Mugabe still angry with father

via Mugabe still angry with father – DailyNews Live 16 August 2014 by Bridget Mananavire

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday once again expressed bitterness at the way his father abandoned him and his siblings to start a new family in Bulawayo.

Addressing delegates at the sixth national Women’s League conference, Mugabe said all his life, he was known as Bona’s (his mother) son as his father played no part in raising him.

“Baba vakaenda kuBulawayo kwainakidza, ndichigara nambuya, ndaitochera mvura kutsime nekuti vana Sabina vakanga varivadiki. (My father went to Bulawayo to have fun and I ended up being raised by my grandmother. I used to do daily kitchen chores because my sisters like Sabina were too young.)

“Ndakakura ndichinzi mwana waBona asi zita rangu riri Robert Mugabe (I grew up being referred to as just Bona’s child but still maintained the name Robert Mugabe,” he said.

Mugabe bemoaned growing up in a divided family, saying different relatives raised his siblings separately.

It is not the first time Mugabe shared his bitter past. He did the same at the burial of his sister, Bridgette in January.

Mugabe said his father left the family in 1934 after the death of his eldest brother Michael and never communicated. He went on to start a new family in Bulawayo; a city the Zanu PF leader said was famous for fast life and beautiful women.

In earlier revelations, Zanu PF’s first secretary said he wrote a letter to his father expressing his unhappiness about how he had abandoned them.

The first day of the women’s conference was dominated by top Zanu PF officials indirectly taunting each other as factionalism continues to rock the party.

Vice President Joice Mujuru made it clear through song that there were some among the Zanu PF officials who had betrayed her.

She sang: “Party woye dairayi party woye, pakati penyu apa mumwe achandipandukira dairai (among you someone is going to betray me).”

Not to be outdone, outgoing Women’s league boss, Oppah Muchinguri came up with a highly controversial slogan saying “pasi nevanopisa varume, (to hell with those who burn their
husbands).”

Three years ago, Mujuru’s late husband Solomon’s remains were found at the family’s Beatrice farm house after an inferno.

Zanu PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo also came up with a vernacular song with lyrics that say “we do not want sell-outs in the party.”

Mashonaland West province in their welcome gesture sang the “VaMugabe havasi vekurevera nhema (You can’t lie to Mugabe).

The Zanu PF women also told Mugabe that men were the ones who were creating divisions in the league.

Mugabe said people in his party must not allow themselves to be bribed for votes as witnessed during the youth conference.

He lashed out at power hungry party officials who were spending time looking for ways to get to the party’s top position instead of solving party and national problems.

Mugabe said the role of women in society was extraordinary, as they also suffered side by side with men during the liberation struggle.

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