Saturday thought: Mugabe’s wives!

via Saturday thought: Mugabe’s wives! – NewZimbabwe  16/10/2015 by Ishmael Magodo

WHEN Grace Mugabe wedded Robert Mugabe that 17th day of August in 1996 she took some vows. None of those vows had anything to do with the people of Zimbabwe. Those vows which she reported to have broken many times over were around the person of Robert Mugabe and nothing to do with the office of the president.

The same applies to Robert Mugabe. When he took his oath of office, Grace was just a witness. She did not take an oath of office alongside him. In fact, the oath of office taken by Robert Mugabe said a lot about upholding the constitution of Zimbabwe. That constitution does not mention anything to do with a “First Lady”.

How then are we being told that when we voted for Robert Mugabe, we voted for Grace Mugabe because he shares executive power with her? Why are the people of Zimbabwe allowing this family to brazenly subvert the constitution and take them for granted? And those ministers, why has patronage castrated them so much that they pay homage to a person who would embarrass them were she their sister?

For people like Jonathan Moyo and George Charamba to try to sell the country such nonsense as claims that Grace “shares the crown” with Mugabe is a big insult to all straight thinking Zimbabweans and their famed intelligence. Or is it overrated intelligence? The only thing Grace should shares with Robert Mugabe is his bed. We hear that he doesn’t do much of it these days anyway. Grace says the president prefers to share it with Chatunga.

And talking of his children, Zimbabweans always thought that Mugabe wanted a member of his family to take over from him. A lot of thoughts were around his daughter Bona but she was handicapped by youth as she was well below the requisite age of 40. It never crossed anyone’s mind that the joke that is Grace would be foisted upon the people and there would be multitudes prepared to swallow such nonsense. And not only that; there would be men with a real none prosthetic pairs between their legs that would kneel in reverence to this good-for-nothing woman!

Now that the joke has been foisted upon the nation, no one is laughing anymore. This joke has worn thin and it’s high time the curtain closes. This is because the joke is now on the Zimbabwean people and we can’t continue to laugh at our own expense. Unless we thrive and delight in self-harming.

Where are all those men and women that confronted the tyranny of Ian Smith? Did they confront the mighty Rhodesian force to come and kneel before a woman of whom it is an insult to one’s mother to salute with the appellation of “Amai”? Surely, whose mother is Grace? Russell, Bona, Robert and Chatunga oh yes. But Jonathan and Saviour what did your mothers do against you for you to even print T-Shirts labelled “Munhu wose kunaAmai” meaning Grace?

As for Zhuwawo he has personal reasons for doing that. For him it’s “Munhu wese kunaAmbuya”. And why not, when they want the presidency of the country kept in their family? But Zimbabwe does not belong to one family. It belongs to us all, including those that died and those that got maimed fighting for it. It was never their dream that Zimbabwe would have its seal handed over down family lines like a monarch. It was about one-man-one-vote and the people openly choosing their leadership.

Oh by the way, people that have taken the oath of Vice President cannot be junior to one who has taken the vow of being a good wife. The oath of the Vice President is constitutional. That of being a good wife is not. The vice presidency is a product of the constitution. That of being the wife of a president is based on lust and in this particular case maybe was based on a search for something else. So here is a nation letting an underachiever being sold to them as a potential president. Yes, underachiever because her biggest achievement seems to be that of seducing an old man desperate to give his mother a brood. Now the breeder is becoming a president! Nobody surely saw this coming.

And all the nation can do is lament on social media. A whole 14 million people are being turned into a part of a Mugabe INC. Or is it that Zimbabwe is now part of Gushungo Holdings? Everyone who lost a relative in the war, where is your anger? Where is your sense of moral justice? For how can you let those loved ones die in vain? Or is it that your hatred of Mnangagwa is more than your love for your country. So one would rather have the country burn than have Mnangagwa take over power?

Zimbabweans can’t hold their heads high when they meet other citizens from neighbouring countries where we are based now. For we are now called vakadzi vaMugabe or Mugabe’s bitches. Even those Generals who pretend to be man of steel are all part of Mugabe’s bitches. For how in heaven’s name would they see Grace as their Commander-in-Chief? And even salute her? Your wives can do so much better. This, because the people endure and tolerate a lot because they are scared of you men with guns. And the same men with guns are made bitches by a 92-year-old man and have to play poodle to his former concubine or is it Small House in today’s language.

And all those top civil servants, one of whom is George Charamba, did they grow up in an orphanage yearning for motherly love that they would call anything with a pair on her/its chest their mother? Why can’t anyone see that it’s time for a curtain call on this joke, for we are not laughing anymore?

Ishmael Magodo is a political analyst.