“There
are several reasons why Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe fired his
Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa on 6 November. Many were likely to do with
ZANU-PF infighting over who will eventually succeed the 93-year-old leader. But
one external factor that contributed to Mugabe’s decision was Mnangagwa’s
relationship with the UK,” wrote Blessing Miles Tendi, Zimeye Opinion.
Tendi
is a known Robert Mugabe apologist and it shows. Mugabe has always sort
scapegoats for all his failures and fcuk ups and blaming the British has been
the norm. His apologist is going too far this time in blaming the
British.
Mnangagwa was a marked man from the day he was appointed VP back in 2014. Grace Mugabe played a pivotal role in getting Joice Mujuru booted out of the party because Mujuru was set to be elected VP. Grace made it clear she wanted to be president and it was clear a popularly elected Mujuru would have killed Grace’s chance of ever becoming VP and then President.
Mnangagwa was a marked man from the day he was appointed VP back in 2014. Grace Mugabe played a pivotal role in getting Joice Mujuru booted out of the party because Mujuru was set to be elected VP. Grace made it clear she wanted to be president and it was clear a popularly elected Mujuru would have killed Grace’s chance of ever becoming VP and then President.
No
sooner was Mujuru out of the door and Mnangagwa the appointed VP; that Grace
set-off on a new war-footing and Mnangagwa was her target. She has finally
succeeded managed to get him booted out.
“Since
2000, President Mugabe’s most important international struggle has been against
what he regards as British-led attempts at regime change in Zimbabwe. London
has repeatedly demonised Mugabe for the violent seizure of
white-owned commercial farms and human rights violations, while Mugabe has
consistently hit back against the “imperialists”. There may be signs of this
relationship thawing, but in many ways, the past two decades of the president’s
political career have been defined by his fight with the UK,” Tendi argued.
“This made Ambassador Laing’s
perceived backing of Mnangagwa profoundly problematic.
“Ambassador Laing made a fatal mistake by openly siding with the subordinate of a president who is extremely sensitive to perceived colonial intrusion. Moreover, the UK’s support for Mnangagwa – a serial human rights violator – alienated domestic constituencies that seek to uphold the sanctity of human rights. In making its next calculations, a deeper understanding of Zimbabwean history and of the UK’s past role in it would go a long way towards alleviating London’s ongoing problems with Harare.”
Of
all the excuses proffered as to why Mnangagwa was booted out, this is certainly
one of the most feeble. Mnangagwa is certainly “a serial human rights violator”
but his blame-worthy can never exceed that of the man who presided over and
benefited the most from all these human rights violations – Robert Mugabe.
Many
people know by now that Robert Mugabe’s instinctive knee-jerk reaction to many
situations is to blame the whites, particularly the British, regardless how
far-fetched the connection may be. This is born out of his deep-seated
inferiority complex he, as a black person, feels towards whites. His irrational
reaction of blaming the whites for everything and anything, like many
irrational acts, has often boomeranged back on him. Close scrutiny has often showed
there was no good cause for blaming the whites he ended with a lot of egg on
his face and thus reinforce his intellectual inferiority.
In
this case, are we to understand that Mugabe has dismissing his VP, nearly half
his cabinet, a number of MPs, hundreds of senior party members, many civil
servants, etc., etc. because the British Ambassador “openly sided with
Mnangagwa” - whatever that means? And, just to underline how much he fears the
British, does not have the guts to express his anger at the British for interfering
in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs much less have the Ambassador deported. If there
was any truth in all this; then President Mugabe is even more paranoid than I
ever imagined!
No! A
more rational explanation is that Mnangagwa was booted out of the government
and party because he, like Joice Mujuru before him, was in poll position to
succeed Mugabe – a very dangerous position to be in when there is a ruthless
shrew, Grace Mugabe, eyeing the same position.
@ Moyo Osama
ReplyDeleteI agree, there is total chaos in Zimbabwe today and fleeing the country has been a logical option and many have taken the high road. Still, there are millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who have remained behind for whatever reasons. The challenge here has never been so much to take flight and run away from the consequences of the misrule by the corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrants who have usurped the people’s democratic freedoms and human rights but rather how to wrestle the tyrants and restore the people’s freedoms and rights.
Whatever else Mugabe and his thugs may claim to be, they are, above all else, mere mortals and not the infallible demi-gods they pretend to be. And, in my books, there is nothing a mortal can do that cannot be undone by another mortal like you and me. There is no prison made by man that another mortal cannot break out of, given time.
After 37 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule, there is no doubt that we have had innumerable opportunities to end the dictatorship. If we are serious about ending the chaos in Zimbabwe which has now reached the nauseating heights of 90% unemployment rate, on the economic front, and, on the political front, the ruling party is imploding a VP, half cabinet and several MPs, civil servants, etc. are firing every three years. Meanwhile there is so much confusion in the opposition camp because there are corrupt and incompetent politicians who have no clue what they are doing – never did.
If we are ever going to get out of this political and economic mess Zimbabwe is in, then we, the people have to wise up and take the duty of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands.
Ultimately, people always get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, certainly deserve Mugabe and his gang of corrupt and murderous thugs complete with the entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians. It is up to us to ensure we have a good government or to sink even deeper into the abyss; so far we have elected to sink!
@ Ngqabutho Mabhena
ReplyDelete"Yoweri Museveni was a government Minister under the Milton Obote administration. As Minister, Yoweri Museveni raided a police station with his bodyguards , took fire arms that were in that police station and started his Resistance Movement , which he led for 5 years up to 1986. Yoweri Museveni never fled to Tanzania but organised his military campaign inside Uganda,” you say.
Yeah, right! And look what happened to Uganda, the country got rid of one tyrant only to get another in the name of Yoweri Museveni!
In Zimbabwe we waged the armed struggle to end white colonial rule only to get these corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF thugs. Now you want Mnangagwa to start a third Chimurenga to force his erstwhile Zanu PF thugs out of office so he can reconstitute another dictatorship! You have learned nothing and, sadly, think yourself the wisest of the wise and so do not listen.
If Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC banded mongoose had listened to SADC leaders’ advice and implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU; Mugabe and his band of murderous thugs would be history! We can still force the implementation of the reforms if we can get the idiotic banded mongooses to stop contesting flawed elections.
“As Cde Che said ” I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people shall liberate themselves.” You quote.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara must be turning in his grave to hear his wise words repeated by people with no common sense. If he was alive he would be the first one to reprimand you. “There is something fundamentally wrong here! How many times are the people of Zimbabwe going to liberate themselves with another armed struggle?”
We war we should have fought back during the colonial days and should have fought after independence and we need to fight right now is the intellectual war, the war to free people to think for themselves. We won the AK47 war against Smith but lost the intellectual war and so ended up with corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants, with no more wit that a circus monkey, but because they carried the AK47, thought themselves infallible demi-gods.
The number one lesson we should have learned from the tragic events of the last 37 years is that we do NOT need another armed struggle and start the whole foolish cycle all over again!
“Museveni never played Mnangagwa, nonsense!” Stupidity is a river in flood, it knows no bounds!
“That Zimbabwe’s clergy have called for peace and tolerance as the country heads towards the 2018 harmonised elections and the proposed formation of a platform for dialogue between the Church and political parties to ease tensions is enlightening at this stage.”
ReplyDeleteThis becoming part and parcel of our election calender, civic leaders, especially church leaders going to State House to call for peaceful elections and a photo opportunity to have their photo taken with President Mugabe to be splashed in all the church notice boards and newsletters. On the ground nothing changes; the elections are only as peaceful as the nation allows Zanu PF to rig the vote.
If the villagers dutifully frogmarch and attend Zanu PF rallies and then vote for the party there will be peace in the country side. As long as urban voters dutifully accept the reality of being denied a meaningful vote and stay off the streets and avoid Zanu PF thugs who have to flex their political muscles to earn the piece of land to build their house and other favours granted by the party, then will be peace. Cross any of these lines, then Mugabe cannot be held responsible for the punishment that must be meted out.
“What was achieved by the bullet, cannot be undone by the ballot!” Mugabe said this at the height of the worst case of political violence in 2008. He does not need to repeat himself, those with a poor memory and so need reminding are being reminded.
Meanwhile, he will play his part in the call for peaceful elections and grant the church leaders the opportunity to message their egos!
Frankly I do not think Zimbabwe will ever end this culture of vote rigging and political violence as long as we have busy bodies who will go along with Mugabe, who has bluntly refused to implementation the democratic reforms, and pretend the regular calls for peaceful elections will suffice! These busy bodies are the ones sell-out the common people who do not know what the reforms are about and have come to accept being denied their freedoms and human rights as the norm!
“SOMETHING is definitely not right at Air Zimbabwe Corporation. At independence in April 1980, Air Zimbabwe, formed from the ashes of Air Rhodesia, inherited no less than 14 fairly new aircraft,” wrote MDC spokesman Obert Gutu.
ReplyDeleteWell, well! I am impressed. Now I do believe that MDC is indeed “the party of excellence!” as that moron Nelson Chamisa never seem to tire of telling us.
Zimbabwe is in a real mess, unemployment has soar to dizzying heights of 90% and industries and parastatals like Air Zimbabwe have all but closed shop and it is therefore shocking that someone like Obert Gutu should be noticing this sorry state of affairs only now!
These MDC banded mongooses were elected on a ticket to bring about meaningful democratic change which is the pre-requisite for meaningful economic recovery. MDC had their best chance to deliver the changes by implementing democratic reforms during the GNU. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years because Mugabe bribed the banded mongooses with the trappings of high office, ministerial limos, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. and they kicked the democratic reforms into the prickly pear thicket.
It is sickening to hear these MDC idiots talking about how bad Zimbabwe’s economic situation is when they are the ones who wasted the golden opportunities to put things right. Worse still, the banded mongoose are making all these noises because they want people to vote them back into power, they will never change anything because they are corrupt and incompetent!
Zimbabwe is not in this political and economic hell-hole by accident this is a result of 37 years of blundering from pillar to post, repeating the same mistakes over and over again and still we refuse to learn from our past mistakes.
ReplyDeleteRunaida, Mnangagwa, Tsvangirai, Biti, Mugabe, all these leaders have proven again and again that they are corrupt, incompetent and worse, murderous tyrants and yet even after 37 years of misrule and the country up to her eyes balls in s***t we still want to recycle the same deadwood.
Zimbabwe is an independent country and, per se, we are the masters of our own destiny. Others can advise us but, at the end of the day, it is up to us to take that advice or not. SADC leaders have advised us, for example, to implement the democratic reforms designed to end the Mugabe dictatorship and a pre-requisite to meaningful economic recovery. We refused to listen and failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU.
SADC leaders have also advised that we should not contest the flawed elections, not until we have implemented the reforms, but again we are refusing to listen. Of course, it is insane to keep contesting flawed elections knowing fully well Zanu PF will rig the vote but hoping against reason that the regime will rig the vote and, somehow, lose the election!
We are masters of our own destiny, and right now that destination has been this hell-hole! And here we will stay until we learn from our past mistakes, until we learn to think for ourselves!
The way President Mugabe has complained about the British these last 37 years one would be forgiven to think Zimbabwe is still a British colony subject to every malicious whim of the British government! For all his bravado and silver back chest drumming about how Zimbabwe does not need the British, Mugabe has also done the crying for all of Africa on how much the continent has suffered under the colonial yoke!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mugabe has a split personality, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Story goes that at his first cabinet meeting in 1980, Mugabe turned up immaculately dressed down to ironed stockings - they were new and still he ironed them to remove some invisible crisp - , he was more English than the English, and ordered everyone to do the same. All his life he been obsessed about appearance and lost sight of substance.
When the late Nathan Shamuyarira died he ordered the potholes in the road to his house repaired and his house painted the afternoon of his death. Mrs Shamuyarira could not be at his deathbed because she could not afford the bus fare five kilometres or so from their house. Mugabe must have known the couple was living in abject poverty, a situation affecting millions of other Zimbabweans. Mugabe's cold-hearted indifference to other people's suffering was as distinct as his designer suits model appearance.
Mugabe's appearance was the Dr Jekyll and his ruthless indifference to other people's suffering and even death was the evil Mr Hyde.
When President Mugabe hosted the Commonwealth Heads Summit in the 1990s his Mr Hyde personality came to the fore; he ordered all prostitutes to be rounded up and dumped in farms far away from the city. This has been a recurring theme, he demolished the houses of 700 000 poor people in operation Murambatsvina and recently he ordered all street vendors to be removed from the street.
Mugabe expects everyone to dress in designer suits, shoes, socks, etc. like him what he has failed to appreciate is that his wholesale looting that has enable his and those close to him to live in such opulence and luxury has impoverish the nation so much so 72.3% are living on US$1.00 or less a day.
President Mugabe desperately wants the whole world to view him as liberation war hero who ended white colonial rule and brought freedom and economic prosperity to his people. The reality on the ground tells a different story of a corrupt and murderous tyrant who has destroyed the country's once promising economy and has ruthless denied his people their freedoms and rights to extend his rule.
Mugabe is nothing but a corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant trying desperately to portray himself as a great statesman, great orator - man loves to hear his own voice - and great Pan Africanist. His track record shows he is a tyrant and all he has to justify his claim to be a great statesman is "Look at my Armani suit, Gucci shoes, frequent Singapore health check @ US$ 3m, etc., etc.!" The Mr Hyde in him will never understand that his extravagant lifestyle in the midst of such grinding poverty only proves not only that a heartless brute but one with the intellect of newt!