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Kembo Mohadi made fool of himself
By
Mary
Revesai
THE brutish performance of Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister, Kembo Mohadi,
during an interview with SW Radio Africa's Violet Gonda last week (read)
shows that Zimbabwe has degenerated from being a one-party into a one-man
state!
Everyone in government, it seems, has to parrot what is dictated by Robert Mugabe.
Mohadi's menacing and unreasonable responses when he was asked about the battering of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and others about three weeks ago proved, if any proof was still needed, that it is not only the media and the rest of society that are being denied freedom of thought and expression.
Mohadi's aggressive and diabolical utterances showed
that even Cabinet
ministers are not free to speak their minds. They must at all times
be their
master's voice and either repeat his paranoid mantras or express ridiculous
views so as to ingratiate themselves to the Dear Leader.
Zimbabweans from all walks of life must have cringed in embarrassment and incredulity at Mohadi's on-air conduct. He made a fool of himself by persistently denying that opposition leaders and activists were battered by security agents last month despite the fact that images of their swollen faces and battered bodies have been seen on television screens and newspaper front pages all over the world, including Zimbabwe. Despite this, Mohadi repeatedly and rudely interrupted Gonda to dismiss her questions and challenge her to "come to Zimbabwe now" to see for herself that nothing of the sort had happened.
This display of false bravado was particularly jarring because it also exposed the rampancy of a culture of impunity and ignorance among government officials on how they should deal with the press. In most countries, even in the developing world, government officials acknowledge the right of the press in discharging its role as watchdog for the public interest, to ask questions. The least ministers can do, even if they are unwilling to divulge any information is to deal with journalists in a civil manner. Mohadi could have evaded Gonda's questions in a more circumspect manner without giving way to bombast and vehemence as he did. It is worrying to realise that this is the calibre of ministers Mugabe has flooded his bloated cabinet with.
Mohadi's raging-bull antics in his bid to deny something that the whole world knows to have happened was the more puzzling considering that Mugabe himself has made no attempt to deny that state agents tortured Tsvangirai and the others.
On his return from the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC)
extraordinary summit in Dar es Salaam, Mugabe boasted about having silenced
his peers by telling them that the police had indeed battered opposition
activists. Could it be that after his regime's brutality had been roundly
condemned, including apparently, by SADC itself, Mugabe now needs some
attack dogs to eat his words for him?
More importantly, is it a coincidence that Mohadi and
another figure from
Matabeleland, Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu appear
to have been chosen to disgrace themselves on behalf of the regime?
It is noteworthy that Ndlovu, who was known to be critical of the belligerent
style of Jonathan Moyo when he served as chief government propagandist,
has nevertheless now embraced all the professor's tactics. What is going
on there? Should the nation get ready to hear Ndlovu and Mohadi vigorously
asserting that the Matabeleland massacres perpetrated by the Fifth Brigade
never happened too?
Mugabe's paranoia, which is characterised by denial, self-aggrandisement and an obsession for blaming and impugning everyone's motives, is well known. Kembo Mohadi's conduct gives the public an idea of the kind of pressure those associated with the regime are under to echo the old man's mantras regardless of how ridiculous and outlsndish they may be. What is frightening when top government ministers shamelessly deny self-evident and objective realities, is the thought of what other horrors they are required to conceal.
Mohadi's antics are particularly disturbing because they show to what extent Mugabe has emasculated even those in his government. Mohadi presides over a ministerial portfolio that is supposed to ensure the protection, safety and security of all Zimbabweans. He is employed in that capacity at taxpayers' expense to oversee the operations of the police force. His aggressive and dismissive attitude when asked by the press about issues of legitimate public concern gives an indication of how much the regime has to hide. Mohadi now apparently believes that the truth can be altered by decree.
Mohadi adopted his menacing demeanour during the interview to avoid being asked about the real perpetrators of the recent spate of bombings of police stations. He cannot be unaware of the widespread scepticism among Zimbabwean about the over-dramatised attempts by the government to implicate the MDC in these stage-managed incidents.
If the government has nothing to hide, Mohadi would have taken advantage of the SW Radio interview to clear the air on recent abuses the police have been accused of, including the arrest and abduction of journalists. By resorting to hyperbole, he failed to allay widespread fears among the population that Zimbabwe is now a full-fledged police state where no one is safe.
As it turned out,
his aggressive conduct confirmed the public perception that police brutality
has become the rule rather than the exception under his
stewardship.
Mary Revesai is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist and writes from Harare. Her column will appear here every Tuesday
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