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Mugabe: a legacy of unfulfilled dreams
By Roben
Mutwira - co-author of People Making History
I READ exiled
author Chenjerai Hove's interview with Charles Cobb Jr at Brown University
in the United States.
I agree with him but I think people may need to know why Robert Mugabe has not been able to free himself from this captivity although he appeared to have absolute power for the past 28 years.
I would like to highlight some background factors which have been avoided by our scholars and yet if fully discussed could provide the answer to the Zimbabwean dilemma.
First, Robert Mugabe may have contributed to the idea of the formation of liberation forces in the 1960s or may even have helped raise funds for them but he was NOT CENTRAL to the formation and operations of both ZANLA and ZIPRA liberation armies in the 1970s.
He was brought to the centre and the leadership of ZANLA in 1978 only on very specific terms and these terms are the source of the problems of Zimbabwe today. Robert Mugabe was released by the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith from detention because he had accepted the British and Rhodesia Front argument that both ZANLA and ZIPRA would not win the liberation war definitively and that if they managed to win it, the economy would have been very seriously run down and that they would not manage to create a stable government.
A section of the ZANLA forces argued that Robert Mugabe had brought a sell-out deal and an attempt to undermine the liberation gain so far made by attempting to divide the party. That was the reason why Robert Mugabe was initially taken for an agent of the Rhodesians and was imprisoned at Inhambane in Mozambique when he arrived from Southern Rhodesia.
Secondly, Robert Mugabe was not the president of either ZANU or ZAPU when he was released by Ian Smith from detention. He was only Secretary General of ZANU, which was not one of the highest offices in the party. The president of ZANU was Ndabaningi Sithole and that of ZAPU was Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo. There were vice-presidents and treasurers before we got to the position of secretary general, but these were left in detention and Robert Mugabe released. Some ZANLA forces asked WHY?
Robert Mugabe took to Mozambique several compromise packages, some of which are: (a) Proposed change of ZANU party leadership. (b) Changes of some of the ZANLA High Command leadership and structures. (c) Unification of ZANLA and ZIPRA armies and ZAPU and ZANU parties and (d) a compromise of the aims and objectives of the liberation war.
There were others but these four were the critical ones. After lengthy arguments mainstream ZANLA High Command accepted Robert Mugabe on condition that he would give them meaningful political offices in independent Zimbabwe; he would transform them from soldiers to politicians; he would sort out the rivalry between ZANLA and ZIPRA which had often undermined the struggle; and he would give meaningful economic power to the ZANLA High Command.
Changes to the ZANU leadership: Several top leaders of ZANLA refused to accept Robert Mugabe as a compromise leader of ZANU. Their main argument was that according to the ZANU constitution, office bearers were elected under specific constitutional procedures which were not possible at that time. They questioned the manner Mugabe had been released and the long term result of accepting his leadership under unconstitutional conditions.
These leaders were rounded up asked to accept the decision of the majority and when they refused, they were kicked out of the ZANLA High Command, kicked out of ZANU and they were denied all the benefits of their contribution to the liberation struggle. They were ill-treated; they were imprisoned; and they were left in detention and prisons in Mozambique when the rest of the liberation forces moved into assembly points in Rhodesia.
They were later allowed into the country under some pardon arrangement worked out with the help of the British. But their fate was never fully explained to the public. Some of them joined ZANU Ndonga under Ndabaningi Sithole. Mugabe systematically destroyed Sithole and liberation war persons that chose to openly support him. Although driven underground, these liberation fighters are still there, unrecognised and unrewarded.
But even those that chose to support him were not fully rewarded. One main bone of contention is that Mugabe failed to transform the ZANLA High Command into politicians. Although many of them managed to amass lots wealth, he did not make them ministers thereby turning them from soldiers into natural and permanent rulers! They do not want him to leave before he has fulfilled that promise!
Unification of ZANLA/ZIPRA and ZANU/ZAPU: The other promise was to unify ZANLA/ZIPRA. But instead of creating a united army, Mugabe thought it better to destroy ZIPRA opposition in the manner he had done to ZANLA opponents in Mozambique. The result was the massacre of ZIPRA liberation cadres as well as tens of thousands of the Ndebele people at places like Entumbane. The whole of the sad Gukurahundi saga was a unification excise using the wrong methods. The ZANLA High Command members that got involved in this are known to ex-ZIPRA forces and the public. They now know that if Robert Mugabe goes they may be asked to answer for their actions and may be punished for it.
The land question: One of the main objectives of liberation struggle was to take over land held by whites. This objective was compromised at Lancaster House when the ZANLA forces agreed that they would allow the whites to move off the land orderly and that the whites would be compensated from a lump some paid by the British government. But the compensation exercise did not go according to plan and the white farmers remained on the land.
Mugabe began to get pressure from the ZANLA High Command at the end of the 10 year transition period. He answered through the creation of the War Veterans Association. Initially, the Association was supposed to scare whites off the land but the white sought the protection of Mugabe who was divided between pleasing the ZANLA forces and running a sound economy. When Mugabe began to take the side of his army, the farmers ran to the British government and then the problem deteriorated into sanctions against Zimbabwe ministers and ZANLA High Command. Subsequently, the land issue became chaotic. Now if Mugabe goes, the chances are the ZANLA High Command will have much of the land they have grabbed taken away from them. So they do not want Robert Mugabe to go until he has solved the land issue.
The New War Veterans Association: Mugabe is now in a prison! When he originally started the land grab, he was trying to please the ZANLA High Command. But they were not satisfied. Then he went for the industries, but by then most of the industries had virtually collapsed anyway. Mugabe began to openly go against the Lancaster House agreement in order to please his soldiers. The soldiers knew of his weakness and demanded more. He got some top army commanders and ministers involved in unclear diamond and gold mining deals but it only helped widen the gap between the rich few and the majority of the ZANLA forces.
Mugabe then decided to resist that pressure by looking for support from the Zimbabwean people. Zimbabweans were surprised when told they could take any white owned farm and register it as their own. There followed a stampede for white owned farms. People attacked, killed, and drove off white farmers and grabbed vehicles, household goods and livestock.
They burned down properties and removed fences. Before long, there was nothing else to grab. Agricultural success was replaced by mass starvation. Instead of reducing pressure on himself, Mugabe found that he had in fact increased it. Then he ordered the reduction in the prices of commodities and once again people rushed to white-owned industries and grabbed what they could until the industries had nothing left.
Mugabe's plan was to tell the ZANLA High Command that there was no more land and industries. These now belonged to the people. The problem was that it was not true. Most ordinary people do not own land and industries in Zimbabwe. Most land is now owned by Mugabe's friends and relatives. ZANLA High Command want a redistribution of this land and they do not want Mugabe to leave before he has redistributed land amassed by his friends and relatives.
Secondly, Mugabe attempted to wriggle out of the ZANLA High Command ropes by turning the War Veteran Association into a violent ruthless movement, and painting the impression that they are part of the army. He is trying to revive the image painted by the Western press in order to make the Zimbabwean public afraid of the ZANLA High Command.
Today, people know that most of those that beat them and burn down their homes are not soldiers, but they are not sure if there was a ZANLA government they will be treated differently. ZANLA High Command want him to popularise ZANLA again, but Mugabe is now too unpopular with the people to achieve that.
The answer to the Zimbabwe crisis is no longer with Mugabe, because both ZANLA and the Zimbabwe people no longer want him. The answer now lies with Morgan Tsvangirai. People bravely voted for him. Why has he gone into hiding and not start running the country? Tsvangirai must invite the ZANLA High Command to a new conference. He must create out of them soldiers that can salute him. He has no army. He needs to create a true army not half soldiers and half politicians. There is no more a role for Mugabe in the Zimbabwean nation now.
Roben Mutwira
is co-author of the history textbook, People Making History. He is also
a former university lecturer now running a cleaning company in Bradford,
England
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