President Robert Mugabe clocked 88 years this week, a major
personal achievement only if it were not tied to the fate of this country. As
is common, ZANU PF leaders, state owned corporations and Ministries fell over
each other in congratulating President Mugabe, wishing him many more and others
bending back forwards to be seen as the leading cheerleader. Some say he is the
son of god, others say he is cremora, others say he our Moses leading us out of
Egypt, others say he has instead taken us deep into Egypt and the expletives
are unending. If you believe the ZBC, Herald and The Sunday Mail, President
Mugabe now occupies a pedestal in the history of this country far higher than
Joshua Nkomo, Herbert Chitepo, Mbuya Nehanda or Sekuru Kaguvi, he is the all in
all our of past, present and future and without him Zimbabwe will simply vanish into nothingness.
However deep inside all these forlorn praise singing is a
sad reality, the failure by ZANU PF leaders to see or accept how President
Mugabe has persistently insulted the persons of his lieutenants more so the
creed of democratic practice upon which ZANU PF is supposedly founded and run. Here
is an 88 year old man, who has been in power for 30 years. And who in his later
political life has completely failed his people and his party, bringing
suffering, causing nearly a quarter of the population to flee, reducing life
mortality and rendering a once prosperous nation, a basket case. While it is the
general political culture in Zimbabwe for politicians to sing praise for one of
their own, we have seen that with MDC-T supporters, the difference with ZANU PF
is that President Mugabe has for a number of years stated in public his lack of
respect nor regard for his juniors in the party. On many occasions President Mugabe
has been asked about his retirement plans, and almost all the time he has stuck
to his script, that there are no good enough leaders in his party and that ZANU
PF will collapse if he departs the political scene. The argument has gotten
bizarre as the years went by. In recent interviews with the state media, Mugabe
now says he could not groom a successor because that could have torn the party asunder
and hence his decision to hang on. We all thought ZANU PF has a constitution
that allows and clearly states how leaders are elected into office and there is
no clause as far as i can remember that allows Mugabe to groom and install a
successor.
Any sensible person would ask till when, more so
for an 88 year old man whom his government colleagues say struggles to stay
awake in key government meetings. Is it not an insult to the top leadership of
ZANU PF that one of their own think they are not leadership material, that they have no
capacity to lead the party and the country, that they are essentially
sub-species to the President. What does this thinking by the President say about
the future of ZANU PF, that it will be buried with the President?. What does this say about the leadership
qualities and courage that many in the top leadership of ZANU PF displayed at
the war front, when Mugabe was holed up in Maputo during the liberation
struggle? Here is a man who is so out of touch with political reality that he
thinks that his opponents are afraid of him. He has already forgotten that he
lost the March 2008 Presidential vote and had to bludgeon hapless citizens into
submission. Here is a man who is not concerned about the future, because he is
88, that he threatens not to cooperate
with the South African head of state
mandated to find a solution to the man made crisis in Zimbabwe all
because he wants to remain in power till his end. How far can ZANU PF allow
this kind of insults? Instead on celebrating and publishing meaningless
messages about the visionary leadership of President Mugabe, ZANU PF top brass
must spend time reflecting about their political careers and future. They need
to ask themselves how they have managed their personal and professional lives
to be so beholden to one individual. Maybe President Mugabe knows something
that we dont, that indeed his juniors are a useless bunch, who cannot be
trusted. He obviously knows all the skeletons in their cardboards, how they
acquired their wealth, how they are holding to more than one farm each, how
they cannot survive a day longer without his patronage, how many of them cannot
run a tuck-shop and depend on corruption for survival. It might as well be true
that President Mugabe sees no future for ZANU PF after his departure and what a
sorry indictment and judgment on the leadership of ZANU PF by one of their own
and not us. Zimbabwe is desperate for leadership
and the people of Zimbabwe will judge harshly ZANU PF for its inept approach to
national issues as long as their pockets are lined. President Mugabe is 88 and congratulations
to him for attaining this long life. However he is not the man to be making
decisions about the affairs of this country. He belongs to his private home and
his family. As for his juniors, shame on you, dare we repeat Margaret Dongo’s
description of you?
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