The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mugabe

  • Mugabe under house arrest

    Mugabe under house arrest

    Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe remained in detention last night at his home in Harare, after the military declared on national television that it had temporarily taken control of the country to “target criminals” around the head of state.

    The move by the armed forces appeared to have resolved a bitter battle to succeed the 93-year-old president, which had pitted his former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, against Mugabe’s wife Grace.

    Mnangagwa was reported to have returned to Zimbabwe on Tuesday evening from South Africa, where he fled last week in an apparent attempt to clear Grace Mugabe’s path to power.

    The military takeover came two days after the army chief said he wanted to end turmoil in the ruling Zanu-PF party.

    It is likely to signal the departure from power of the world’s oldest leader within days, weeks or at most months.

    One high-profile opposition leader said there was “a lot of talking going on”, with the army reaching out to them to discuss the formation of a transitional government after Mugabe steps down.

    The official said Mugabe would resign this week and be replaced by Mnangagwa, with opposition leaders taking posts as vice-president and prime minister. There was no independent confirmation of his claim.

    Zimbabwe’s fragmented opposition had not publicly condemned the military move. Nelson Chamisa, the deputy head of the opposition MDC party, called for “peace, constitutionalism, democratisation, the rule of law and the sanctity of human life”.

    Tendai Biti, an opposition leader, called for a “roadmap back to legitimacy”.

    “What is key is that a traditional authority is set up which is inclusive with the opposition and the ruling party … We need a dialogue too with [regional organisations], the African Union and the United Nations. We can’t solve this problem on our own,” Biti said.

    The 75-year-old former intelligence chief had been locked in a battle with first lady Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband as president. In October she publicly denied poisoning him after he fell ill at a rally in August.

    After his sacking, which was seen as an attempt to clear Grace Mugabe’s path to power, Mnangagwa fled to South Africa. He reportedly returned on Tuesday as the military prepared to take over the country, and is firm favourite to become Zimbabwe’s next leader.

    He has strong support within the security establishment and among veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s guerrilla war, when he earned the nickname “the crocodile”.

    Despite his alleged involvement in atrocities in the 1980s, Mnangagwa is the preferred candidate of much of the international community, which sees him as being the most likely to guarantee a stable transition and implement economic reforms

    South Africa sent ministers as envoys on yesterday morning. President, Jacob Zuma said in a statement that he had spoken to Mugabe, who he said had confirmed he was “confined” but “fine”. Zuma called for calm and a transition in line with the Zimbabwean constitution.

    Soldiers have blocked access to parliament, government offices and courts in Harare, the capital, residents said. Access to the president’s official residence was also blocked by troops. But the city appeared calm.

    A military spokesman Maj Gen SB Moyo on state television said Mugabe and his family were “safe and sound and their security is guaranteed”. Troops seized the network’s offices late on Tuesday night.

    Moyo insisted – despite appearances – that a coup had not taken place, adding: “As soon as [the armed forces] are done the situation will come to normalcy.”

  • The fall of Mugabe

    The fall of Mugabe

    The curtains were drawn yesterday on the autocratic rule of Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU examines his ascension to power, revolutionary ideology, achievements and descent into ‘sit-tight’ dictatorship.

    Finally, Robert Gabriel Mugabe is out of power. The strongman is grief-striken. The bravado is over. In the twilight of his life, he has been disgraced out of office.

    He started well as a revolutionary; a freedom fighter with a difference and a popular nationalist. But, the former president of Zimbabwe did not finish the race well. His rule ended on a sad note. Although military coup is no longer in vogue in Africa, the intervention by soldiers, according to commentators, was understandable.

    The coup was even denied by the mutineers. They were in want of a decorative interpretation of their putsch. Yet, there was no widespread uproar. The continent was not enveloped in anxiety. Even, Mugabe’s unrepentant admirers and supporters – the residual class of combatants, who opposed colonialism – were ambivalent. To them, the nonagenarian had outlived his usefulness. Gone are the days when he was a mentor and role model. In popular valuation, history may not be kind to him.

     

    Fear of life outside power

     

    Mugabe had an obsession with power. He relished the pomp of his exalted office. He may have hoped to die in office. Gradually, he was being referred to as a life president. As a czar, the country had become his fortress. He is the lone rich man in a nation-state ravaged by poverty and squalor. His net worth as at June was $10 million. Indeed, Mugabe feared life outside power. He loathed the difficult adjustment to the ordinary man’s lifestyle. He was reluctant to abdicate. Thus, he became an obstacle to legitimate democratic succession in that country. Elections were held to sustain his hold on power. He was a great electoral manipulator. The umpire usually danced to his tunes. Literarily, the electoral commission operated in his bedroom. He was powerful and influential. From his country, he fired salvos at Britain and United States (U.S.) under the guise of sovereignty.

    At 93, Mugabe brooked no opposition. His word was law. He even boasted that, if he would leave power, he must be succeeded by his wife, Grace. However, the reality dawned on him yesterday. He was caged by aggrieved soldiers. In that moment of tribulation, he was isolated for ridicule. Power, no matter how long it is wielded, is transient.

    There is a vacuum in Zimbabwe. The soldiers of fortune lack legitimacy to hold on to power, although their self-imposed war of liberation against Mugabe was applauded. If they attempt to establish a military rule, the world will rise in unison to condemn their neo-colonial posturing. Military rule is old-fashioned in Africa. The onus is on the emerging military leaders to set up a transparent transition process moderated by an interim leadership with a limited time frame. The onus will be on the interim government heal the wounds inflicted by Mugabe and unite the country.

     

    The man of history

     

    Despite his colossal mistakes, Mugabe was a man of history. He was a member of the old brigade in Rhodesia, who fought for independence. His compatriot was the late Joshua Nkomo, who parted ways with him. Nkomo was tipped to lead the country after independence. The chance eluded him. He became the leader of opposition. Later, he served as vice president under Mugabe. The accord later broke down. Mugabe became the undisputed leader.

    From a tender age, Mugabe was greatly inspired by Marxism. He served as the publicity secretary of the National Democratic Party or the ‘NDP.’ Later, he founded the socialist-nationalist movement Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which resolved to drive the British out of their homeland. He was detained by Rhodesian authorities for his radical activities. After independence in 1980, Mugabe became the prime minister, and later, the president. During his tenure as president, he managed to unite the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) with ZANU. He was highly protective of the Zimbabwean territory.

    Born on February 21, 1924, he studied in all-exclusive Jesuit, Roman Catholic schools, and also attended the Kutama College, where he is believed to have led a solitary life and preferred to keep company with his books. He also studied at Fort Hare in South Africa, graduating in 1951. He later studied at Salisbury, Gwelo, Tanzania, earning six more degrees, in addition to his Bachelor of Arts degree, which he obtained from the University of Fort Hare. Mugabe became a lecturer at Chalimbana Teacher Training College, Northern Rhodesia, between 1955 and 1958. It was around that time that he was greatly influenced by the former Prime Minister of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

    In 1960, Mugabe joined the NDP. The party was banned in September. Thus, he formed ZAPU, which was led by Joshua Nkomo. In 1963, he left ZAPU and formed ZANU, established on the basis of Africanist philosophies of the Pan Africanist Congress in South Africa. ZANU and ZAPU were officially banned on August 26, 1964, after a long political unrest. Mugabe was arrested and imprisoned indeterminately.

    In 1974, while still in confinement, he was elected, under the influence of Edgar Tekere, to take over ZANU. Later, he was released from prison along with other separatist leaders to enable him attend a conference in Lusaka, Zambia. He fled to the border of Southern Rhodesia and accumulated a troop of Rhodesian rebel trainees. The struggle continued through the 1970s and the economy of Zimbabwe was in a state of pandemonium.

    In 1979, Southern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe. On March 4, 1980, ZANU won 57 out of 80 Common Roll Seats and Mugabe was elected as prime minister. He sealed an accord with his ZAPU rivals. In 1981, a war broke out between ZANU and ZAPU. Four years later, Mugabe was re-elected and the fight persisted. After the murder of two ministers from the groups in 1987, Mugabe and Nkomo decided to merge their unions. They were united by economic worries. They were dedicated to economic recovery.

    Mugabe became the executive President of Zimbabwe in 1987. He chose Nkomo as one of the senior ministers. Two years later, he implemented a five-year plan, which greatly benefited the economy.

    In 1996, he passed a revision in 2000, wherein the amendment stated that Britain would have to pay compensations for seizing land from the blacks and if the British failed to do so, Mugabe would in turn, seize theirs.

    In 2002, he won the presidential elections at a time Zimbabawe’s  economy was in near ruins with widespread unemployment, famine and AIDS. He applied brute force to stay in office. This led him to win the parliamentary elections also, three years later.

    He lost the presidential elections to Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008. But, he refused to leave office. He demanded a recount of the votes. To gain maximum number of votes, he was on the prowl, violently attacking and killing members of the opposition party.

    After the bloodshed, Tsvangirai and Mugabe came to a mutual agreement that they both would share power. In 2010, he selected provisional governors for Zimbabwe without consulting Tsvangirai, which proved that he still wanted to retain autocratic control. A year after, he announced his bid to contest the 2012 presidential elections, which was for an indefinite period, postponed to 2013.

    He displayed his interest to challenge Tsvangirai once again in the elections and in July 2013, when he was asked about his plans to run for president in the future, he said he would like to rule Zimbabwe till he hit a ‘century’.

    Zimbabwe’s election commission declared Mugabe the president in August 2013 after winning a total of 61 per cent of the vote.

     

    Unending reforms

     

    Mugabe was a lover of reforms. When he was elected as the President, he implemented a five-year plan, starting from 1989. In the course of the five-year plan, he loosened price limits for farmers, allowing them to set their own prices and he also built a number of clinics and schools for the people. By the end of the five year period, the economy had seen drastic positive change in terms of the manufacturing, mining and farming industries. The United Nations (UN) estimates unemployment in Zimbabwe to be as high as 80 per cent.  The economy of Zimbabwe is in ruins. Life expectancy is a little above 50 years. Massive hyperinflation has made the local currency of Zimbabwe worthless. The exchange rate of Zimbabwe dollar is 35 quadrillion to $1. The local currency has been retired and replaced with the U.S. dollar and South African rand, and this has led to the near collapse of the manufacturing industry in Zimbabwe.

     

    In the club of dictators

     

    Mugabe has not been the only face of horror in Africa. There were other sit-tight presidents and dictators, who left behind legacies of high handedness, brutality of the opposition and muzzling of democracy. Their regimes were marked by horror, terror, chaos and bloodshed.

    Paul Kagame became the President of Rwanda in 2000. He rose to power through his guerrilla movement that ended the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He has spent 21 years in office. He has been accused of human rights abuse, oppression of opponents and the press.

    Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was the President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. He assumed office in a bloodless coup, a month after he was appointed the prime minister. He led Tunisia for 23 years before stepping down in January 2011 due to massive protests demanding his exit. Tunisia witnessed stability and economic prosperity under Ben Ali. In 2012, in abstention, he was sentenced to a life imprisonment for his role in the murders of protesters in the 2011 revolution that led to his exit from power. He was accused of embezzlement, misuse of public funds, suppressing political opponents.

    Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo (1967–2005) was one of Africa’s longest-serving dictator. He became the president after he led a military coup. He died of a heart attack in 2005. His son, Faure, was named the President of Togo in controversial circumstances.

    Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1963–1994) led Malawi from 1961 till 1994. Banda lost effective control of Malawi during his absence from Malawi in 1993 when he was flown to South Africa for an emergency brain surgery. Bakili Muluzi, his former political protégé, became president in 1994, after the general elections Banda had earlier postponed, was conducted in 1994. Banda fought against colonialism and led of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to independence as Malawi in 1964. His reign left Malawi as one of the world’s poorest country. One in three children under five died of starvation. He tortured and murdered political opponents. Human rights groups alleged that at least 6,000 people were killed, tortured and jailed without trial.

     Gaafar Nimeiry of Sudan (1969–1985) came to power in a coup that ended five years of corrupt civilian rule. He was ousted from power in 1985 and went into exile in Egypt until he was allowed to return in 1999. He contested in the 2000 Sudanese elections; he got just seven per cent of the votes. He died at 79 in May, 2009. He signed the Addis Ababa Agreement, which ended the First Sudanese Civil War and brought a decade of peace and stability to the region. But, his indiscriminate borrowing left the Sudanese economy in ruins. The Sudanese currency lost almost 90 per cent of its value against the major international currencies. He imposed Islamic sharia law in 1983. It led to a two-decade long war religious war between the Muslim North and the mainly Christian South.

    Siad Barre of Somalia (1969-1991) took power in a coup. He ruled Somalia for over 20 years before he was overthrown in 1991. He passed away in January 1995, on exile in Lagos. General Barre’s exit left Somalia without a central authority, and this resulted in a civil war that left the country without a leader for over two decades.

    Charles Taylor of Liberia (1997-2003), once described as the “tyrant of death,” was the President of Liberia from August 1997 until 2003 when international pressure forced him to resign and go into exile in Nigeria. He remains one of the most brutal dictators in Africa till date. He is currently serving a 50-year sentence for his involvement in what the judge described as “some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history.” He was found guilty of terrorism, unlawful killings, murder, violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons.

    Yahya Jammeh of Gambia (1994-2017) took power in a bloodless military coup in 1994. In last year’s general elections, he was defeated by Adama Barrow, and surprisingly, he conceded defeat, only to reject the results few weeks after. He finally left Gambia on exile to Equatorial Guinea after sustained pressure by the African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and UN.

    Idriss Deby of Chad (1990 – till date) and his Patriotic Salvation Movement (PSM), an insurgent group, backed by Libya and Sudan, sacked the incumbent government, and Déby became the President of Chad. Deby has used oil proceeds and funds that could have been used to develop Chad to purchase weapons and strengthen his Army. Forbes named Chad the world’s most corrupt nation in 2006.

    Obiang Mbasogo (1979 – till date) has been President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979 when he ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a bloody military coup and sentenced him to death by firing squad. President Obiang is one of the oldest and longest serving dictators in Africa. The state radio declared President Obiang “the country’s god” with “all power over men and things,” and thereby he “can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell.” Unlawful killings, government-sanctioned kidnappings; torture of prisoners by security forces, and even accusations of cannibalism have trailed President Obiang’s regime. He has used an oil boom to enrich his family at the expense of the citizens of Equatorial Guinea.

    Paul Biya of Cameroon (1982 till date) consolidated power in a 1983–1984 power struggle with his predecessor and he remains a powerhouse in Africa and the president of Cameroon till date. Cameroon has enjoyed peace and stability for the past 30 years. Biya’s regime has also overseen one of the strongest diplomatic relations in Africa. Biya perpetrated himself in power by organising sham elections and paying international observers to certify them free of irregularities.

    Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola (1979 – till date). The father of Africa’s richest woman, Isabel Dos Santos, is Africa’s second longest-serving Head of State. Recently, he announced that he would finally step down and end his dictatorship over Angola. The Angolan economy has grown to become the third-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria. But the allegations of corruption, misuse, and diversion of public funds for personal gain, human rights abuses, and political oppression.

    Francisco Macías Nguema  of Equatorial Guinea (1968 -1979) was the first President of Equatorial Guinea. He ruled Equatorial Guinea before his nephew in 1979 overthrew him and sentenced him to death by firing squad for genocide and other crimes he committed. He was brutal. During his regime, he granted himself “all direct powers of Government and Institutions.” He ordered the death of entire families and villages; he executed members of his family, One-third of the population fled the country, he ordered every boat in the nation sold or destroyed and banned all citizens from the shoreline to prevent more people from escaping his terror.

    Hissene Habre of Chad (1982-1990) seized power in 1982 from Goukouni Oueddei, who had just been elected President. He lost power to his former military commander, Idriss Deby, in December 1990. Habre fled to Senegal when Deby’s Libya backed insurgents marched into the capital, N’Djaména. In May 2016, he was convicted of crimes against humanity. Habre’s government carried out a frightening 40,000 politically motivated murders, and there are documented cases of at least 200,000 tortures.

    Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan (1989 – till date) took power in a military coup. Al-Bashir is one of the most brutal dictators in Africa and despite ICC’s warrant against him; he remains the president of Sudan. The International Criminal Court wants Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes, murder, rape, torture, and other crimes against humanity for his crimes in Darfur.

     Sekou Toure (1958-1984) was elected as the first President of Guinea in 1958, a position he held until to his death in 1984. Toure, like many other dictators in Africa, survived several assignation attempts and coups while he was in power. He died of heart failure in 1984.

    Toure banned all opposition parties and declared his party the only legal party in the country. He was accused of several cases of human right abuse and extrajudicial killings.

    Gen. Sani Abacha (1993-1998) became the military Head of State of Nigeria in 1993 after he sacked the head of the Interim National Government (ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was appointed after the annulment of the 1993 elections won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). The exact details of the dictator’s death in the presidential palace ON June 8, 1998 remains unclear till date.

    According to international economic experts, Abacha’s regime was a massive economic success for Nigeria. Foreign exchange reserves rose from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997. External debt was reduced from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997; inflation rate went down from the 54 per cent he inherited to 8.5 per cent between 1993 and 1998, and global oil price was priced at an average of $15 per barrel.’ But, the regime was characterised by massive looting and human right abuses such as the public hanging of political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and jailing several political opponents.

    Col. Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1969. The charismatic leader of Libya met his waterloo during the Libyan revolution in 2011 after rebels in Sirte, his city of birth, killed him. Under Gaddafi, Libya became the first developing country to own a majority share of the revenues from its oil production. Gaddafi provided access to free health care, safe houses, food and clean drinking water, free education to university level which led to the dramatic rise in literacy rates. Gaddafi led oil-rich Libya as an absolute dictator, for close to 42 years, he quashed anyone that opposed him, and was responsible for the death of thousands of his people.

    Idi Amin Dada (1971-1979) seized power in the military coup of January 1971, sacking Milton Obote. He fled Uganda in the heat of the Uganda-Tanzania war and went into exile in Libya and later Saudi Arabia where he lived until his death on August 16, 2003. His rule was characterised by rumors of cannibalism, frightening human rights’ abuses, political repression, extrajudicial killings, corruption and gross economic mismanagement.

     

     

  • Let’s all give it to Mugabe, who says he has no intention of dying…

    People like Mugabe believe that wisdom can only come from their brains, no matter how mummified that brain is

    There were so many topics calling for my attention this week, dear reader, but none quite caught my eye like the news I read about President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Ever a man of news, there is no shortage of things and sayings ascribed to him. Many wise sayings have been heaped upon his venerable head. For instance, I heard that he said that ‘wrestling is useless and confusing. How can people without trousers fight for belt?’ Add to that: ‘If you are a married man and you find yourself attracted to school girls, just buy your wife a school uniform’; and ‘No African girl will choose six pack (sic) over six cars… So stop going to the gym and go to work.’

    I say, I heard these things and I nodded my own unwise head, thinking ‘what a wiiiise man! At least, there is still one wise man left on this African continent, if not in the world. People should pay to be allowed to go pick the wise words that fall from the lips of this ancient! Man, you cannot beat the logic in any of them.

    I believe he probably has said a lot more; although, it is also possible that he never said any of these things. It is possible that some other wise one exists somewhere who has been minting these pearly words from the pearly gates of anonymity, but we’ll never know now, will we? He/she won’t come forward as proudly as Mugabe has, so what are we to do? So, until another wise old/young one comes forward, no matter how slowly, we must continue to bow to Robert Mugabe as the utterer of wise words and the giver of uncommon thoughts.

    My own admiration for the man’s words of wisdom (I can’t say the same for his politics) suffered a shock last week though when I read his latest utterances. First he was reported to have said that he had no intention of stepping down as president of the country any time soon, a country he has governed since 1980, since he was only 93! Then more importantly, he was said to have told his countrymen and women that he had no intention of dying yet. Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses and let us give it to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a man who knows the mind of God!

    Like I said, I have no competence to comment on the man’s political savvy; I have never been to Zimbabwe. I have only heard things about his presidential abilities. For instance, I only heard that when he took over the country from the colonial whites in 1980, he cleverly sided out Joshua Nkomo, his fellow patriot in arms. At that time, the economy was strong even if it was in the hands of the neo-colonial whites. To Mugabe’s credit, he not only avoided any power sharing with Nkomo, he also avoided any power tussle with the white overlords by throwing them out of the country. With that score card, I guess it matters not that under him, I hear you need millions of the Zimbabwean dollar to buy an egg.

     I guess too that Zimbabweans must like him. I mean, they must or they couldn’t be so quiet. I hear that they feel that Mugabe has provided some stability in their nation. That’s why they say the people are so worried that after he dies, there may be chaos. So, all they want from him is for him to name his successor. Seriously, I find something very wrong with this line of thinking. I feel it is too much like the country is saying ‘it’s all right, folks, we like our pain. Go take care of your own comforts, thank you very much.’

    To start with, there is everything wrong with a 93-year-old man ruling a country, no matter how strong he is. Even if, as Mugabe himself claims, his organs are in tip-top state, the most important organ cannot be accounted for at that age: his brain. One must commend his maker for giving him this kind of longevity, though it is clear that his brain expired way back many wise sayings ago. The fact that he does not see anything wrong with the fact that the inflation figures in his country are beyond the calculations of a calculator is proof indeed that he is way past it. The people deserve better.

     More importantly, the people’s anxiety over a successor for the president speaks for itself. It speaks of a situation where self-service and self-preservation has ruled the heart of the ruler, just as I hear those are dominating the hearts of our national assemblymen and women right now. God forbid that they should let the benefits of the state guide their choices in matters of the state. Anyway, Mugabe has betrayed himself to be the typical African leader in his preoccupation with the self rather than the state.

    Since most African states are pluralistic ethnically, culturally and linguistically, succession is always and typically a worrisome issue. And since the rule is that Africa’s heads of state easily upturn the rules and regulations of the state for self-perpetuating reasons, things get complicated indeed in the wake of their deaths. In short, chaos ensues. So, one would think that serious state heads would want to ensure that things run smoothly after them by seeing that they run smoothly right in their ‘very before’. This philosophy is behind the system that the western world has devised to ensure that the entire citizenry participates in government.

    It’s a shame that the average African leader does not see things this way. People like Mugabe believe that wisdom can only come from their brains, no matter how mummified that brain is. Hence your African leader is prepared to condemn his country to years of an impoverished and mummified economy in his lifetime and further years of unproductive bickering over succession after his death as long as he remains in power for as long as he likes. It’s a shame really.

    I think the problem lies in this absoluteness of power in Africa, and inefficient checks and balances due to ignorance, poverty and superstition. Nowhere in the world does so much power lie in the hands of one man than in a dictatorship or in an African leader. God help us if the two reside in one breast. That is when men display a primitivity worse than that of the monkeys. In Africa, power is used not only recklessly but senselessly because the small group of elites existing can easily be coerced into silence, complacency, cooperation or imprisonment. That is why an African country’s leader can boldly tell his people that he reserves the heaven-ordained right to kill his citizens and he would not be judged for it in heaven.

    Man, I think the people of Zimbabwe should be able to tell Mugabe that enough is enough. A 93-year-old man needs rest from his labours, whether good or bad. I think he’s afraid to step down because he might be tried for the bad. Whatever his fears, the time has come to convince Mugabe that he and his ilk should please stop ruining Africa’s good name by ruling well or letting others do it and they can stand aside in advisory capacities.

    Once more, I say let’s give it to Mr. Robert Mugabe who says he has no intention of dying, because he has had a conversation with God on the matter of his death. Only, he should please share that audio/video evidence. If he does not have that evidence, then he should please step aside, and he shouldn’t make me to have to make him.

  • I’m not stepping down – Mugabe

    I’m not stepping down – Mugabe

    Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, said on Saturday he was not stepping down nor dying.

    He said there was no one with his political stature who could immediately take over from him.

    The 93-year-old leader has been in charge in the former British colony since independence in 1980.

    His health is closely watched by Zimbabweans, who fear the country could face chaos if he dies without anointing a successor.

    Mugabe told tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in the town of Chinhoyi, in his home province, that doctors were recently surprised by his “strong bone system.”

    He has travelled to Singapore three times this year for what officials said is routine medical treatment.

    “There is the issue that the president is going. I am not going,” Reuters quoted Mugabe as saying to supporters on the grounds of a local university, 100 km (60 miles) west of the capital Harare.

    “The president is dying. I am not dying. I will have an ailment here and there but bodywise, all my internal organs are very firm, very strong.”

    Mugabe, who looks frail, had walked onto the stage slowly but without assistance.

    The issue of who will succeed the veteran Zimbabwean leader has deeply divided the ruling party, with two factions supporting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

    Grace had on Thursday challenged Mugabe to name his preferred successor, to end divisions over the future leadership of ZANU-PF.

    She repeated the call on Saturday, adding that Mugabe would lead the process to choose his eventual successor.

  • Zimbabwean opposition leaders to challenge Mugabe in election

    Two of Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe’s chief rivals said on Wednesday they were allying to deny the 93-year-old another term in office.

    Morgan Tsvangirai, 65, who was Zimbabwe’s prime minister in an uneasy coalition government with Mugabe from 2009 until 2013, said he and Joice Mujuru, who was Mugabe’s vice president for a decade until she was fired in 2014, would seek to form a coalition government to bring political change in the Southern African nation.

    “This is just the beginning of the building blocks towards establishing a broad alliance to confront ZANU PF between now and the next election in 2018,” Tsvangirai said, referring to the party led by Africa’s oldest leader.

    Mugabe, one of the last of the generation of African nationalists that sought the overthrow of white colonialists, has run Zimbabwe since 1980, Reuters reported.

    He was first prime minister then, in 1987, became president.

    In December his ZANU PF party confirmed him as its candidate for the next presidential election expected in mid-2018, when he will be 94.

    Tsvangirai, a three time loser to Mugabe, said he expected similar deals to the one with Mujuru would be struck with other political groups.

    Tsvangirai, who lost the 2013 presidential vote against Mugabe, is now leading MDC-T, a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, that was formed after the party was weakened by splits over how to confront Mugabe.

     

     

  • Mugabe to protesters: No Arab Spring in Zimbabwe

    President Robert Mugabe on Friday warned protesters there would be no “Arab Spring” in Zimbabwe after anti-government demonstrations descended it to some of the worst violence seen in the southern African nation for two decades.

    Zimbabwean police fired tear gas and water cannon at opposition leaders and hundreds of demonstrators at a protest against Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF, before unrest swept across large parts of the capital Harare, Reuters reported.

    “They are thinking that what happened in the Arab Spring is going to happen in this country but we tell them that it is not going to happen here,” Mugabe told state television, referring to a series of uprisings that toppled leaders across the Arab world.

    Mugabe accused Western countries, including the United States, of sponsoring the protests.

    “They are fighting because of Americans,” said Mugabe.

    Earlier, opposition head Morgan Tsvangirai and former vice president Joice Mujuru fled a rally in their cars while protesters ran for cover as police broke up the core of the demonstration.

    However, anti-Mugabe leaders warned that this would be the first of a series of protests.

    Mugabe’s opponents have become emboldened by rising public anger and protests over an economic meltdown, cash shortages and high unemployment.

    Mugabe, 92, has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

  • Mugabe to war veterans: Stay out of succession talk

    Mugabe to war veterans: Stay out of succession talk

    Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned veterans of the 1970s independence war on Thursday against trying to influence the choice of who will succeed him when he eventually leaves office.

    The 92-year-old leader said on March 18 that leaders of the influential Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association had indicated they wanted him to retire, something the president said he would consider if they asked him directly.

    On Thursday, however, he told a meeting of the ZANU-PF ruling party’s central committee that the veterans should stick to looking at the welfare of men and women who fought against colonial rule and not dabble in ZANU-PF’s succession politics, Reuters reported.

    “War veterans must know that it is the politics that leads the gun, not vice versa, as the war veterans are not bosses of the party,” said Mugabe, a war veteran himself.

    “The war veterans’ leaders have no business to talk about succession in the party.”

    Mugabe has previously said his successor must be chosen democratically and that his wife Grace will not automatically inherit the role – seen as a warning to feuding members of ZANU-PF that he is still in charge after 36 years in power.

    Mugabe said the veterans, who have publicly accused some ZANU-PF members of trying to manipulate the president by rallying behind his wife, were behaving like dissidents.

    In Zimbabwe, that term revives memories of a 1980s crackdown against Mugabe’s political rivals by an elite North Korean-trained brigade in which rights groups said some 20,000 civilians, most from the minority Ndebele tribe, were killed.

    “Are we seeing another dissident rise and activity again?” Mugabe said. “The dissidents tried it and failed.”

  • Mugabe’s Friends in the Senate

    Zimbabwe’s nonagenarian president, Robert Mugabe, stands out in many respects that are not too flattering. He is arguably the world’s oldest head of state, and has been the only ruler of his country since independence from Britain in 1980. Not that there haven’t been several elections in the country, but Mugabe always returned as winner in very disputable circumstances characterised by allegations of vote-rigging, human rights abuses and mass emigration amidst sharp economic decline. His current term of office was renewed in 2013. And even though he attained a ripe age of 92 this year, his appetite for political power is not at all diminished. Actually, he has already secured his party’s nomination to contest the next presidential election in 2018. And he could well return again as president unless Providence intervenes. You can’t foreclose that because the southern African country is a one-dominant-party state: the dominant party being the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), while the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is the main opposition party.

    Pa Mugabe marked his 92nd birthday penultimate weekend with a $1.1million feast hosted by the ruling Zanu-PF. The lavish celebration featured the cutting of a huge birthday cake in drought-ravished Masvingo province, where 75 percent of the staple maize crop failed due to parched conditions. The agrarian province is hardest-hit in the worst drought experienced by Zimbabwe since the early 1990s, which leaves some 3million Zimbabweans presently in danger of starvation and has compelled Harare to declare a state of disaster in most rural areas. The government has also appealed for about $2.2billion in international aid to pay for grain and other food items to succour its citizens. But that didn’t stop Zanu-PF from treating Mugabe to the birthday party that was held in a large tent at the ‘Great Zimbabwe’ ruins – a UNESCO world heritage site built in the 13th Century. The nonagenarian ruler, accompanied by wife and children, cut the giant cake that was symbolically made to look like the ancient ruins, and he released 92 festal balloons amidst poetry readings, praise songs and chants hailing him as an African icon and visionary.

    Mugabe’s tastes at his lavish birthday parties, which are a yearly national event in Zimbabwe, have never been subdued. In 2015, he reportedly had wild animals, including a young elephant, slaughtered and served to guests, infuriating wildlife conservationists. Other delicacies at that party included two buffaloes, two sables and five impalas donated by a local landowner, besides a stuffed lion and crocodile thrown in as extra gifts for the old man. Local media reported that Zanu-PF activists compelled teachers and villagers in Masvingo districts to make cash donations to their fundraiser to pay for this year’s celebrations. Critics were swift to condemn the festivity as an affront to penurious Zimbabweans, with opposition MDC saying the money spent should have been used to import maize and avert impending starvation in Masvingo province and other parts of the country. But Pa Mugabe dismissed the fear of starvation and, to the bargain, called the potential bluff of likely aid donors. “If aid, as I understand, is to be given on the basis that we accept the principle of gay marriages, then let that aid stay where it is. We don’t want it. It is rotten aid, filthy aid, and we won’t have anything to do with it,” he said during an hour-long speech at the birthday party penultimate Saturday.

    I align fully with the moral of Pa Mugabe’s protestation against foreign aid with depraved terms, but the whole idea of outlandish birthday feasts in droughty seasons is another matter. Talk about Emperor Nero fiddling away when Rome is burning! When political leaders cocoon themselves in illusions of grandeur, they lose touch with reality and the urgency of the public mood and would most likely set store, outlandishly, by things that the public consider of least or, at best, fringe importance. This mindset, which is a species of what the late Chinua Achebe describes as ‘cargo cult mentality’ in his incisive literary midget, The Trouble With Nigeria, is present with us in the country today. It is apparently what is behind the controversial resolve of the Nigerian Senate to procure some 120 luxury vehicles for its functionaries and operations.

    We must hasten to note that there have been modest attempts within the present administration to shun this diseased mindset, but there have also been spot manifestations of it at different maturity stages in other areas. For instance, President Muhammadu Buhari is reported to have rejected, among other things, a proposal for procurement of new vehicles for the Presidency as part of 2016 budgetary expenditure, owing obviously to the shambolic state of the Nigerian economy presently. Some discerning citizens have, nonetheless, observed a few outstanding budget heads that are affrontingly luxurious in the country’s present circumstance or out of touch with the immediate needs of most Nigerians, like culinary provisions and certain furniture items for Aso Rock. Nigeria is notoriously in economic dire straits at the moment, with shrinking national revenue in the face of global oil price losses, and with our currency value headed steeply southwards – leaving the bulk of the citizenry largely impoverished and contending with life-threatening inflationary pressures. In effect, basic survival is the concern of many citizens for now, and this is widely expected to be the goal of governance, at least in the short term.

    Now, that is why the Senate’s seeming determination to carry through with its planned procurement of a fleet of luxury vehicles – at a cost in excess of 4billion naira – rankles. The prevailing narrative is that some of the vehicles are for the Senate President’s convoy, while the others are to be ‘pool vehicles’ for Senate committees to conduct their legislative oversight functions. By the ordinary notion of ‘pool vehicles,’ the 120 units of four-wheel drives that the Senate plans to procure is curious to most sensible people, as there are more than enough vehicles in that expenditure bill to go round all 109 members of the chamber without being pooled! Many have argued – not the least of them, former President Olusegun Obasanjo – that should Senate committees genuinely require service vehicles, a handful of pool buses that can be shared by committee members should do, rather than the fleet the chamber is working on acquiring. The Senate, to my knowledge, has not adduced any countervailing argument to justify its preference.

    Truth be told: it is downright insensitive that the Senate seems determined to pull through with its vehicle procurement binge. It is bad enough that the legislative chamber recently took delivery of new vehicles for Senate President Bukola Saraki’s convoy, it is worse and mindless that it is pressing ahead with the acquisition of the remaining vehicles in defiance of public protestation. An attempted justification of the Senate President’s new acquisition by his spokesman recently didn’t wash. It is well understood as the spokesman argued, for instance, that the vehicles inherited by Dr. Saraki were old and malfunctioning. What is not understood is why brands so exotic and foreign must be acquired in replacement, at such a time as Nigeria is in at the moment. If the naira fares so badly against the dollar and other world’s convertible currencies, and the touted remedy is for Nigerians to as much as possible patronise Nigerian-made items, why would the Senate President not set a good example by ordering a Nigeria-assembled vehicle brand like Innoson, just like ‘Common Sense’ advocate and another member of the Senate, Ben Murray-Bruce, claims to have done in private capacity?

    Leaders become undertakers when they drain out the residual life serum in their countries to indulge their fancies.

  • I’m not ready to retire —Mugabe

    I’m not ready to retire —Mugabe

    Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe says his successor must be chosen democratically and that his wife will not automatically inherit the role, a warning to feuding members of his ZANU-PF party that he is still in charge after 36 years in power.

    The comments from Africa’s oldest leader, now aged 92, are his clearest indication that he wants to be president for life.

    In a two-hour interview with state broadcaster ZBC TV late on Thursday he said: “Why successor? I am still there. Why do you want a successor? I did not say I was a candidate to retire. Leaders were elected not appointed,” he said.

    “In a democratic party, you don’t want leaders appointed that way to lead the party. They have to be appointed properly by the people, at a gathering of the people, at a congress.”

    Mugabe said he was not behind his wife Grace’s quick rise within ZANU-PF, which has led to reports that she has plans to succeed her husband.

    “Others say the president wants to leave the throne for his wife. Where have you ever seen that, even in our own culture, where a wife inherits from her husband?” Mugabe said.

  • Mugabe wants Zimbabwe officials to declare assets

    Mugabe wants Zimbabwe officials to declare assets

    President Robert Mugabe’s government will introduce a law in Zimbabwe’s parliament that requires senior public officials to declare assets as part of measures to tackle corruption.

    Critics and the opposition accused Mugabe of turning a blind eye to graft, especially among his close allies and ministers, and said endemic corruption is one reason that foreign companies are not investing in the Southern African nation, Reuters reported.

    Mugabe said in a speech published in the state-owned Herald newspaper on Wednesday that his government would present a Code of Corporate Governance Bill for debate during the current session of parliament, the first such law aimed at bringing transparency among government officials.

    “The scourge of corruption continues to rear its ugly head at all levels of our society,” Mugabe said.

    “A code of conduct will be put in place, in terms of which all high level public office holders shall be required to disclose their assets upon assumption of office, or to declare their interests on matters that may create scope for conflict of interest.”

    Zimbabwe was last year ranked 156 out of 174 countries on the Transparency International index, which measures public perceptions of corruption in public institutions.

    Parliament has recalled lawmakers for a special seating later on Wednesday but officials did not say whether Mugabe would attend to deliver the speech outlining his plans on graft.

    Mugabe had on Tuesday read the wrong speech in parliament before the newspaper ran the correct one.