Election of Donald Trump USA President has unnerved Mugabe and Tsvangirai in equal measure. By P Guramatunhu

The election of Donald Trump as the next US President has caused a lot of consternation in both the Zanu PF camp as well as the opposition camp in Zimbabwe. A no nonsense President Trump administration is making them jumpy.

When it comes to USA elections, Zanu PF’s usual position is that of resigned indifference; as both the Democrats and Republicans administrations have maintained the same unfriendly foreign policies towards Harare. Similarly, the opposition camp has found the Democrats and Republicans equally amenable and choosing one over the other is comparable to picking the colour of the new car in a showroom! The election of Donald Trump, who is not going to play the game by the same rules, has forced both camps to review their relationship with America!

“I want to reiterate here before America’s greatest heroes that I will not condone any dictatorial tendencies exhibited by dictators around the world especially the two old men from Zimbabwe and Uganda.

‘Mugabe and Museveni must be put on notice that their days are numbered and that I am going to arrest them and lock them in prison. If the past American administrations have failed to stop these two despots, I will personally do it,” Trump told American war veterans.

President Mugabe is facing the toughest elections of his whole long political career given the Zimbabwe economy is in a hell-of-a-mess and everyone up and down the country is feeling the economic hardships and they are demanding change. His party, Zanu PF, is being torn apart as a result of the ongoing factional wars.  

To win the next elections President Mugabe has no pull all the dirty tricks he knows and now he must do this knowing fully well that the trigger-happy President Donald Trump, has him in the cross-wires of his rifle!

President Elect Trump’s tough talking rhetoric against Mugabe has left Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders giggling nervously, they know their own track records is nothing to be proud of!

"Tsvangirai is ... a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement in selecting those around him," wrote former Ambassador Dell in his 2007 cable from the US embassy in Zimbabwe.

So by the time President Obama took office in 2009, his administration should have known they were dealing with a “flawed and indecisive” Tsvangirai and treated him accordingly. Instead, President Obama granted Tsvangirai the singular honour of being one of the first African leaders to meet him in White House.

If there was any doubt that Tsvangirai and the rest of MDC leaders like Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, David Coltart, etc. were corrupt and incompetent; they failure to get even one democratic reform implemented throughout the GNU melted away all such doubt. Soon after the July 2013 elections, SADC leaders openly criticized MDC leaders for “enjoying themselves during the GNU and forgetting why they were there”. President Obama’s administration has never openly criticized MDC leaders and the later were hoping the election of Hillary Clinton as the next US President would allow the relationship the Americans to be reset to the pre-Ambassador Dell era when the opposition leaders were considered competent.

Some of the MDC leaders were confident they would be invited to attend Clinton’s inauguration. They can forget about that one now; if President Trump has a say on who will be invited then they will not be invited!

There is no doubt that President Donald Trump is not Mr. Nice Guy; like it or not he calls a spade a bloody shovel and not one to treat corrupt and murderous tyrant like President Mugabe or corrupt and incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai with kid gloves!