via Is Mugabe now a shameless dictator? – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 26, 2015
The way President Robert Mugabe is globe-trotting has left many Zimbabweans asking questions whether the nonagenarian Zanu PF leader is morphing into a dictator.
NewsDay Editorial
It is unbelievable that Mugabe has since mid-January pocketed over $3,6 million in allowances from foreign trips some of which were otherwise unproductive meetings. The other trips were for medical check-ups.
In total, Mugabe has blown $10 million on at least seven foreign trips. Zimbabweans would obviously wonder where his wits are. According to senior government officials, on each of the trips Mugabe is receiving on average $600 000 in allowances, with each aide getting a minimum of $500 per day. On top of that, Mugabe always travels with 60 aides among them his cronies.
This is unfortunate given government is struggling to pay its workforce and provide basic services such as public health care. Could this be the reason why he’s always travelling at a time government is broke?
One wonders how Mugabe could blow this much money at a time government is struggling to grow the stunted economy. Sadly, some of the meetings could have been attended by low-key government officials or even his deputies who don’t need hordes of aides by their side.
We believe if Mugabe was serious about plucking Zimbabwe from its political and economic morass, he should be realistic and reduce his travelling entourage.
Mugabe, like many dictators, does not spend his money, but the State is paying for him and his family. It is unbelievable that Treasury has become a collection bag for Mugabe and his regime to have fun. Isn’t it true that there is nothing called benevolent dictators in real life, and Mugabe should know that?
On the other hand, unrealistic expenditure not only by Mugabe himself but by First Lady Grace and Zanu PF is now very common. The country continues to witness fake development projects and a waste of public finance at the taxpayers’ expense.
Mugabe must know that Zimbabweans are not blind. It is clear that the President is abusing power for his personal gain. What is happening is clear robbery of public wealth with impunity although the public are made to believe otherwise.
No doubt the President has deliberately emasculated the institutional set-up, yet Zanu PF believes that the First Family is the only one capable of revitalising sanity and develop Zimbabwe.
Is it not true that the basic definition of corruption is valid for all of Mugabe’s actions? We wonder how Mugabe can abuse State resources when people are reeling from innumerable economic hardships.
It is disastrous that Zimbabwe’s natural resources and most profitable industries and businesses are being exploited by a few individuals in the ruling Zanu PF. The economy and strategic institutions are being controlled by a family oligarchy or cronies.
Although Mugabe has always refuted reports that he has morphed into a dictator arguing that Zimbabwe has always held elections, it is clear from his actions that he no longer has the masses’ interests at heart.
It is time Mugabe is reminded of Greek philosopher Plato, who once said: “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”
Suffice to say that in a dictatorial set-up, all elections are won by the party of the dictator. Therefore continuous electoral victories by Zanu PF are an indication of a questionable regime because people naturally prefer changes, so something unnatural is happening to prevent it.
So, Mugabe’s tool is his abuse of all State resources for his political agenda and propaganda. Is it not true that under Mugabe, all social and public institutions are generally being run by coteries of stooges or relations and manipulation of any steps in an election is just simple?
Is it also not true that all that the people hear from public media are Mugabe’s personal achievements, Grace and his untested vision? All these images are meant to present Mugabe as the most pious, respected and courageous leader who was born to liberate Zimbabwe against all possible evil.
Mugabe should know that most dictators have fallen due to people’s sacrifices; not through electoral defeats. Zimbabweans will not be fooled again.
COMMENTS
Yes, only now is Mugabe becoming a shameless dictator. LOL
I guess leading a kleptocracy, stealing private property, rigging elections, arranging conditions for babies to die by the thousands from malnutrtition, and youths to be raped in indoctrination camps and given aids doesn’t qualify for the designation but cheating on his travel expenses does.
A man capable of shame would not be alleging illegal sanctions that don’t exist while denying the rule of law to his own citizens.
Mugabe has been a dictator since 1987!
HE ALWAYS HAS BEEN!
We will continue to get juvenile journalists warning us that Mugabe is now turning into a dictator, Zimbabwe is rapidly becoming a police state, Zimbabwe’s economy will soon implode etc. In another sense it vindicates ZANUPF’s conviction that the people are stupid. They will inevitably accommodate their misery. All you need do is prevent any meaningful leadership arising from among them, because that’s what it takes get the people to do anything. History is made by individuals.
It is well said but what are the options? Zimbabweans are so docile. This would never happen with South Africans.
We have exercised our options as the sniveling cowards that we are. Dzamara has vanished, yet the suicide of a violated street vendor in Tunisia could change a government. Elections have been stolen time and again, and all we can do is appeal to SADC and boycott by-elections and negotiate with the very dictatorship we seek to remove. Our options are spent. We wait. Time tells no lies.
yes it is true – as a people we just seem to be happy to continue to take the thuggery and thievery of our esteemed leaders. We can no longer rely on political process to resolve this, we have to rise up and force them to go – probably to Algeria or china
The heading of this article is misleading especially using the word “now” and the article also have some misleading comments such as Mugabe’s talking about elections as a sign of democracy.
Lets deal with the election issue first – because that is less complicated. The worst murderer in human history – Joseph Stalin – explained the importance of elections as follows:-
“Elections are necessary – but what is important is the counting of the votes”
Mugabe followed that norm extremely well. He cannot lose elections, because before and during any election process massive fraud is committed (something Stalin did not do) and to make absolutely sure, the vote-counting as then manipulated. If that does not work – murder and mayhem would certainly be the way to go. So elections in Zimbabwe are necessary – but only to solidify the hold onto power by the dictator.
Now lets look at the other signs of dictatorship. This is when –
* theft of other people’s property and usage of it by the dictator and his cronies are legalized by legislation and manipulation of the courts of law by appointment of cronies and threats of judges and magistrates if they do not comply with the wishes of the dictator;
* there is no distinction between government finances and the finances of the dictator – allowing the dictator and his cronies to loot and steal money without any hesitation.
* the dictator and his cronies have billions in foreign back accounts and own extremely expensive properties in other countries for safe-haven purposes should – despite the oppression by the dictator and his cronies – things go wrong and they have to leave in a hurry.
Now lets look at the above and see whether Mugabe meets some basic requirements as to being a dictator. He meets the requirements en times over for many years. Did he become a dictator “now”? No he became one many years ago – ever since at least 1983.
Can the people of Zimbabwe get rid of him? The simple answer is that never in the history of mankind did a dictatorship last for indefinite periods of time. We have the Kim family in North Korea – who have lasted for a very extended time – we had the Communists in Russia lasting from 1917 to 1991 – we have the Castro’s in Cuba, etc. Now we have the Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe already in existence for 35 years.
In all cases the result is inevitable – the system will collapse. No amount of efforts by the dictator to ensure his family reigns – Grace, Bona and co – will ever be effective. Dictatorships collapse because of serious political upheavals and revolutionary tendencies in countries. Is there indeed signs that it is happening in Zimbabwe?
$3.6 million in just 3 months? Have state travel allowances stepped in to satisfy the greed and appetite created during the heyday of diverted revenue from Marange diamonds?
Your last question needs addressing. I doubt anything of the sort is happening here. Our very ability to be aware of our sorry condition has been eroded. We wait for time to wash away specific individuals than for any credible revolutionary process to get underway.
If the people are as you describe them Chanisa, how on earth are they ever going to mount a revolutionary process?
You paint a grim picture, my friend.
Surely there must be some “bark” somewhere, in the Zimbo?
Elections are stolen, we do nothing.
The economy is destroyed, we do nothing.
Diamonds are looted along with other National goodies, we do nothing.
Dzamara is gone, we do thing.
Its shameful, being a Zimbo.
A civilization or civilisation is any complex society characterized by urban development, social stratification, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment.Civilizations are intimately associated with and often further defined by other socio-politico-economic characteristics, including centralization, the domestication of both humans and other organisms, specialization of labor, culturally ingrained ideologies of progress and supremacism, monumental architecture, taxation, societal dependence upon agriculture, and expansionism. Historically, a civilization was an “advanced” culture in contrast to more supposedly barbarian, savage, or primitive cultures.In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts with non-centralized feudal or tribal societies, including the cultures of nomadic pastoralists or hunter-gatherers. As an uncountable noun, civilization also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure.
I am sorry Ngoto Zimbwa. A determined buffoon wielding a gun is a formidable adversary in any society, but more so where the victims are Zimbabwean.