Political Begging and Abuse

Mugabe’s current `Contradictions’

Robert Mugabe has been abusing and begging from his real and perceived enemies in equal and bewildering measure recently: `Go to Hell!’, he raves but his call for a blanket amnesty for his suborned security forces whose violence has been directed at so many of his own innocent people, are cases in point. His apparently schizoid state of mind (an industrious, would-be etymologist friend tells me that a split personality is more accurately described as dementia praecox) is more understandable if it is remembered by older observers that his greatest `contradiction’ (one of his favourite words) came almost immediately after Independence in early 1980. That was when he told Zimbabweans that all would be forgiven; he clasped his old enemies to his bosom, figuratively speaking, with that great reconciliation speech. The old `enemy’, his white subjects, have since been grievously harmed or driven out of the country. (A few notorious white rogues were spared for a time). White friends and enemies alike have been replaced by legions of new enemies, most of them black.

But that is not the point of this `discourse’ (another of his favourite words). I want to suggest that from Day One that Robert Mugabe has been pushed and pulled from one side to another of the political spectrum by his followers, his beneficiaries (to say nothing of his benefactors: North Korean military trainers spring to mind) from day one. Economically he has never had much understanding of the long-term consequences of appropriating the power of the Reserve Bank, for instance, by appointing his friends to do his bidding. Naturally this made them rich while there was money in the Treasury to be misappropriated. The destruction of Agriculture, his catastrophic move to pacify his so-called war vets needs no further examination. Socially, he never much liked whites (the late Queen Mother excepted) for reasons which are fairly obvious: they were not always very nice to black people like him - clever and ambitious blacks. He has stayed in power for more than thirty years because of his willingness to change tack when his most powerful allies within and from outside his ruling ZANU (PF) have faltered.

Now, in his old age, he grows forgetful, contradicting himself more frequently. The more unforgiving of his enemies, both old and new, wait impatiently for his demise. Many others would wish that he and his henchmen will, like Charles Taylor, see the inside of the International Court for Criminal Justice at the Hague while he lives. The oldest of his enemies hope to live long enough to see it happen. With diamonds now in the Zimbabwe mix, it would be no bad thing if another international celebrity could, for good reasons, this time, bring a long awaited case to the attention of a world preoccupied with too many post-colonial contradictions.


Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell

Mugabe's legacy to wives of his goons

The sad story told by the wife of Zimbabwe's Assisant Police Commissioner, Todd Jangara, allegedly seriously beaten by her husband, is a stark reminder of what happens when the rule of law is so utterly compromised. This unhappy woman and her family would once have rejoiced, danced and ululated when her husband was promoted to high office. She appears to have known that her husband's first responsibility was to uphold the rule of law and see to it that every Zimbabwean, wives of police officers not excepted, could seek justice Alas! Power corrupts... and we all know how that sentence ends. I wonder if this woman who would almost certainly have been a loyal, dancing and ululating follower of Robert Mugabe's appalling ZANU (PF) party; possibly even a leading light in the women's movement within that degraded organization, understands or regrets what is being done to her sisterhood in a rival politcal party by people like her policeman husband?

History, in this tragedy, speaks loud with the name, Todd, invoked through a court report of the appearance in the dock of the alleged bully. Jangara's first name is Todd. It would be almost certain that Jangara's parents knew of or may even have benefited from the fine, humanitarian work done for oppressed black people of Rhodesia by the late, former Sourthern Rhodesian Prime Minister, Garfield Todd and his wife, Grace. The oppression in Rhodesian days fades almost to insignificance in the light of the cruel acts of Mugabe's goons. If guilty, Jangara, who blames his brothers-in-law for the vicious beatings his wife endured, has exchanged his namesake's noble legacy for one which will go down in history in ignominy.

The saving grace here is that the beaten wife has had the courage to face an apparently malevolent senior policeman, in this case her own husband, in a court formerly unaccustomed to seeing top police lawbreakers, standing as accused in a Chitungwiza Magistrates court.

Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell

 

My pic at 76
This is an experiment just to see if I can manage pics, a skill I have not practised enough.

A blog for today can only say that I have read of the crass brutality of one Aquilina Katsande in Zim's violently led ZANU (PF) and am horrified. I am regretful that it is likely that I shall not live long enough to see this woman and her ilk brought to account in this world. There is not much else one can say so long as the current regime rules.


Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell

A Post Script on Zim Farms tragedy

Today, on reading the First Post's item on greenhouse gas emissions and their connection with flatulant cattle, I was struck by the statement made by a serious scientist:

"The developed world should focus on increasing efficient meat production in developing countries where growing populations need more nutritious food. In developing countries, we should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices to make more food with less greenhouse gas production."

Zimbabweans know that beef is probably next after sadza to the nation's favourite food.

The cattle industry was once equal to the best in the world. From 2000 onwards, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU (PF) government destroyed the country's "more efficient, Western-style farming practises" built up over the 88 years of colonial government and twenty years of sovereign independence.

What more is there to be said?
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell