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Mugabe geared for life presidency
By
Phillan Zamchiya
THE tragedy
of Zimbabwe's opposition politics has been a major shift towards speculation
around Robert Mugabe’s stepping down from the helm.
There have been consistent calls for Bob to hand over power to a transitional government and some going as far as suggesting that the man should call for fresh national elections.
This is just child game play and it’s no end game yet. Child game rhetoric that Mugabe will be resigning tomorrow, pave way for succession today and facilitate a transitional government yesterday should not be allowed to play any more roles on the political chessboard of Zimbabwe. These dream speculations only have short term benefits in arousing the masses but in the long run they only serve to disillusion the nation and create a long dry spell of frustration as we experience now.
In one of my articles last year I wrote “… people should not dream of change overnight and understand that it will be long and painful.”
It’s not a question of making some vague generalization about the Mugabe individuality on a form of popular identity but a matter of observing carefully everyday political facts in their variegated manifestations. We run the risk of permanently misreading political events and consequentially misleading the nation.
For us to be able to formulate strategies that will dislodge this dictator we must be able to accept the harsh reality that uncle Bob is not up to pass the button to anyone, even in the grave, if he could turn, I bet he would hide the baton stick under his coffin.
Some among us are guilty of raising false hope, but the frustration of failing to meet our own political programme deadlines eventually results in cannibalism, a situation whereby we begin to send one another to harm each other and lose focus. The danger with keeping carnivorous animals is that the moment they finish alternative prey, they simply turn on the owner as the Last Supper.
Robert Mugabe is not prepared to let go his illegitimate political power and the more we understand that and sharpen all our arrows towards him the better. Bob has only been playing political games with the people of Zimbabwe so that they lose focus and concentrate on the far fetched exit of his own creation. He has now and again managed to fool Zimbabweans to engage on child game issues of his succession, resignation and transitional government .The illegitimate leader has only managed to subvert some of our bullets towards imagined ends to his rule. This really makes him comfortable when people spend energies on State House stage-managed scenarios. To deal with this man, we should ensure that every player sharpens and aims his bullet at him and his surrogates.
The use of force by the regime to silence any opposition from either within or without is a sure cause that Mugabe is sharpening himself to be the Life President of Zimbabwe. His power has been both overt, since he can commit the army and the police and overt since he can unleash unseen militias to enforce his compliance with his imagined life rule. To send his clear message that he intends to be the Ngwazi of Zimbabwe, he has ritualized violence. Why has he thought it necessary to indulge in acts of degrading brutishness such as the mutilation of civilians when he perceives that one day he will be a normal civilian after office? That can only be done by someone who intends to rule forever and be guaranteed of immunity.
From as early as October 1980 Mugabe signed an agreement with the North Korean Leader President Kim 11 Sung, to train a brigade that would serve to defend his interests of being Life President of Zimbabwe. After ZAPU managed to get 15 % of the votes in the 1985 elections Mugabe could not even be content with 77% of electoral votes and saw the opposition votes as a threat. This is the man people expect to resign, adhere to a transitional government and even call for fresh elections in the current scenario.
Even with more electoral votes Mugabe unleashed Gukurahundi which left untold sufferings and deaths of more than 20 000 civilians mainly in Matabeleland simply because they had a twinkle of hope that Joshua Nkomo could also play a constructive role in a New Zimbabwe. The Gukurahundi massacres still haunt Mugabe and as such he is not prepared to let go his power since he knows how grave the matter will be under the International Court of Justice. It will be naive to think that Bob will allow anyone to give him impunity over that madness and will definitely want to hang on for life despite all the deceit he has shown in public.
This Machiavellian art did not end with Gukurahundi, in recent months it manifested itself in Operation Murambatsvina whereby Mugabe employed the army, CIO and police to wipe out potential centers of resistance to his rule, targeting mainly MDC supporters: this was when MDC was still MDC.
A Zanu PF friend, Baffour Ankomah, in an article published in the Herald, confirmed that the satanic operation was meant to counter a potential Ukrainian-style revolution by demobilizing centers of resistance. Whoever thinks that Mugabe in the twilight zone of his life would commit such daylight atrocities with in mind prospects of retiring is fooling his followers. These are acts only committed by a person disillusioning in life impunity.
It is Mugabe’s game plan to deceive us into hallucinating about his imagined departure. Even in March 2002 before the Presidential election the CIO run paper, the Financial Gazette had the audacity to publish speculations from unidentified sources that the then 77-year-old Bob was suffering from fits that made him collapse several times. A perception of a weak enemy can lead into premature celebrations and thus divert the masses from persistent forceful bulleting of the enemy. This becomes more devastating when the leadership endorses such rhetoric and creates false hope. That kind of hope is like dew once its dawn it melts away.
This issue of succession that some of the leaders have chosen to spend their energies on is a charade. The Insider in 2003, reporting on the International Crisis Group, centered extensively on the two camps within Zanu PF preparing to take over from Mugabe. By then it was speculated that there were two groups, the Mnangagwa-Zvinavashe group and the Mujuru –Sekeramayi group. The Mujuru group was said to be backing Simba Makoni for Presidency and the other Mnangagwa.
If Mugabe was serious about leaving power at a certain time whilst he is still living, he could have simply propelled the Mujuru camp with its preferred candidate then of Simba Makoni, but to him Simba would pause a threat to his rule on assuming the deputy role just the same as Mnangagwa thus he decided to abuse poor Joyce Mujuru. Mugabe managed to keep the opposition anxious over nothing as he continued to juggle three balls with one hand. To Robert Mugabe the Presidency begins and ends with Robert Mugabe.
He even scoffed at reported maneuvers between the two Zanu PF camps and the MDC to facilitate a post Mugabe era as anti-revolutionary and disrespectful. Up to this day nothing has changed and he still regards suggestions of his exit as such.
Another unfortunate thing is that most of his referred to overtures towards resignation have been quoted out of Zimbabwe. Mugabe is still to clearly articulate his retirement plans on Zimbabwean soil. On 22 April, 2005, he was quoted by the Indonesia Jakarta newspaper saying , “ I have said it before that when my term ends I will retire.” The Guardian also reported such overtures in September 2005 that Mugabe had alluded to the fact that he “ will want some rest” after his term in 2008. This gives a picture to activists that the struggle is coming to an end which in reality is child game play as the struggle is just about to begin with Mugabe extending his stranglehold on power.
Predictions about Mugabe’s demise have proved immature .Mugabe in his own words has constantly reminded the people that he is there to stay. After the June Parliamentary elections Mugabe had this to say on home soil, “I still have quite a lot of vigour in spite of all the deaths I have suffered. Please I am no ghost; I am the real Robert Mugabe.”
At least by then, Mugabe could still acknowledge that he was human. Recently, he has transformed to a super being at his own confession, commenting on recent speculations of his health this August he said, “Tell them I am dead. I am now a ghost that has come back!” This is no joke because it simply portrays Bob as someone who is even prepared to exercise his influence over Zimbabwe after his death. Reading in between the lines there is no doubt the old man sees himself as King today, tomorrow and after death and that’s the tragedy we must locate ourselves in.
Mugabe sees himself as a teenager. Responding to a question on his health on February 20, 2006, he boasted, “The other day they said in Singapore my bones were not exactly of a boy of 26, but they said certainly of someone 30.” He even went further to say that he felt like a “28 year old”.
This does not portray a picture of anyone planning to retire and let another generation take over. Mugabe is so obsessed of staying in power that he is ready to attack even his counterparts in the region who were calling for him to step down. He told them recently: “We have entertained them because we did not want to offend. Some of them are our friends but really, they have nothing to intervene here about, nothing at all.”
Even those in Zanu PF who have been taking comfort in the anticipation that the old man is serving his last term must now see reality and brace to join the people against this man. Witness how in February 2006, he said "the people" would decide if he has to go. We know from Lovemore Madhuku of the NCA that "the people" don't quite hold opinions of their own. Mugabe clearly stated that “… one cannot ignore the call of the people because the people are the ones who make the final decision.” To Mugabe the people are Zanu PF surrogates.
There is no need for citizens of Zimbabwe to be fooled by this man anymore as it is now clear that he wishes to stay for life and even come back to haunt us a ghost.
Mugabe‘s close confidantes also confirm that the old man is there to stay forever. Only unnamed officials have been talking about his departure but the real lieutenants have made it clear that the ruler is destined to rule forever. In the Herald of March 23, 2006, Joseph Msika was elaborating that there is nothing unusual or wrong for President Mugabe to rule for life. The likes of Joseph Msika have been consistent in saying that “When President Mugabe is ready to go and rest, he will come to you. If you say no he will continue in office.”
It’s clear that Mugabe will go to Zanu PF sycophants who are so castrated that they can’t tell him to leave. Even when they try, they will be met with guerilla justice. Ask Dzikamai Mavhaire. His Minister of state security Didymus Mutasa has also hinted more often than not on the exit of Mugabe with recent comments like “… Kings are only replaced when they die and Mugabe is our king”. Just recently, in February this year, Mutasa was at it again foolishly suggesting that Mugabe was the Messiah sent by the Almighty God to lead Zimbabwe. Such statements from his patronage systems shed more light on the old man’s insatiable appetite for power.
The Charles Taylor debacle is another ulcer that strengthens Mugabe’s determination to die on the throne. Bob no longer trusts anyone and forget even the hullabaloo about Benjamin Mkapa. The betrayal of Charles Taylor by President Olusegen Obasanjo did not go unnoticed by Mugabe. Obasanjo had given a guarantee of protection to Taylor in persuading him to step down as leader of Liberia but later backtracked and facilitated his arrest. Charles Taylor’s arrest will obviously send shivers down the spine of any dictator.
Even a solution from his close circles will be difficult to swallow. The way Bingu WaMutharika has been hounding Bakili Muluzi in Malawi is a case in point and also just closer to home, Chiluba has been dragged to courts for alleged crimes committed during his reign.
Mugabe is prepared to kill in order to realize his goal of being Life President. In recent comments he has strongly warned those who intend to embark on mass action against his rule saying “…if they are looking for death let them go ahead and follow that route.”
He said opposition leaders should just eat their sadza and relax instead of plotting to unseat him. This past month during heroes’ day commemorations he was more fired up and sanctioned the army to pull the trigger against those who want to challenge his rule. That’s how serious Mugabe is on clinging to power till the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The false ray of hope created by misguided reports on Mugabe encouraging Zanu PF members to discuss his succession should be contextualized. Those who dared to democratically influence the composition of the presidium were humiliated, sacked, demoted, managed, jailed and forgotten. Ask Jonathan Moyo.
False hope created on the prospects of Mugabe’s resignation, prospects of a transitional government, prospects of fresh elections will have long term debilitating effects on the democratic struggle. The people need to understand that the struggle will be long and painful and certainly Zimbabwe will not get change overnight. The masses must never divert their attention on created false hope and aim every arrow and rocket towards Mugabe with a clear understanding that the man has already prepared himself to be Life President.
Zamchiya is a former university student leader and political activist now based in Johannesburg. He can be contacted at: pres1zamchiya@yahoo.com
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