via Fit as a fiddle – really? – The Zimbabwean 11 February 2015
Many who saw the funny side of Mugabe’s fall might have reacted differently if the president was not constantly packaged and shoved down our throats as the picture of vitality.
His campaign photos are almost always airbrushed and his hair dyed blacker than shoe polish, yet older photos show a greying head. He makes several trips to the Far East, from where he returns with cheeks pumped up like car tyres to conceal the wrinkles.
His speeches often lack coherence, as was the case in December when in a senior moment he denounced his own party: Pasi neZanu (PF). ‘Fit as a fiddle’ he keeps telling an electorate which increasingly asks if he is healthy enough to withstand the rigors of running a country. Really?
There is nothing more pathetic than a potbellied action movie hero, way past-his-prime, cast in a role demanding bar fights, foot chases and shirtless bedroom scenes. When it’s over it’s over. Nelson Mandela governed his one term and graciously gave way to younger leaders. Mugabe keeps inventing reasons to cling to power, his latest one being something about unfinished business.
When an elderly Mandela began to hold onto Gracia Machel for support, there was not a snicker in the global audience. When he waved from the cart – unable to walk – at World Cup 2010, the whole world saluted a great elder. The more his health faded, the more he was loved. But here is Mugabe – Mandela’s antithesis – still wants to shake a trembling fist at the world.
He has ruled for 35 years by intimidation and violence, so much that there was hesitancy even among his trusted henchmen. When Mugabe’s strongman, police commissioner Augustine Chihuri, collapsed and fell in 2014, out of fear for his job, the first thing the top cop did was praise the president for his ‘fitness.’
In photos of the president’s fall, there is one official clearly watching with hands clasped. Others look on impassively as Mugabe tumbles. One wonders if they were too scared to help him up. After all, presidents whose rule is through force do not want to be made to look weak. When his minions attempted to suppress press freedom by ordering the destruction of images that are essentially owned by the media, there was never going to be much sympathy for a man who has bullied 14 million people for over three decades.
COMMENTS
Great Article!! I concur with every word of it!! Chokwadi sechokwadi!!
When one has worked your hardest in a demanding job for 35 years and are 91 you don’t look like Mugabe. So while I can’t dispute his age I can dispute his work. Obviously not very demanding but then when a country is being looted while sliding into chaos one doesn’t have to work hard. Despite his wild claims of poor treatment in prison he survived remarkably well so I would say his white jailers obviously fed and treated him well. One can’t study degrees and pass if you’re being harshly treated. Everything about Mugabe is a lie. His life is a lie and his claims as a liberation hero are a lie. History will only know him for the despot he is.
Waving a trembling fist to the world. I laugh. Meanwhile, his knees akasungwa nema waya (wire).