Mugabe behaves like an odd old Zvimba Kraal head

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By GEORGE CHIRIKURE

Published: November 8, 2009

When a purported full Head of State andGovernment and Commander – in – Chief like President Mugabe, now aged 86 years and one of the 2 longest serving leaders in the SADC region, is day and night hauled before his peers, and does not feel ashamed of it then it goes to show what kind of leader he is and what sort of advisers he has.

In Shona culture when one is frequently called to appear before the village court it underlines how misbehaving and mouth fouled he/she is in the community.

President Mugabe, who is supposed to be a statesman, a Zimbabwean, African and international statesman for that matter, has been summoned countless times to appear before SADC Summits, where the heads of state and government indirectly or directly tried to screw some sense into a dunderhead.

I refer to him as being a dunderhead because he knows fully well the significance of his role as head of state when he appends his signatures to many international treaties and conventions, yet behaves himself like a kraal head who draws his advice from corrupt medieval tribesmen and warlords.

Recently, President Mugabe told Zanu PF thugs who had invaded andvandalized the inaugural constitutional conference at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) how painful and embarrassing it was for him to spend sleepless nights negotiating with fellow Zimbabweans in the MDC in order to reach an accord – GPA hence the need to be united behind common national interests.

The impression created by this assertion was a state president who had learnt his lessons and now looked focused on nation/state building, stabilization and prosperity for which the majority of Zimbabweans are raring to go.

Ironically, throughout the history of President Mugabe’s national leadership, most of his political discourse has been heavily punctuated by calls for national unity, patriotism anddevelopment.

But one can not purport to be defending these values when he/she is the main culprit for their trepidation. President Mugabe’s so called national revolutionary strategy of jambanja (political violence), a mere political survival strategy, has left the state andnation in ruin, divided andeven much more vulnerable to external threats.

But, because he is now deranged andsolely relies on poisonous advice given by men andwomen who are only fit to be tribal warlords of the medieval era, the likes of Jonathan Moyo, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Tafataona Mahoso, George Charamba, Patrick Chinamasa, Joseph Chinotimba, Didymus Mutasa, just to mention a few, President Mugabe has in the past years, been indicating right, but has been turning left.

This inconsistent leadership by a head of state, who is supposed to be the icon of African statesmanship andwisdom, is the underlining cause for the difficulties the GPA andIG are going through.

If the repetitive reference to President Mugabe by state media as the head of state and government and Commander – in – Chief of the ZDF is of any national significance then he must be able to show every Zimbabwean that as an undisputed statesman there is a big difference between being the 1st Secretary and president of Zanu PF andPresident of Zimbabwe.

The reality that President Mugabe is now behaving like a medieval kraal head andan iron age warlord with the only difference being the imposed and inflated national title of head of state and government and Commander –in- Chief of ZDF, is even being noted and recited by junior primary school children both in Zimbabwe andSADC.

Take for example all the falsehoods peddled everyday by state media regarding who has not played his part in the full GPA implementation and the reaffirmation by the SADC Troika Summit in Maputo that there are genuine outstanding issues to be resolved by all the parties to the GPA andIG.

The fact that President Mugabe has carried the same falsehoods andcheap propaganda to the Troika Summit underlines how he has become so wicked in order to accommodate the views of his medieval tribesmen who pretend to be state advisers.

If this is what the whole head of state and government andCommander – in – Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces can be, then one can just imagine what sort of orders are given to our armed forces by this warlord  who is so much terrified by the possibility of peaceful democratic transformation.

The amended Zimbabwe Constitution recognizes the imperative need for inclusivity as reflected by the March/08 elections results hence the MDC’s key role in the leadership of some of the provincial state and government institutions is a political necessity not a favour from Zanu PF.

As things stand now, the head of state’s constitutional prerogatives must be exercised responsibly within the context of the spirit of national unity and inclusivity hence President Mugabe’s insistence that he is entitled by the constitution to act as he wishes when it comes to appointing provincial governors, RBZ governor, Attorney General and ambassadors underlines his medieval kraal head mentality.

Common sense would suggest that if the GPA and IG were products of painful political compromises by Zimbabwe’s brothers and sisters who chose to put in front common national interests so as to begin the long journey of state/nation building, then the person (President Mugabe) who claims to be the father/leader of the nation must be the first to grab the opportunity presented andlead from the front.

Ironically and like a true Zvimba kraal head, President Mugabe has failed to break from the medieval past when full access to, control and ruthless use of stone age state military tools constituted the wonderful art of state building process.

What has been happening in Zanu PF structures particularly Harare and Bulawayo Provinces where the party has been failing to pacify warring tribesmen, helps us to understand how President Mugabe’s choice of political jambanja (violence) can always come back to haunt its creators andadmirers.

With SADC insisting on the full implementation of the GPA and harmonious functioning of the IG, President Mugabe as the leader is now left with 2 simple choices.

The first one is to simply abide by the accord so as to continue to enjoy the full support andsolidarity of his peers in the region andbeyond.

The second and last one is for him to completely ignore the SADC resolutions and go for full throat jambanja against SADC, an art he is very good at, but whose consequences shall be gust to contemplate.

If President Mugabe does not realize his latest humiliation where he tried in vain to argue andpresent a case against the MDC, as simply trying to get new concessions which were not part of the GPA, then he is mentally incapacitated at best andvery dishonest to his Zanu PF cronies at worst.

For example the mere fact that the 29 January SADC Communiqué included his full name and title as Head of State and Government, also means he was part to the formulation of the resolutions, but just because he has the natural instincts of a medieval kraal head, he is now pretending there was nothing like that.

The latest Maputo SADC Troika resolutions simply gave full reasons to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai andhis party that there is need to fully comply andimplement the GPA andthe other resultant SADC decisions.

The PM did not canvass for the Troika Summit in order to renegotiate the GPA, but yes to ensure that all parties fulfill their obligations.

A glaring but unfortunate reality is that President Mugabe totally considers the MDC leadership as politically dull and whatever political capacity demonstrated by the MDC as result of powerful external influence.

For example the mere fact that the MDC disengaged from the executive arms of the IG in order to press SADC to ensure the full implementation of the GPA has been spinned by President Mugabe as a good case of manipulation by hostile external forces.

However, if President Mugabe has a sober mind, had voluntarily signed the GPA, acknowledges andrespects peer decisions as represented by the SADC Communiqué of 27  – 29 January 2009, then he has no other choice other than to comply.

As things now stand President Mugabe has to make a simple choice, either to fool himself, by following the divisive and irrelevant advice of his medieval warlords or to desist from abusing his high position andstate authority and patriotically lead his IG team in state building.

At the end of the day, President Mugabe must realize that he is not only leader of Zanu PF, but the head of state for all of us.  Just to quote Aristotle, if the student fails the teacher hasn’t taught.

Thus if the GPA and IG fail President Mugabe hasn’t led. It won’t be Jonathan Moyo, Mahoso, Charamba, etc., but President Mugabe.

He therefore, has to either behave himself like a true head of state to which every Zimbabwe is looking for guidance or an odd old kraal head from Zvimba village – the real Gushungo, who simply thrives on petty communal jealous edisputes as peddled by Moyo, Mahoso, Huni andCharamba.

President Mugabe must be able to see that the ill advice coming from his cronies stems from the fact that they have lost true national values in exchange for every political trick they think guarantees them rapid andillegal retention andaccumulation of wealth.

Whilst even Zanu PF lizards, cockroaches, flies, insects, etc. acknowledge and prefer their party and Zimbabwe to have a new and fresh mind andpair of hands at the highest level – the sole reason for ongoing factional fights, the mere realization that the one who is there is flatly refusing to go, has forced them to connive among themselves to pretend as if they support their leader as long as he maintains the flow of economic benefits to them.

President Mugabe himself has never been the same again ever since his repetitive electoral defeats at the hands of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, as he has now become an even more than vulnerable leader whose continuation in power obviously depends on the whims of few political conmen.

President Mugabe no longer demonstrates his non partisan or political equidistance when it comes to national policy direction, his trademark in the early 1980s.

Today, he simply listens to what political conman like Jonathan Moyo, civil servant brat George Charamba andarchaic neo – Marxist intellectual like Mahoso, say and think.

Definitely for his legacy’s sake President Mugabe needs to stop behaving like a tribal kraal head and dully take up his high position of an undisputed African statesman. This is not regime change garbage, but political wisdom.