Opinion / Columnist
Grace Mugabe's stage managed Madonna rock-star welcome fooled no one!
17 Feb 2015 at 18:37hrs | Views
"Grace Mugabe demonstrated the immense power she now wields in Zanu PF when Cabinet minis-ters, service chiefs and Zanu PF bigwigs scrambled to Harare International Airport to welcome her back to the country on Sunday after she had been away in the Far East for more than two months," reported the Daily News.
Was this really a welcome of a real rock-star or was it a welcome of a phony rock-star to divert the people's attention away from the nation's real big issue – the economic meltdown. Zimbabwe's eco-nomic meltdown is now beginning to bite and Mugabe and Zanu PF's are at sixes and sevens as what to do.
Before the 2013 elections Mugabe had given the excuse of "illegal sanctions imposed by the British and the West" for the country's economic failures. It was an excuse for the easily fooled since Mu-gabe was free to trade with the rest of the world, especially with the East as he himself admitted in his "Look East" policy.
In the 2013 elections Mugabe promised the nation economic recovery through his ZimAsset plan and 2.2 million new jobs regardless of whether the West imposed sanctions were lifted or remained. The success or failure of the plan depended on Mugabe getting the $27 billion funding for it.
It took over a year of grovelling and begging for Mugabe to finally get $4 billion and $3 billion of post-dated cheques from the Chinese and Russians respectively. The two Eastern bloc giants agreed to fund ZimAsset projects but flatly refused to provide the regime with the much needed budgetary support because Zimbabwe was "a bad debtor" the Chinese told Mugabe to his face.
Mugabe had hoped that other nations would follow the Chinese and Russians' example of ZimAsset funding support and provide the critical budgetary component of his ZimAsset plan. The floodgate of donors Mugabe was sure was coming never happened. It is now nearly two years into the five-year plan and he has not delivered any new jobs out of the 2.2 million new jobs promised. Indeed in the period the country has lost thousands of jobs pushing unemployment level to 90% plus!
The regime has grudgingly accepted that without the budgetary support and the two post-dated Chinese and Russian cheques (spending on projections has yet started) its ZimAsset plan is all but dead in the water. All talk of implementing ZimAsset has stopped; one cannot implement a plan that is dead.
With ZimAsset dead, the economic meltdown has now taken centre stage. The headline news have been about companies closing, someone or other not being paid, soldiers being forced to take a month holiday every other month to save on food bill, new government taxes, etc.; all spelling the worsening economic situation.
So to draw the nation's attention away from the worsening economic hardship and the fact that the regime's own ZimAsset plan is dead in the water; the Zanu PF propaganda machine has gone into overdrive manufacturing its own headline news.
When Mugabe returned from Ethiopia two weeks ago Zanu PF propaganda machine wanted his election as AU chairman trumpeted from the hilltop. Mugabe played his part by giving a vitriolic anti-western acceptance speech. On his return he got a hero's welcome at the airport complete with the usual bussed in Zanu PF supporters. The propagandists were pleased with themselves until Mugabe tripped and fell.
People laughed at Mugabe's fall to vent out their anger at being forced into this Mugabe praise sing-ing charade when pressing national issues are being ignored. The fall became a serious PR disaster for Zanu PF.
Zanu PF needed to stage a big show on Grace Mugabe's return to show that Mugabe and the party are still popular and hence Sunday's rock-star welcome for her. Everyone in Zanu PF and govern-ment turned up at the airport because in these days of political turbulence and party purges, they are all keen to be seen to be very supportive of Grace for fear they might be "dumped" next. She is the one who master minded the dumping of Mujuru and many others list year.
As for the ordinary Zimbabweans they could not be bothered going to the airport to welcome Grace, still they are relieved that she back purely for financial reasons. They were rightly worried about how much more her extended stay in Singapore was going to cost the nation. She is a woman of little in-tellect but very expensive and extravagant tastes; the sooner she returned the better for us, the Zimbabwe public, who will be expected to pay the bill. After three months we can expect the bill of $12 million, at least!
"You need to be strong as women, not just to sit back," said Zimbabwe's answer to Madona and Evita rolled into one to her adoring fans at the airport. "Despite not feeling well, I have remained strong, I have energy. This is the third operation that I have undergone in my life so I cannot say I am a com-plete human being. In 1986, I had my tonsils removed. They did tonsillectomy on me because I had problems with my throat which was always sore. In 1996, I also had my gall bladder removed be-cause it caused severe abdominal pains owing to too many acids… so severe were the pains that at one point I suspected that my cooks had poisoned my food."
"You get to think along those lines when you are in pain. That is the reason why I am particular about what I eat. I cannot eat food like meat now because I must not take fat and even the whole family in-cluding baba (Mugabe) now follow my diet."
So Zanu PF members came from every corner of the country to listen to that! You can take a man out of the ghetto but cannot take the ghetto out of some people; well that is especially true with phony rock-stars!
No amount of stage manages heroic or rock-star glorification can change the fact that Mugabe's ZimAsset plan is dead in the water or make reality of soaring 90% plus unemployment rate, of the 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans already living in abject poverty, of the regime struggling to pay civil servants, etc. The economic meltdown is getting worse and not better and instead of wasting time and money staging these gimmicks Mugabe and Zanu PF must step down now to allow for fresh elections and implementation of a workable economic recovery plan.
Was this really a welcome of a real rock-star or was it a welcome of a phony rock-star to divert the people's attention away from the nation's real big issue – the economic meltdown. Zimbabwe's eco-nomic meltdown is now beginning to bite and Mugabe and Zanu PF's are at sixes and sevens as what to do.
Before the 2013 elections Mugabe had given the excuse of "illegal sanctions imposed by the British and the West" for the country's economic failures. It was an excuse for the easily fooled since Mu-gabe was free to trade with the rest of the world, especially with the East as he himself admitted in his "Look East" policy.
In the 2013 elections Mugabe promised the nation economic recovery through his ZimAsset plan and 2.2 million new jobs regardless of whether the West imposed sanctions were lifted or remained. The success or failure of the plan depended on Mugabe getting the $27 billion funding for it.
It took over a year of grovelling and begging for Mugabe to finally get $4 billion and $3 billion of post-dated cheques from the Chinese and Russians respectively. The two Eastern bloc giants agreed to fund ZimAsset projects but flatly refused to provide the regime with the much needed budgetary support because Zimbabwe was "a bad debtor" the Chinese told Mugabe to his face.
Mugabe had hoped that other nations would follow the Chinese and Russians' example of ZimAsset funding support and provide the critical budgetary component of his ZimAsset plan. The floodgate of donors Mugabe was sure was coming never happened. It is now nearly two years into the five-year plan and he has not delivered any new jobs out of the 2.2 million new jobs promised. Indeed in the period the country has lost thousands of jobs pushing unemployment level to 90% plus!
The regime has grudgingly accepted that without the budgetary support and the two post-dated Chinese and Russian cheques (spending on projections has yet started) its ZimAsset plan is all but dead in the water. All talk of implementing ZimAsset has stopped; one cannot implement a plan that is dead.
With ZimAsset dead, the economic meltdown has now taken centre stage. The headline news have been about companies closing, someone or other not being paid, soldiers being forced to take a month holiday every other month to save on food bill, new government taxes, etc.; all spelling the worsening economic situation.
When Mugabe returned from Ethiopia two weeks ago Zanu PF propaganda machine wanted his election as AU chairman trumpeted from the hilltop. Mugabe played his part by giving a vitriolic anti-western acceptance speech. On his return he got a hero's welcome at the airport complete with the usual bussed in Zanu PF supporters. The propagandists were pleased with themselves until Mugabe tripped and fell.
People laughed at Mugabe's fall to vent out their anger at being forced into this Mugabe praise sing-ing charade when pressing national issues are being ignored. The fall became a serious PR disaster for Zanu PF.
Zanu PF needed to stage a big show on Grace Mugabe's return to show that Mugabe and the party are still popular and hence Sunday's rock-star welcome for her. Everyone in Zanu PF and govern-ment turned up at the airport because in these days of political turbulence and party purges, they are all keen to be seen to be very supportive of Grace for fear they might be "dumped" next. She is the one who master minded the dumping of Mujuru and many others list year.
As for the ordinary Zimbabweans they could not be bothered going to the airport to welcome Grace, still they are relieved that she back purely for financial reasons. They were rightly worried about how much more her extended stay in Singapore was going to cost the nation. She is a woman of little in-tellect but very expensive and extravagant tastes; the sooner she returned the better for us, the Zimbabwe public, who will be expected to pay the bill. After three months we can expect the bill of $12 million, at least!
"You need to be strong as women, not just to sit back," said Zimbabwe's answer to Madona and Evita rolled into one to her adoring fans at the airport. "Despite not feeling well, I have remained strong, I have energy. This is the third operation that I have undergone in my life so I cannot say I am a com-plete human being. In 1986, I had my tonsils removed. They did tonsillectomy on me because I had problems with my throat which was always sore. In 1996, I also had my gall bladder removed be-cause it caused severe abdominal pains owing to too many acids… so severe were the pains that at one point I suspected that my cooks had poisoned my food."
"You get to think along those lines when you are in pain. That is the reason why I am particular about what I eat. I cannot eat food like meat now because I must not take fat and even the whole family in-cluding baba (Mugabe) now follow my diet."
So Zanu PF members came from every corner of the country to listen to that! You can take a man out of the ghetto but cannot take the ghetto out of some people; well that is especially true with phony rock-stars!
No amount of stage manages heroic or rock-star glorification can change the fact that Mugabe's ZimAsset plan is dead in the water or make reality of soaring 90% plus unemployment rate, of the 16% or 2 million Zimbabweans already living in abject poverty, of the regime struggling to pay civil servants, etc. The economic meltdown is getting worse and not better and instead of wasting time and money staging these gimmicks Mugabe and Zanu PF must step down now to allow for fresh elections and implementation of a workable economic recovery plan.
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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