via Mugabe worse than Smith – ex bodyguard – Southern Eye 1 September 2015
HARARE — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was worse than colonial ruler Ian Smith, one of his former bodyguards said yesterday.
“He is now worse than the Smith regime and he is against his people,” South African-born Chinoto Zulu said in Harare.
He was speaking at an event commemorating the United Nations (UN) International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Zulu is a former army chief, worked as Mugabe’s personal bodyguard for several years after independence before retiring.
He blamed the government for the disappearance of human rights activist Itai Dzamara.
“We know very well the State is behind Dzamara disappearance. This is an evil regime, as I speak, I also have been put under surveillance by Mugabe spy agents.
“They have also grabbed all the property I acquired during my time in government,” said Zulu, who is also veteran of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. – online
COMMENTS
Takes a long time for the penny to drop!
I remember IDS visited the business I was running and all the staff were in awe that he just pitched up in his bakkie, no armed guards, nothing.
The ex-combatant I shared my office with said “Now, there is a man”
No comparison between Mugabe and Smith – Mugabe is in a class of his own for brutality, ruthlessness and misrule – to everyone including his own people.
Zulu’s last sentence explains it all.
SMITH vs BLACKSMITH!
They are perhaps comparable only in cunning, resilience and stubbornness. One stubbornly clung to the wrong political ideas while the other has doggedly pursued the wrong economic policies – both until it was much too late for the country’s better fortunes.
But I believe Smith had enough self assurance to visualize life after the PM’s office whereas Mugabe seems to equate his life and its worth with his office and its trappings – leading to his fear and failure of moving on. And it is unlikely Smith would have surrounded himself with so much fearful, incompetent deadwood, or tolerated so much corruption.
“They have also grabbed all the property I acquired during my time in government,” said Zulu, who is also veteran of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
How sad, big teardrops roll down my cheeks.