Mugabe is our albatross

via Mugabe is our albatross The Zimbabwean 14 October 2014 by Tawanda Majoni

President Robert Mugabe is the biggest albatross around our necks today. Even those who say they want him to stay really want him to go. They just don’t think now is the time for him to leave. They are working 24/7 to use him to feather their nests financially and to advance their power battle.

They want to mine capital out of the chaos that will accompany Mugabe’s sudden departure. They know that the longer he stays, the worse the strife and the greater their chances of wresting the reins of power and protecting their ill-gotten largesse. They owe their survival to the crises that have been hitting Zimbabwe for a long time now.

No prize for guessing who they are, of course. These are the hawkish personalities who have prominently premiered in election rigging, political violence and murder most foul, plundering of our minerals and other resources as well grand theft of every imaginable sort – and some unimaginable.

They are lurking in dark alleys and will rush to execute a coup if Mugabe were to die suddenly or become incapacitated. They would do it smartly, of course, because they know that SADC and the world would not tolerate a coup. One such smart way would be to simply impose Grace Mugabe on us and then worm her through to a “legitimate” election. You know who is holding Grace’s tail, don’t you? Outside these and a hapless collection of goons overfed with Mugabe propaganda, the majority of Zimbabweans want him out yesterday.

Contrary to the oft-repeated lie, Mugabe is not a champion of the empowerment of the majority. If he ever was, that was just into the first few months of independence achieved in 1980. The Gukurahundi crackdown within the first decade of independence hardly looks like a policy that sought to empower the majority. Instead, it was a strategy to annihilate an ethnic minority to safeguard the interests of a small ruling elite, period.

The land “reform” programme that started in 2000, and still looks a thousand light years from completion, was never done with the people at heart. It was an instrument to preserve Mugabe’s power in the wake of a political typhoon that came with the formation of the MDC in late 1999. If the programme was designed to empower thousands of landless black Zimbabweans, how come all the prime land went to the haves while the have-nots were relegated to jostling for the crumbs?

Again, if the indigenisation policy was supposed to benefit the millions of poor citizens, how come no gains have trickled to them yet? How were they going to benefit from the grabbing of majority shareholding from mines and other foreign-owned concerns? And who has benefited from the much-hyped community share ownership trusts?

The point is, Mugabe’s populist policies and strategies over the years have not brought any benefits to the masses. They were never meant to. Yet, there is this tall fable that Mugabe is our hero. I would rather vote for Robin Hood and his Merry Men because they robbed in order to help the poor. Mugabe has been robbing without giving to the poor, but only to himself and his hangers-on.

What makes his actions even more evil is the fact that by selling the façade of championing the cause of the poor majority, he has been making it worse for us. An untidy and unplanned land redistribution programme has closed down industry and destroyed our international reputation. Who needs a leader like that?

Mugabe is guilty of another big lie. He has always justified his lengthy and fiercely unwelcome stay in power on the basis of being endorsed by the people. Which people? Why would Zimbabweans endorse a leader whose governance style has taken us back more than half a century backward? How have they been endorsing him? By voting and having their ballots manipulated, of course. That makes Mugabe a grand thief.

It fact, the reason why Mugabe has held onto power for so long is only so that he can protect his own interests. That’s why, as an afterthought, he has agreed to cap his wife who clearly obtained a fraudulent doctorate. That’s why he now wants Grace to succeed him. That’s why he has dumped Joice Mujuru despite promising her the throne in 2004 – because he suspects she is overly willing to embrace those that he labelled enemies.

I am shocked at the big myth that has been woven around Mugabe as a saviour when, in reality, he is our biggest curse. He is the deadly tokoloshi that is killing us. It’s just that the myth has been repeated too often. – To comment on this article, please contact majonitt@gmail.com