Zimbabwe: The Grand Despot of Africa departs

Nothing to weep for

For a long time, I referred to Robert Mugabe whose demise has been announced by his family as the Grand Despot of Africa, entrenched as Zimbabwe’s first post-independence leader, he never transformed from a liberation struggle fighter into a statesman. [BBC]

When he was kicked out of office by a coup in 2017, he had already overstayed his welcome, impoverished Zimbabwe, overseen pogroms against the Ndebele in Matabeleland before he set on white Zimbabweans, seizing lands which probably with better political skill and status could have improved the lot of the majority even as the farmers suffered some material loss.

The state of Zimbabwe is in today is the legacy of Robert Mugabe, gerontocrats still hold sway clueless about what needs to be done to turn the ship of state around.

A failed leadership

There is very little to celebrate about Robert Mugabe beyond leading Southern Rhodesia to the new Zimbabwe, the many who fell along the way as his insatiable quest of ultimate power with the vehicle of ZANU-PF kept Zimbabwe from rising from colonialism to great prosperity, just because one man and his cohort of henchmen had an entitlement to rule and any challenge to his throne was met with unmitigated violence.

Three decades into his rule, Robert Mugabe would still raise his fist like a guerrilla leader and rail against colonial powers that had long since left things in his care, his claims to the right of Zimbabweans to govern themselves arrogated solely to himself as he presided over a corrupt enterprise that led to his wife, Grace Mugabe being labelled The First Shopper of Africa as his fellow countrymen were left on the breadline.

Smith and Mugabe both bad

When I wrote a piece at the passing of Ian Smith, the last president of colonial-era Southern Rhodesia in 2007, I inferred that the only difference between Ian Smith and Robert Mugabe was their race, every other act, policy, idea and implementation was literally the same, they were evil men.

Blog - Between Smith and Mugabe - no difference

It is literally impossible to mourn Robert Mugabe who died at 95, I could easily have replaced their names in that piece, and it would have read the same.

In 2000, Ian Smith said, “We have never had such chaos and corruption in our country, what Zimbabweans are looking for is a bit of ordinary honesty and straightforwardness.” Sadly, not much has changed in 2019.

Another parable of the talents

He went on to say, “We had the highest standard of health and education and housing for our black people than any other country on the African continent; that was what Rhodesians did. I wonder if we shouldn't be given credit for doing that.” This is not to celebrate white oppression, but it was a foundation that could have been built upon to put Zimbabwe in the class of one of the most prosperous countries in Africa with its citizenry not having conditions in their country used against them when they seek to travel abroad.

Robert Mugabe was given a country of great potential and talent, and he took it like the servant who was given one talent in the parable Jesus told in the Bible and buried it in the ground of his atrocious abuse of power. History must not him judge better for the realities of his misdeeds.

As false eulogies sound all over Africa, we must never forget, “Zimbabwe will remember Mugabe for his unrepentant racist attitude and the killing of thousands of innocent people.” This was said of Ian Smith, it applies to Robert Mugabe too. The evil these men did cannot afford me the basic good of saying – Rest in peace.

Let the accounting begin.

The Grand Despot of Africa is deposed

The revolution was over long ago

There comes a time when men are tested by circumstances and they fail to read the times rapidly falling from grace to disgrace slowing down time into slow motion crash.

Such was the end of the tyranny of terror of the man I have for over a decade referred to as the Grand Despot of Africa. In 1980, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was the revolutionary, the figurehead that took the entity of Southern Rhodesia from the grip of Ian Smith to the new dawn of Zimbabwe.

Since then, Robert Mugabe raised a revolutionary fist against forces known and unknown, enemies within and without, regaling crowds with revolutionary zeal, beguiling the people with the feeling that they are being assailed by the old colonialists whilst the reality was he was the colonist of the same colour as his brethren for the past 37 years.

Forgetting when your time is up

At 93, Robert Mugabe who could have long retired into revered African statesmanship like Julius Nyerere of Tanzania or Nelson Mandela did before him, fastened his grip on power, railing and raving, knocking down perceived opponents and easing the way for his firebrand and intemperate wife to assume dynastic succession.

What Robert Mugabe forgot was despite his iron grip on power, he was there at the behest and will of some of his people and the cohort that surrounded him that allowed the mystique of his inviolability and the myth of his seeming omnipotence to becloud his judgement.

He made one last miscalculation, egged on from the pillow of his bedchamber by the First Shopper of Africa, Gucci Grace whose vaunted claim to significance was being the wife of the President and by that she thought she was untouchable.

Bringing down the temple on his own head

He sacked Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa on the 6^th of November and with that came down the principal stone held up the cult of personality of Robert Mugabe. The sacking of Emmerson Mnangagwa was like pulling the pin of the grenade and forgetting to throw it at a target far away, then run.

That singular act crystallised the mounting disaffection with first his wife and then Mr Mugabe, the army moved in and put him under house rest, sparing in his life in what was a coup in everything but name, Mr Mugabe failed to see that the end was nigh. The enemy without that was the rallying call of his rambling party speeches which defined his stubbornness and defiance was now at his doorstep, the army, the veterans of independence, his party, the youth wing that venerated him and his people.

Mr Mugabe was alone and asked to go, yet he refused to budge as every vestige of status, power and authority was being humiliatingly stripped from him, he then squandered the magnanimous opportunity to leave the stage the little dignity he had left in a nationally televised speech, Robert Mugabe had overstayed every toleration of his presence at the helm of Zimbabwe politics, it was no more whether he would leave, it was when.

The final humiliation

The parliament instigated the articles of impeachment to depose him, and then a letter arrived from the President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, read out in parliament, it was his letter of resignation. It finally dawned on him that he had run out of excuses and rhetoric to fight the groundswell of animus that had galvanised the people to ask him to go.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the apotheosis of the failure of leadership in Africa, he failed to transition from a revolutionary to a leader of his people, he exploited divisions amongst his people to retain a hold on power for over a generation. He failed to mentor successors, presiding over squabbling amongst his underlings seemingly secure in the impression that there was no one that could step into his shoes.

Failed leadership in Africa

What irks me most about African leaders that sit fast without budging under the hubristic delusion that no other countryman can do the job of leading their country is that it soon become a glaring lie. There are probably thousands of Zimbabweans, male and female alike that could, given the opportunity do a better job than Robert Mugabe ever could.

The legacy of Robert Mugabe is there for all to see, revolutionary zeal is not enough, he brought the country to its knees, from prosperity to poverty, entrenching a corrupt patronage that concentrated political power and economic clout in very few hands whilst he gave the people the prospect of wild dreams of adventure than became living nightmares.

No laurels for disgrace

No one will mourn that passing of the era of Robert Mugabe except for the few that profited from his being the emperor of an endemically corrupt enterprise, his resignation was greeted with celebrations on the streets of Harare not seen since the day of independence.

Robert Mugabe should now retreat into ignominy, insignificance, disgrace and silence, only to be read of when his longevity in life comes to an end. Our eyes are now on the remaining sit-tight African leaders vying for the crown of the Grand Despot of Africa.

Bye, bye Robert Mugabe, you shall like Ian Smith be consigned to the bad history of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: Ready for Re-Colonisation

State-sponsored anarchy

The world watches almost helplessly as Zimbabwe descends into state-sponsored anarchy into order to entrench a desperate incumbency that spews out outrageous lies and falsehoods.

Robert Mugabe contends that he is fight for the land and sovereignty of Zimbabwe and would fight to the last man almost just short of declaring war to prevent Zimbabwe from being re-colonised.

He avers that the opposition that took the majority vote in the first round of presidential elections wants to sell Zimbabwe back to its old colonial masters such that whilst he lives it would never happen.

27 years of ruin

What I am about to say is controversially uncomfortable and is bereft of the encumbrance of sentiment; we must not forget that Robert Mugabe has been in charge of his country for 27 years.

27 years to turn it around, 27 years to make it a prosperous country, 27 years to give the people the right to decide who rules them and 27 years not to have to live in fear of extreme violence because one is exercising their right to vote.

Maybe there is some truth in the idea of re-colonising Zimbabwe, but I would be hard-pressed to find any reasons why Zimbabwe of today offers any desirable prospect for that kind of venture.

Nothing worthwhile there

Considering how destitute and impoverished many seem that almost 25% are refugees in neighbouring countries, one cannot make any decent slavery venture of men already herded about like starved cattle – brought about by this great liberation leader.

Zimbabwe has land, good agricultural land – in fact only 8.24% is arable [CIA World Fact Book], but there is a lot more land in Africa, the farmers chased out of Zimbabwe are beginning to thrive in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Zimbabwe however has no oil, its minerals which include platinum, gold and ferroalloys are not of the quantity that would have a radical economic impact on its people.

The life expectancy at birth is now 39.73 years with an unemployment rate of 80%, one wonders if there is any prospect for that country with that old man in charge at 84.

Skills for murder and destruction

What we have are an unemployable set of dead-enders who are called war veterans, an unfortunate mob of brigands who have been manipulated for 27 years by an unconscionable despot for political ends without delivering any appreciable benefits to their lives.

Their skills are better wielded with cudgels, sticks, guns and instruments of menace, rather than pens, hoes and brains such that the many that were offered the usurped farms had no aptitude to make anything work – they even failed at make weeds grow.

Their future has been yoked to great misfortune no matter what opportunity they have been offered such that they are zombies in the beck and call of the great liberation leader.

Deceived, cajoled and deployed

These people have been short-changed and laid destitute by their liberation leader who seeks to lay blame elsewhere as his wife enjoys the moniker of First Shopper.

The truth is there is nothing to colonise about Zimbabwe, but having make the country completely destitute any attempt to lift the country out of its morass would have it beholden to helpers – it is already in a colonisation-prone state as a result of the policies of the government that would not leave or allow the people to decide on who should lead them.

The war veterans have been cajoled with handouts and sops that do not last or provide a future, they are so desperate for anything that they are so easily persuaded of a false cause to harm their fellow Zimbabweans; having forgotten that it is this same demonic despot who killed fellow Zimbabweans in Matabeleland.

A crisis of leadership in Africa

This is where Africa suffers a great crisis of leadership, this outrage happens on our doorstep and the ones who should speak up appease and tolerate the intolerable.

When would the wool be pulled off our eyes to realise that the Zimbabweans deserve better and that great future does not emanate from any vision that Robert Mugabe projects?

There is nothing to colonise about Zimbabwe, it is time for all of us to see that truth and really for the last time consign the Grand Despot of Africa to the history of ignominy once and for all.

The Zimbabweans do deserve not be colonised by a cabal of corrupt leaders living in opulence whilst the people die of hunger in destitution and die horribly of violence meted out on them by their leaders for deciding to vote as they desire.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe is a coward

Release my results

Follow me through this analogy – I have just completed a number of academic examinations leading to a major qualification – at the time when I was to receive the results, half the results were released but the whole detail that would prove I was qualified was not released.

Then as I clamoured with the examination board to release the rest of my complement of results, someone took the decision to remark my papers.

I am then left in a quandary, the first being why all my results were not released on time in the first place and then what could have lead to having my papers remarked without information as to why.

Nigeria not an example for good

This is just an analogy; the reality creates a worse feeling for all concerned because the first instance relates to when the Nigerian military government under Ibrahim Babangida cancelled an election that took place in June 1993 having released half the results of that election, a situation that plunged us into another few years of despotic rule.

The failure of democracy in Africa can be directly traced to the failure of simple democratic processes in Nigeria. The situation is so bad that you never find Nigeria at the forefront of speaking up for democratic reform because our processes are so tarnished and not credible enough to give us the moral right to talk to others about doing things right.

Some commentators would contend that the electoral debacle that happened in Kenya in December 2007 only happened because Nigeria provided no leadership in matters of electoral rectitude where the voice of people in votes are properly and correctly presented in the figures sanctioned as official.

Recounts before results

The second part of my analogy pertains to developments in Zimbabwe, where the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has decided to recount the votes cast in 23 districts covering the presidential, parliamentary, senate and council votes.

I find it incredible that first of all, only the complete parliamentary results have been released and only part of the senate results, the rest have been kept from the public who have a right to know what their collective voices have said about who should govern them in Zimbabwe.

I would have had no problems with the recount of districts that have results released, but I cannot see how there can be a recount when the results have not been released.

There can be a recount sometimes, if the results are close, but all parties should be privy to those results and the reasons for the recount. Unfortunately, the ZEC appears to be a pliant organ of the ZANU-PF rather than an independent arbiter and custodian of the democratic process for the good of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe is a coward

The real situation is simple, the Grand Despot of Africa and strong man of Zimbabwe, Mr. Robert Mugabe is a coward. He cannot bear to see that he has been rejected by Zimbabwe after all he did to terrorise the people or buy the election by giving away car keys on the eve of the election.

Mr. Mugabe, is coward because he was afraid to hear his fellow African leaders of the SADC tell him that his time is up, Mr. Mugabe knows the real truth and his cohort of hardliners whose loss of ruler-ship would make them fodder for the Coliseum of the hungry lions of retributive justice are steeling him up for stealing the election.

This is where a country like Nigeria or South Africa should have stepped in and pre-empted what might turn out to be a travesty of democracy.

Give me Brutus or Judas

I despair for what would happen in the end, but should it take a Marcus Junius Brutus to get rid of this Caesar that has destroyed his country or a Judas Iscariot to betray this non-Messiah with the goal to sacrifice one man for the good of the many?

It is time to have Mr. Mugabe despatched, Zimbabwe has been too long under the strangled-hold of this despot, it is time to forcibly take his grasp off the neck of the people and let then thrive as they should for a future that Mr. Mugabe does not have the time, the vision or the will to give.

Invade for democracy

This is one time where every well meaning voice must speak up for the democratic right to have the results of a vote released, correctly, promptly and without controversy.

If this recount is another ploy to adjust the results to meet the needs of people who cannot accept that their time is up, it must be repudiated with the greatest force possible and this time the sovereignty of Zimbabwe should and must be violated to ensure that the people’s voice and votes are what counted to reflect what they have intended.

Zimbabwe deserves respite and this is one cause that is a blight on Africa, only second to the disgrace in Darfur – Zimbabwe must be free by the vote or by the boot.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe's epitaph by a little girl

Be gone and done

The slow death of Mugabe's regime as it grasps at battered reeds of a hope that had long been extinguished by the suffering of his people leaves us exhausted.

The life of his government ebbs away having been dealt the blow of a cardiac arrest in losing his majority in the Zimbabwean parliament, to an opposition that has been tested – not by slavery, not by liberation struggle, not by apartheid but by fellow black countrymen drunk to excess with power – and it is now ready to take the tattered mantle, maybe to a place of new beginnings - Godspeed.

Give us the president

The population of Zimbabwe does not number infinity, the count must end one day and the result will be known.

Woe betide they who give respite to the beast that ate the people for breakfast, took away everything that made the people a proud and honourable people and spat them out at dusk as all that once had worth became cheaper than the sand in the desert.

The defibrillator shall roast the heart to cinder because every good deed that might have been worthy of thanks a generation ago has been wiped out many times over by the longsuffering resolve of a people who would not endure slavery anymore under the iron hand of any man no matter the colour.

Tell the men to make the coffin of the wood of townships destroyed and by the time the last gasp leaves the beast, secure him to eternal repose with 9-inch nails and not a few.

Zimbabwe’s plight is Africa’s shame

As we begin to rejoice at the end of the suffering of Zimbabwe and it must be very soon - the shame of Africa is laid bare, not one has been a brother's helper in ending this travesty.

The people of Zimbabwe took their destiny in their own hands and called a stop to their bondage.

They will owe no man their freedom because they voted the man out with their blood, their suffering and their vote, for which they deserve all commendation, praise and support.

We amongst ourselves most evil

Let it be known that it was the black man who took away the hopes and aspirations of the fellow black man.

It was the black man, his cohorts and minions that bloodied their fellow countrymen.

And it was fellow black leaders that gave succour to the reprehensible, the atrocious, the unacceptable and the downright outrageous.

Zimbabwe's friends in their quest for real self-determination were not in Africa, they were further away but kept faith for their deliverance.

Let the past begin

As a new dawn breaks we congregate at the death-bed of the beast, any time soon, should come the last gasp, the padre with the stake awaits the moment to make dead certain dead sure.

Line the grave with lead and seal it with concrete and let it be sunk in the rough of the deepest seas.

No remembrance should be made of the beast for the past ends when the stake was driven in.

After all said and done, the little girl of hardly 10 said. “He was a very bad man”.

She could have won the Pulitzer prize with that one line.

Zimbabwe: Thanks Mugabe, Now Give Way

Keeping faith

Today, I keep faith with Zimbabweans that the reign of the Grand Despot of Africa – Robert Mugabe – shall come to an end. That the will of the people to be set free from an old liberation message that was valid a generation ago but insignificant to the issues of today would fulfilled.

The tired rhetoric of colonial powers holding back Zimbabwe should now have bored the people to death, as they cast their ballots they should be asking questions.

Answered in voting

Who can really take Zimbabwe beyond this fight with imaginary enemies of state when the enemies themselves constitute the self-same government?

Are there ways in which the gerontocracy could have been smarter with the old colonial powers in negotiating better deals for Zimbabwe despite the reluctance of these powers to arrive at the best terms?

Is there someone else who has better leadership qualities to move Zimbabwe from being a basket case to being the bread basket of Southern Africa that it once was?

Can Zimbabwe afford another sunrise with Robert Mugabe at the helm?

Who has new ideas, hopes and a vision for Zimbabwe?

Hoping against hope

I am not sure if the results of the election would express the democratic wish of the people, but anyone Zimbabwean – white or black – knows that the government of Mugabe has lead to country to the edge of the abyss.

Any man who has served a cause like Mugabe has for 28 years and has produced the disaster he now runs is a grotesque failure – if he would not as an old man let his people thrive, then, in the hope that he has not found the elixir of immortality, we might well start the longest wake in history in seeing him back to mother Earth just as Ian Smith did a few months ago.

Zimbabwe shall be free indeed

Zimbabwe shall be free and I pray that today, it would be by reason of each and every vote that encapsulates the yearning and aspirations of people who have been denigrated, enslaved, dehumanised and oppressed but whose indefatigable spirit would deliver their freedom faster than any despot can attempt to curtail it.

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John Sentamu - A true African Leader

Dramatic gesture

When the news came on air that the Archbishop of York – John Sentamu – had cut up his dog-collar, what went through my mind was the break away of the San Joaquin diocese from the US Episcopal Church yesterday because of the consecration of one homosexual bishop – Gene Robinson – in 2003.

Homosexuals split the church

Whilst I have my views about churches engaging in social activism there are worthwhile causes where the church should be at the forefront – a split over homosexuality where a majority of selfsame homosexuals have been alienated from the church and find no spiritual succour or guidance from where the expression the love of Christ could have made the church a sanctuary for healing broken people is sad indeed.

Beyond this, there are more problems that should have gained greater priority in the vision and mission of the church like reaching the unreached (with might include homosexuals), poverty alleviation, community regeneration in areas of combating disease, rural development and education – there is almost too much work to be done and never enough hands, minds, people and funds to tackle these “Great Commission” issues.

But these are too difficult as energy is being expended in their obsession with homosexuality – Archbishop Desmond Tutu – and it would appear amongst all the critical issues facing the Church and Christianity today that finds the most activity.

Clergy activism for the good

This morning Archbishop John Sentamu’s actions are better placed as what the church should be involved in, born in Uganda, first appointed a High Court judge by Idi Amin and the persecuted by the despot for being judicially independent – the Archbishop was well acquainted with the tyranny of rotten African leadership and is well aware of his history and roots even though he has settled into the comfort of the English establishment his preaches a gospel that has meaning and relevance to our times.

Zimbabwe once had an Archbishop in Pius Ncube who was one of the few who were untouchable by the grubby hands and machinations of Robert Mugabe’s henchmen; the learned clergyman however lost his vision and vocation by engaging in activities that diminished his integrity, authority and credibility – the state security apparatus produced evidence of the Archbishop engaging in adultery.

This meant the voice in support of the people from the body of the clergy had to come from elsewhere, so this morning on the Andrew Marr Show (the transcript) in answering questions about Robert Mugabe, the Archbishop demonstrated that he wears a dog-collar to identify himself; taking it off, he cut it to bits saying these words.

“You know ... you see as an Anglican, this is what I wear to identify myself that I'm a clergyman. Do you know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally if you don't mind, cut it to pieces. This is what he's actually done, to a lot of - and in the end there's nothing. So as far as I'm concerned from now on I'm not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe's gone.”

The new image of Africa

The sooner Mugabe is gone either by geriatric expiration or by a putsch that would allow us bring him to The Hague to face human rights abuse charges, the better.

He was hosted at the Africa-EU Summit in Lisbon, Portugal that Gordon Brown has boycotted and other African leaders had threatened not to attend if Robert Mugabe was not invited – It was nice to hear that Angela Merkel laid into him and stated “The situation of Zimbabwe is damaging the image of the new Africa”.

Dishonest African Leadership

Some African leaders would have us believe that Zimbabwe is not near collapse and Mugabe is not on his way out, they seek to patch a completely broken situation where even the country’s chief statistician cannot determine that rate of inflation in the country anymore because there aren’t enough goods on the shelves to create a viable dataset.

If the reality of the situation in Zimbabwe is being distorted by the media, according to the aspiring mediator in the person of the Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade as he visited Zimbabwe recently; I would suspect part of that is because of the lack of the freedom of the press in Zimbabwe, but more truthfully it is because we are not being seriously honest with each other; the destroyed townships are no mirage; the illegal immigrants and refugees flocking to South Africa are not animals in seasonal migration; the inflation figures that read 4,000% at one time are not plucked out of the air; the battered faces of the opposition leaders were not make-up – see the Q&A. Those, if I may be allowed the use of the word "coincidences" add up to a country with serious, serious problems.

However, this stance represents the great problem with Africa; the fear of seeing true democracy unseat unpopular leaders, the excitement or perverse black-man thing about seeing countries wrestle with their old colonial masters without any particular gain but notoriety leading to ruin and the inability to decisively tackle the matter of transparency, corruption and poor governance because it would mean everyone has to straighten up. It is no wonder that Africa that was well ahead of Asia in the 60s is now a basket-case in the 21^st Century.

In the end, the Africa-EU Summit, the first in 7 years was just another reactionary move by Europe very much like the Scramble for Africa, only this time, it is not for the partition of land but access to Africa’s resources. A meeting of equals in word for the economic colonisation of Africa – a success.

So far, it has been the clergymen who have gauged the situation well and not the disgraceful and shameful politicians; we have Archbishop Pius Ncube, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and now Archbishop John Sentamu to thank for being true, truthful and honest about Mugabe and the problems in Zimbabwe and Africa at large.

Between Smith and Mugabe - no difference

The bastion of white rule

The death of Ian Smith the last minority rule white leader of Rhodesia that then became Zimbabwe is a milestone in the history of that country.

It so happens that it is the regime of Ian Smith that appears to give Robert Mugabe the perverse legitimacy that allows him to be revered as a freedom-fighter, a part of history that is invalidated but current events in Zimbabwe.

I would not go into the history of Rhodesian independence or the liberation struggle, which is well documented in other places.

We know that Ian Smith never believed in black majority rule, but the state of affairs in Zimbabwe today leaves us almost in acquiescence with that view.

White achievement and black squander

In his words, “We have never had such chaos and corruption in our country, what Zimbabweans are looking for is a bit of ordinary honesty and straightforwardness.” And that was in 2000.

Whilst many would see his time as one of the worst in racial oppression, he also said, “We had the highest standard of health and education and housing for our black people than any other country on the African continent; that was what Rhodesians did. I wonder if we shouldn't be given credit for doing that.”

I do not see Robert Mugabe - The Grand Despot of Africa - being able to boast in that manner and really there are very few African leaders that have measured up to the quality of leadership, organisation and governance of the worst of the people they replaced.

In the end, the Zimbabwean state apparatus has nothing good to say about Ian Smith and we have the Information minister saying he was a man who brought untold suffering to millions of Zimbabweans and bidding him “Good riddance”. As if the situation is any different now.

Smith and Mugabe no different

I cannot see how this is not also a prophecy that would read as contemporaneous at the demise of Robert Mugabe, because death somehow has a way of getting at men who believe themselves immortal and so, I view this other statement as poignant - Zimbabwe will remember Smith (Mugabe) for his unrepentant racist attitude and the killing of thousands of innocent people – This came from the state television.

There probably are more similarities between Smith and Mugabe including their dislike of meddling Britain and their radical racist rhetoric; apart from the war that pitched them against each other for independence, they have both lead their country into isolation but I do wonder if life was not better for the blacks in one regime than the other.

No words said against Ian Smith today seem to sound any different from what we should all expect to be said of Robert Mugabe when he departs this mortal coil – they both destroyed their fatherland in the pursuit of a vision that was both evil and unsustainable.

I wait for the day when this chapter of developing history would be closed forever and the people of either Rhodesia or Zimbabwe shall be free to determine for themselves the real course of what should be a prosperous future.

Zimbabwe: The shaming of Pius Ncube

State sponsored sex stings

If there was more to do to see the end of suffering and deprivation brought on the people of Zimbabwe by the Grand Despot of Africa in the gerontocratic evil hands of Robert Mugabe, 83 the time is now.

Reading Wande’s blog [Now extinct] that explores the realities of events with the topic “Re - Zimbabwe bishop 'victim of state'” illustrates how the state apparatus works to completely discredit and suppress any opposition to the rotten regime of Mugabe.

I left a comment on that blog which I flesh out the more in this write-up, because this is not the first time the Mugabe regime has used the state agencies to bring down and disgrace “men of the cloth” who pose a threat to his kind of government.

Before the case of Bishop Pius Ncube who resigned his post as the Archbishop of Bulawayo on the 11^th of September 2007, there was the one of the Reverend Canaan Banana, the first president of Zimbabwe with Robert Mugabe as his Prime Minister who after Mugabe usurped all power was accused and convicted of 11 counts of sodomy and eventually, he served two years in prison as well as getting defrocked, he died in 2003.

A similar sodomy charge was brought against Anwar Ibrahim the Prime Minister and challenger to the regime of Dr Mahatir bin Muhammed of Malaysia in 2000 which lead to a conviction until an appeals court overturned it in 2004.

Making the most embarrassing charges

I am sure there are many other examples of political machinations using the state apparatus to besmirch, tarnish and blackball people who pose a challenge to the ruling class and their figureheads, usually, it is almost impossible to successfully find justice if all the scales are tilted against you.

So, back to Pius Ncube, there would have been too many precedents for him not to think that he would be targeted, not by bullets for martyrdom in the cause for humanity in Zimbabwe as he had expected, but through undermining his credibility, authority, respect and integrity.

The reporting of the matter surrounding the shaming of Pius Ncube is a bit sketchy as the foreign press are refused the access to report events happening in what is becoming a recluse of tyranny – if we cannot report we can speculate.

As a Roman Catholic bishop, one would think the bishop is a subject of clerical celibacy and since sodomy is taken as par for the course for such persons of devotion (the last clause is a wild generalisation which probably has no basis in fact but is very well an urban myth – See A Very Short History Of Clergy Sexual Abuse In The Catholic Church), adultery would create a greater embarrassment.

The woman the bishop is said to have been caught with in his bedroom was the estranged wife of someone who subsequently lodged a 20 billion Zimbabwean dollar adultery suit for redress, though now the adultery charge has been dropped.

The dead-hand of the government must have been involved in this quest to embarrass a strident opponent of Robert Mugabe who by reason of his religious position was untouchable; however, if an affair did take place amidst the protestations of the bishop, my comments on the reference blog have gone thus.

My Comments

Whilst I feel some sympathy for the bishop in that he was one of the few living in Zimbabwe who could speak up and not get beaten up by the police, his error of judgment and lax moral values have compromised his integrity.

He has an uphill battle to maintain his rights struggle without being heckled down as an adulterer whenever he speaks.

The fact is, when you set yourself aside to fight for a humanitarian cause, you must also separate yourself from the wiles and excesses of life - as a man of the cloth, he surely must have been well aware of that.

Finally, he has let both his cause and the people of Zimbabwe down, I hope I have not judged him too harshly, but his cause should have been a lot greater than sexual fulfilment with another man's wife, he did not consider the consequences of his actions.

I really do hope all the people involved in this would be discredited and the bishop would be vindicated, the plot, meanwhile thickens.

PS: It would appear the comment I placed has been lost probably due to some gremlin activity - That is beside the point, the originating blog is still part of my inspiration for this write-up and it remains acknowledged as such. [When I checked the originating blog in December 2019, it appears to have disappeared.]

Other references

My Zimbabwe Blogs

Damn the Mugabe apologists

Not more than one

It only takes another ancient freedom or liberation fighter of old who helped assume independence for his country through seemingly democratic means than then turn into a dictator with bizarre political and economic policies that were ruinous for the fatherland to bring things into focus again.

This seems to be the story of African liberation fighters, men who have failed to convert their tenures in leadership into one of elder statesman worthy of respect and adulation. Apart from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, Africa would be hard pressed to find one who commands both authority and respect in the global scene as a leader who can be called upon to address matters with objectivity.

The Global Elders group launched at Nelson Mandela’s 89^th birthday does not include one ex-African leader of the 53 countries apart from the man himself – that is as damning as it can get for the kind of leadership we have had in Africa.

Power drunk freedom fighter fossils

One fossil got unearthed during the multiple tremors that makes Zimbabwe an economic disaster and political quagmire a Kenneth Kaunda who was once the Dictator-President of Zambia.

Now, I remember his novel Zambia Shall Be Free being one of the literature texts when we in secondary school and a good deal of the content was hardly anything we kids in Nigeria of the 70s could identify with, however, Zambia had already been liberated and in the hands of Africans for the best part of 13 years.

Mr. Kaunda typifies the typical African big-man mentality that assumes political power through “democratic” means and then elevates that mandate into a monarchist tenure developing a personality cult around themselves and suppressing all opposition and dissent

Within 6 months of assuming power in 1964, he instituted a state of emergency which remained in force till 1991 when due to failed economic policies and international pressure he called multi-party elections and was voted out.

He never took the cue from the other great African leader – Julius Nyerere of Tanzania who ceded power in 1985 and though they belong to the same crop of national leaders who espoused ideologies of African Socialism along with Kwame Nkrumah, they never really understood how to manage their countries into thriving democracies or economic power houses.

Post-independence issues

There are however, things that Mr. Kaunda can be commended for because as Northern Rhodesia became Zambia, Nyasaland became Malawi, Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and South Africa came under black majority rule, all these leaders concentrated their efforts on the liberation struggles of their neighbouring countries.

When these countries became independent, there were imbalances in political and economic clout. A good deal of the economy and assets were in the hands of the colonialists who in fact were also citizens of these countries albeit Caucasian.

There were problems with the modalities for the redistribution of wealth and property; one can say the old colonial powers were not entirely the most prudent or cooperative in help even out the imbalances and impatience ensued as African leaders implemented rash policies that have now resulted in the mess we find many countries in.

There might have been some good in appropriating assets of the white members of society, however, these were not done at fair value and when these properties were seized there were no competent personnel to hand these business and properties over to and many economies ran into difficulties – Zimbabwe being the country breaking records in basket-case history.

There is history and there is the present, we are products of our history but we cannot continue to use history as an excuse for meeting the contemporary issues of the day. It shows that we have refused to learn from history, work on our present issues and prepare to enter the future with hope and courage.

Feed the hungry child

The best analogy I can give to this situation is the case of a child who is starving to death who having been abducted and cared for by strangers is forcibly released back to its parents but the parents have neglected to address the present perilous hunger problem because they have been wronged by the abduction. Yes, the abduction charge needs to be dealt with by adequate means, but the child needs nourishment now. The child here represents the country, the politics, the economy and the everyday life of people in these frontline countries.

No conviction no pressure

So imagine my disgust with the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) who meeting in Lusaka, Zambia were dishonest, spineless, insincere, lacking courage or conviction and worthy of derision as they could not bring any pressure to bear on President Robert Mugabe about the problems in Zimbabwe which are already flowing into their countries.

This is just unbelievable, and it makes observers of issues in Africa really despair of possibilities of development or progress if these leaders cannot tackle what is evidently an untenable political and economic situation on their borders because of that kinship of the liberation struggle that took place over generation ago.

There is a saying in my language that goes thus – If two brothers meet up in a room to discuss serious matters and come out smiling, they probably have been insincere with each other especially where evidently there is a problem to be addressed.

The new slavery – poor leadership

To top this, Mr. Kenneth Kaunda presents himself as an apologist for Mr. Robert Mugabe by invoking history and colonialism to explain away the problems in Zimbabwe, no matter what the freedom fighters went through, the situation they have brought their countries to is unforgivable.

Well, if anything is clear, the policies, decisions and politics that brought Zimbabwe to its knees were implemented by black African men and not the colonial powers of old, some might say, it was better when the colonialists were the rulers - the sooner we recognise that we are just as culpable with regards to the problems that Africa has, the earlier we can begin to solve them.

Meanwhile, the kind of message sent out from the SADC would make other countries outside Africa wonder if it is not time to just forget about doing anything in Africa if their leaders cannot honestly and truthfully encourage progress and condemn poor governance.

Human compassion compels us to try and see beyond these leaders and bypass them to help fellow human beings who are in a new kind of slavery, one that refuses to be bold with the truth. It is to their shame and history would surely cast them as villains if they won freedom to bring more destruction on their fatherland.

Two inflations one Zimbabwe

A basket of tragedy

The wicked man who rules Zimbabwe as a grubby dirty dictator must have interesting perspectives of inflation. Hardly a year ago, inflation was hitting a record 1,042.9%, then business quotations were not valid for more than 2 days - unimaginable - one year on, it has rocketed to 3,713% - it continues to fill me with amazement still where in the West an inflation rate of 4% would send jitters through the markets threatening all sorts of business confidence and possible collapse of certain financial instruments.

Poignantly, one report illustrates how traders are coping with these unprecedented inflation levels, a bar of soap gets cut into three and then each part is sold at slightly higher than a third of the price of whole.

Food stuff are now been re-weighed and repackaged into smaller quantities for more or less the same or higher price in what is referred to as the "Tsaono Basket", Tsaono meaning tragedy in Shona - a language spoken in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana.

The greater tragedy of this is the fact that hardly 10 years ago, Zimbabwe was the food basket of Southern Africa where farms which mainly belonged to white Zimbabweans produced enough to feed the people and export to neighbouring countries.

These farms were seized in some mendacious black empowerment drive and given to so-called war veterans who knew diddly-squat about agriculture or farm management - the result is a country on the verge of great famine and starvation - Mr. Mugabe might have appeared smart with what he had done but he has ruined his country and he is oblivious of this fact.

More police, still no farmers

We now find that in readiness the elections next year the police force is to see an inflation of 100%, the numbers are to be doubled to double the oppression and repression of a people who only want to survive and seek a government that would meet the socio-economic needs that any world citizen deserves.

Any wise old man would see the problem with his country and suffering amongst his people to realise that the recruitment drive should be in raising people with knowledge about farm management so as to start to bring Zimbabwe out of the doldrums.

We need to ditch the patriarchal system of patronage in Africa that allows for nasty old men to impose their selfish megalomaniac will on a people thereby impeding progress and condemning their countries to preventable suffering and unnecessary poverty.

Mr Robert Mugabe was once one of the leaders of the liberation struggle in Southern Africa, but that is now history because there is no point in being ruled by people of the same colour and then encountering such great hardship because of misgovernment, corruption and nepotism.

There may be some who would begin to wonder if the times under white rule were not times of great freedom and prosperity.

If that is not a greater indictment of Mr. Robert Mugabe and his cohorts or gang, nothing else is.

Zimbabwe, a serial nightmare

Pictures too disturbing

The pictures coming out of the despotic enclave of Zimbabwe where a gerontocrat holds sway like a boat caught in a storm makes utterly disturbing viewing. The cartoons in the Economist or Financial times this weekend have no patch on the horrific bloated faces, partly shaved heads and bloodied bodies - these are the visible parts, the internal damage could be worse, the psychological scars would even be deeper, my prayers are definitely with those people.

For all sorts of reasons Robert Mugabe still gets revered by too many on the basis of what he did about 3 decades ago, the struggle for independence, it is unlikely that ordinary people like you and I can really rest on our laurels of 30 years without improving and updating our skills.

Breaking bad records

The time for commendation for that struggle has passed, we have stark realities on the ground now; Zimbabwe is setting record inflation levels of almost 1800% and the projection is that it would hit 5000% by the end of the year.

In established economies we cannot countenance a percentage increase in inflation without some serious macro-economic decision taken to stem the tide, everything is thrown in keep it below 3%, Zimbabwe's case it is seemingly beyond control or mere mortals.

Such inflationary levels mean that money becomes like dust, no amount you have can buy anything worthwhile, it lead the head of the teacher's union to comment that teachers are being paid the equivalent of 4½ bananas a day.

That is exactly the point, the ordinary and probably middle-class Zimbabwean earns less than what a monkey in the forest would gnaw into in 5 minutes or less. The leader is making monkeys of his people and getting away with it with impunity.

Mugabe is a blind visionary

The police brutality meted out to the members of the opposition cannot ever be acceptable in the West, it beggars belief that such brazen barbarity can still exist and the ruling authorities can condone it at all.

But Mr. Mugabe earns praise for kicking out the whites, people who are more or less as indigenous as their fellow black citizens, who for the sake of record keeping can probably trace their ancestry back a lot longer than any African either in Africa or back to Europe - he missed a crucial point in this ideological stupidity that would probably parallel the Cultural Revolution of China.

Those whites were the engine of the Zimbabwean economy, they probably had an unfair share of the wealth, land and resources of the country; that was a detail of history, the snatch and grab to place in the hands of incompetent cretins who could hardly manage their principles; well, that is to give them more credence than is deserved, they probably could not manage even their own bowels talk less of businesses was utterly foolish.

Now, if Mugabe had taken those so-called war veterans and put them through management school, had some major in horticulture, agronomy, economics, international trade and put some through vocational training as able farmhands then had them understudy the farm-owners before negotiating a market-value proposition to transfer the business to budding blacks, probably Zimbabwe would have been an utterly different place.

Herein is the problem with African leadership, they have crazy ideas, crooked execution strategies and foul up the whole thing without taking an iota of responsibility - they have ideologies but lack a mission and have no vision.

Mr. Mugabe would have us believe that Zimbabwe is under some sanctions regime, well, nothing could be further from the truth, it is the despotic leadership that is under sanctions, travel bans and restrained banking access, Zimbabwe as a country can trade if she had the goods to trade.

Feeding out of bins

One other story speaks of early morning joggers finding their rubbish being rummaged, not by dogs or foxes, but by fellow human beings, Zimbabweans who maybe 10 years ago had the world as their oyster.

Couple to this the ineffectiveness of the African Union, the silence of neighbouring countries, South Africa especially that would have to do something in order not to make the 2010 World Cup their hosting the least attended of that event in modern times, they might just begin to speak up and do something, they cannot continue to absorb one third of Zimbabweans making up on sixth of their population.

Zimbabwe, the diplomatic graveyard

Now, Mr. Mugabe says the West should "Go and Hang", it really does not bother the West apart from the civilised humanity of having to witness the destruction of jewel thrown to pigs, the Economist cartoon shows him sitting on the carcass of a rhinoceros with the comment that Zimbabwe is standing still, and it cannot even go backward. The Financial Times shows him saying "Go and Hang" whilst ignoring every aid to get him out of the quicksand he is sinking into and the West stands on firmer ground.

He has threatened to kick out foreign diplomats, again, why anyone would want to further their diplomatic career in Zimbabwe escapes me except for where the person needs to get some training on how to handle despots in Myanmar or North Korea - for all intents and purposes, diplomats would be assaulted with images that are too distressing for comfort, a posting to Zimbabwe has to be the elephant's graveyard of an undistinguished diplomatic career, frankly, every self-respecting country should recall their diplomats and send the Zimbabwean mouthpieces of that savage back to the bush that Zimbabwe has become.

As he said those words about diplomats getting kicked out, people applauded, the people who prop up this unconscionable apology for all that is wrong with patriachalism in Africa, the inability to speak the straight truth out to our elders for the fear of disrespecting them and then getting cursed. Yes, they really did applaud him, they did.

Not proud to be African

In all, the decline of Zimbabwe, the savagery of their law enforcement, the tragedy in Darfur, the terrorism in the Niger Delta, the impending chaos being visited on the Nigerian elections, the simmering uncalm of Western Sahara, yes, it exists, the ineffectiveness of the African Union, the lack of moral rectitude of our African leaders and the second slavery of the African people to bad governance, poverty and repression by their own people leaves me not very proud to be African today.

References

Chippla's Weblog - Whose Zimbabwe?

FT - Mugabe tells critics to ‘go and hang'

FT - Zimbabwe sinks into hell of hyperinflation

FT - Zimbabwe teachers earn 4½ bananas/day

BBC - Zimbabwe stops activists leaving