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Chiwenga, Mohadi woken up at 2AM for Mnangagwa airport welcome
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Acting President Constantino Chiwenga, alongside fellow Vice-President Kembo Mohadi, Cabinet ministers and other senior government officials, were roused from their beds in the early hours of Monday morning to welcome President Emmerson Mnangagwa back from his overseas engagements in Equatorial Guinea, Japan, and Algeria.
The elaborate welcome ceremony, staged around 2AM at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, has once again spotlighted the ruling Zanu PF party's entrenched culture of personality cult politics - a practice deeply rooted in the late former president Robert Mugabe's era.
The tradition of glorifying political leaders through excessive ceremony, propaganda and forced displays of loyalty remains alive under Mnangagwa's leadership. Despite initial promises of a break from the past following his 2017 military-assisted rise to power, Mnangagwa's administration has largely maintained the same political theatre that characterised Mugabe's nearly four-decade rule.
Under Mugabe, ministers and senior officials frequently lined up at odd hours to receive or bid farewell to him, often portraying him as a figure of extraordinary wisdom, courage, and infallibility - a narrative heavily propped up by state media and party loyalists. The same script appears to be unfolding once more.
Monday's ceremony, which included permanent secretaries, military generals and other senior government functionaries, served no clear administrative purpose but rather reinforced Mnangagwa's status as the centre of Zanu PF's political universe.
Critics argue that such grandiose and unnecessary spectacles only serve to highlight how little has changed in Zimbabwe's political culture despite promises of reform. Instead of ushering in a new era of servant leadership, observers say Mnangagwa has deepened the Mugabe-era tradition of elevating the leader above the people.
“This is not about protocol; it's about optics,” one Harare-based political analyst noted. “It's about reinforcing the message that Mnangagwa is the sun around which everyone must orbit. It's political theatre designed to remind people where power lies.”
The episode underscores the continuation of the politics of personality over substance in Zimbabwe - a reality many Zimbabweans had hoped would end with Mugabe's departure.
The elaborate welcome ceremony, staged around 2AM at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, has once again spotlighted the ruling Zanu PF party's entrenched culture of personality cult politics - a practice deeply rooted in the late former president Robert Mugabe's era.
The tradition of glorifying political leaders through excessive ceremony, propaganda and forced displays of loyalty remains alive under Mnangagwa's leadership. Despite initial promises of a break from the past following his 2017 military-assisted rise to power, Mnangagwa's administration has largely maintained the same political theatre that characterised Mugabe's nearly four-decade rule.
Under Mugabe, ministers and senior officials frequently lined up at odd hours to receive or bid farewell to him, often portraying him as a figure of extraordinary wisdom, courage, and infallibility - a narrative heavily propped up by state media and party loyalists. The same script appears to be unfolding once more.
Monday's ceremony, which included permanent secretaries, military generals and other senior government functionaries, served no clear administrative purpose but rather reinforced Mnangagwa's status as the centre of Zanu PF's political universe.
Critics argue that such grandiose and unnecessary spectacles only serve to highlight how little has changed in Zimbabwe's political culture despite promises of reform. Instead of ushering in a new era of servant leadership, observers say Mnangagwa has deepened the Mugabe-era tradition of elevating the leader above the people.
“This is not about protocol; it's about optics,” one Harare-based political analyst noted. “It's about reinforcing the message that Mnangagwa is the sun around which everyone must orbit. It's political theatre designed to remind people where power lies.”
The episode underscores the continuation of the politics of personality over substance in Zimbabwe - a reality many Zimbabweans had hoped would end with Mugabe's departure.
Source - online
