“The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interrèd with their bones,” said Mark Anthony in Shakespeare’s
play, Julius Caesar.
The evil that President Mugabe has done has come back to haunt
him in his old age!
Last week the President of Botswana, Ian Khama, told President
Mugabe in no uncertain terms that he must go.
"Without doubt,” he said. “He should have done it years
ago."
"It is obvious that at his age and the state Zimbabwe is
in, he's not really able to provide the leadership that could get it out of its
predicament."
An African leader criticizing another African leader is a rarity
but to do so in such strong language is unheard of. And yet a few days later
President Hage Geingob of Namibia too broke rank and had no kind words for President
Mugabe.
"We must get rid of the days where we believed in strong
presidents, personality cults, and that some are (demi)-gods," he of the
Zimbabwe tyrant.
"We must know that killing our people is not the way to go.
"If you do that, you can't expect the world to respect you.
They will intervene and tell you that you are doing a wrong thing"
Now former Nigeria President General Olusegun Obasanjo has too
joined the Mugabe slagging melee.
"Well, I believe that after he has stayed as long as he
has, since 1980, I don't believe there is something special that he wants to
achieve that he has not so far achieved. I don't believe there is magic that he
wants to perform that he hasn't performed," he told the Jamaica Observer.
Of course Obasanjo was being kind to Mugabe; the later has
destroyed Zimbabwe’s once promising economy and murdered over 30 000 innocent
Zimbabwe to establish and retain his one-party cum one-man dictatorship, as
both President Geingob and President Khama have rightly pointed out. If that is
magic then what President Mugabe has the deadly voodoo he should have never
been allowed to administer!
President Mugabe has managed to stay in power for 36 years only
because he cheated, rigged elections and even killed; the democratic deficit
General Obasanjo is aware of! When he was asked if Mugabe had betrayed the
revolution, he reportedly “gave a heavy sigh before answering”.
"Well, he believes that he hasn't. To the extent that the
revolution was partly about land redistribution, I would say he has kept faith
with the revolution. But to the extent that the revolution was also about
democracy, that has not been able to take place," Obasanjo said.
General Obasanjo was the head of the AU team appointed to
monitor Zimbabwe 2013 elections. The team acknowledged in its report the glaring
irregularities as the regime’s failure to produce a voters roll; admitted that
nearly one million voters, 20% of those who voted, were denied the vote because
their details were not in the constituency voters roll they expected; etc.
If the voters roll have been released timeously as is required
by law, there is no doubt many of those affected would have the mistake put
right, assuming it was a mistake. The regime has refused to release the voters
roll even to this day because it knows close scrutiny will prove beyond doubt
that the posting of personal data in wrong constituencies was a deliberate and
calculated vote rigging ploy!
Given that President Mugabe’s “winning” margin was just over one
million and thus comparable to the nearly one million fraudulently denied the
vote because their personal data had been tampered with, to say nothing of the
contributions from other irregularities; it is clear election results could not
be allowed to stand.
General Obasanjo and his AU team noted the irregularities but
still allowed the result of Mugabe victory to stand because “the elections were
largely peaceful”, they argued. They were comparing the 2013 elections to
Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections which had been marred by the usual vote rigging and
wanton violence.
Of course there is a lot more to free, fair and credible
elections than just the absence of wanton violence and General Obasanjo knows
that. He heaved a heavy sigh out of shame he allowed Mugabe to get away with rigged
elections in 2013 and out of relief he is finally getting the guilty off his
chest putting the record right!
Many people were surprise President Mugabe turned down the
invitation to travel to Botswana for that country’s 50th anniversary; he loves
travelling and is in and out of the country like a yoyo! President Mugabe is
thick-skinned but President Khama’s criticism must have got under his skin for
him to forgo one of his favorite activities – globetrotting!
No doubt Namibia and Nigeria will now be added to his growing
list of countries he will not visit in his globetrotting. Europe, North America
and other Western countries are already on his list, they fell out with the
tyrant over his failure to hold free and fair elections amongst other things.
President Mugabe is in trouble with the ordinary Zimbabweans too
who have suffered the ill-effects of economic meltdown and political
oppression. Even his fellow Zanu PF cronies are rebelling against him with his
war veteran minions denouncing him for his “dictatorial tendencies”!
After decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule the consequences of
his misrule are all coming out and what a time to do so when he is weak and
feeble due to old age. It never rains but pours; for President Mugabe it is
pouring cats and dogs! “Chawakadya chamuka, Gushungo iwee!” as one would say in
Shona. (Your evil deeds are all coming home to haunt you, Mugabe!)
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