify Mugabe. They have worked so hard and to a remarkable extent succeeded in creating a murky blurry distinction between Mugabe being a political figure and a religious phenomenon.

Most Apostolic sects have fallen victim to this and now either describe Mugabe only either as a god or the only gift Zimbabwe has ever had from God. Not many of them now really know whether the name Gabriel was given to him by Mbuya Bona or by Johanne Masowe to stand in as an archangel for Zimbabwe.

The conspicuous appearance of Zanu-PF senior officials in strategic religious positions has not served anything else but present political power as an alternative form of spiritual culture. One however asks why they have and still invest so much time and resources in deifying a 91 year old and yet still any other president?

The Zanu-PF brains like Professor Moyo have well mastered that the only way to cement their party's roots and most importantly their own hold to personal wealth and power is through imposing Mugabe to the people as a ritual with spiritual consequences.

In a normal political space, a promise is sufficient to earn a vote but after more than 30 years of the same promise, the electorate has gotten weary but at the same time the revolutionary party needs to cover up its weaknesses and hold on to the reins of power.

Overblowing the person of the president seems to be the only feasible way to keep themselves in power.

In awe we have heard them say these things below plus more, we have wondered why but they know better that a cult is the ultimate glue effective to retain power;

Jabulani Sibanda, ‘They (MDC-T) don't believe in our own God, but in Satan. Zanu-PF is your first party. Mugabe is your first leader. Jesus said the first fish, not second, third or fourth. President Mugabe is your salvation.'

Webster Shamu, ‘If I was given the option to choose my father before birth, where would I go? I would have been Chatunga's elder brother.'

Johnathan Moyo, ‘And to be honest with you, even Jesus, let alone you, would have also tripped in that kind of situation'.