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 White friends and enemies alike have been replaced by legions of new enemies, most of them black.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
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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
"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
Sunday, December 27, 2009
TAGUTA means we have eaten enough
This is a time of year for attempting to tidy up one's email files. I have a tendency to hang on to everything I read so this can be a daunting task. It will never be finished before the year 2009 is out so I have decided to stop deleting and record the following, found in a 2006 file. I have lifted it from the Solidarity Peace Trust, presided over by the revered, reverend Pius Ncube and another cleric. The supreme irony of the words they have quoted from Zimbabweans nearly four, long years ago remains, entirely undiminished as we approach 2010.
Before I go on with this, it occurs to me that ZANU (PF) should rename itself Taguta. Its leaders and followers have surely eaten enough. By now they are, to put it crudely, full to bursting.
Here are the words:
“We applaud the Zimbabwe Defence Forces for taking up the challenge by strapping their guns on their backs and rolling up their sleeves to till the land under Operation Maguta. Under this programme, no doubt a huge food gap will be closed, effectively saving foreign exchange to go towards other priority sectors of the economy.”
GIDEON GONO, Reserve Bank Governor
February 2006
“Not even a single person has benefited from the irrigation this year”.
PLOT HOLDER 1, Matabeleland South
March 2006
“We made money by growing vegetables but all that was ploughed down by the [army] tractor. So now I have not one cent….
PLOT HOLDER 2, Matabeleland South
March 2006
“Destruction of market gardening has destroyed the economic independence of these irrigation communities: where people were self sufficient, they will now be poor and have to look to government to provide everything.”
Ex AREX officer, 27 March 2006
As of now they give us 500 cobs [100 kg] of maize[of our entire harvest] and say that’s enough, we have to wait until the next harvest. Maybe then they won’t give us any…. We had bought our own seeds and fertilisers from Bulawayo and we hired a lorry to carry it for us, and we planted it, before the army arrived.”
PLOT HOLDER 3, Matabeleland South
March 2006
"Nothing in this Act shall prevent any person: who is the producer of a controlled product from using any such controlled product for consumption by himself, his household, his employees or his livestock".
GRAIN MARKETING BOARD ACT (35) (1) (c)
I feel sure that these quotes should be copied and copied again until they find the conscience of Gideon Gono or any other powerful person who feasts and grows fat on Zimbabwe's rapidly dwindling numbers of local farmers and food suppliers.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Before I go on with this, it occurs to me that ZANU (PF) should rename itself Taguta. Its leaders and followers have surely eaten enough. By now they are, to put it crudely, full to bursting.
Here are the words:
“We applaud the Zimbabwe Defence Forces for taking up the challenge by strapping their guns on their backs and rolling up their sleeves to till the land under Operation Maguta. Under this programme, no doubt a huge food gap will be closed, effectively saving foreign exchange to go towards other priority sectors of the economy.”
GIDEON GONO, Reserve Bank Governor
February 2006
“Not even a single person has benefited from the irrigation this year”.
PLOT HOLDER 1, Matabeleland South
March 2006
“We made money by growing vegetables but all that was ploughed down by the [army] tractor. So now I have not one cent….
PLOT HOLDER 2, Matabeleland South
March 2006
“Destruction of market gardening has destroyed the economic independence of these irrigation communities: where people were self sufficient, they will now be poor and have to look to government to provide everything.”
Ex AREX officer, 27 March 2006
As of now they give us 500 cobs [100 kg] of maize[of our entire harvest] and say that’s enough, we have to wait until the next harvest. Maybe then they won’t give us any…. We had bought our own seeds and fertilisers from Bulawayo and we hired a lorry to carry it for us, and we planted it, before the army arrived.”
PLOT HOLDER 3, Matabeleland South
March 2006
"Nothing in this Act shall prevent any person: who is the producer of a controlled product from using any such controlled product for consumption by himself, his household, his employees or his livestock".
GRAIN MARKETING BOARD ACT (35) (1) (c)
I feel sure that these quotes should be copied and copied again until they find the conscience of Gideon Gono or any other powerful person who feasts and grows fat on Zimbabwe's rapidly dwindling numbers of local farmers and food suppliers.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Time to stop the swop Jonathon Moyo
December's big, political decision-making moment has come around once again for ZANU PF.
Who will rule the party and the country? Which of the favoured sons - or daughters - will prevail in positions of wealth, power and authority? Asset grabbing of what is left of a destroyed economy is so much easier when the generals salute your leader and the CIO directs provincial and traditional leaders to obey him.
The factional infighting has reached epic proportions and for the weary and cynical but still half-interested observer nothing is so hard to believe as the re-emergence of Jonathon Moyo, recently reincarnated as the prodigal son.
This scurrilous son of the soil first emerged in 1989 as a champion of democracy. His impressive speeches and talent for a scholarly critique of the ongoing sea-changes that heralded the end of the Cold War made him many friends among the democratically-minded, including this writer. He got good jobs, great commissions with wealthy sponsors and in respectable academia.
Then, surprisingly, he swopped sides.
There is much evidence that his personal life was in disarray while at the same time he was running into financial storms. The US Ford Foundation and SA Wits university were witness to that. Back in Harare he took a high profile position on the Constitution Commission whose object was to constitutionally entrench Robert Mugabe in power. He was clearly well rewarded for putting his skills at the disposal of the ruling party. He lost badly as the February 2000 Referendum showed. No matter. After destroying the last vestiges of freedom of expression while a junior Minister of Information, he pops up championing some skull-duggery to manipulate the leadership of his party and he is thrown out of his powerful position.
Tjolotjo is his constituency which returns him to parliament and he seems, for a time, to be of independent mind.
The swop to political independence is not convincing and certainly not financially rewarding - this writer has had experience of the latter - and he returns to the ZANU PF fold. The fact that the ruling party takes him back is proof positive of how weak the party has become now that the opposition has made significant progress. How long before he sees his future looking more promising if he makes yet another swop?
Who will trust him now?
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Who will rule the party and the country? Which of the favoured sons - or daughters - will prevail in positions of wealth, power and authority? Asset grabbing of what is left of a destroyed economy is so much easier when the generals salute your leader and the CIO directs provincial and traditional leaders to obey him.
The factional infighting has reached epic proportions and for the weary and cynical but still half-interested observer nothing is so hard to believe as the re-emergence of Jonathon Moyo, recently reincarnated as the prodigal son.
This scurrilous son of the soil first emerged in 1989 as a champion of democracy. His impressive speeches and talent for a scholarly critique of the ongoing sea-changes that heralded the end of the Cold War made him many friends among the democratically-minded, including this writer. He got good jobs, great commissions with wealthy sponsors and in respectable academia.
Then, surprisingly, he swopped sides.
There is much evidence that his personal life was in disarray while at the same time he was running into financial storms. The US Ford Foundation and SA Wits university were witness to that. Back in Harare he took a high profile position on the Constitution Commission whose object was to constitutionally entrench Robert Mugabe in power. He was clearly well rewarded for putting his skills at the disposal of the ruling party. He lost badly as the February 2000 Referendum showed. No matter. After destroying the last vestiges of freedom of expression while a junior Minister of Information, he pops up championing some skull-duggery to manipulate the leadership of his party and he is thrown out of his powerful position.
Tjolotjo is his constituency which returns him to parliament and he seems, for a time, to be of independent mind.
The swop to political independence is not convincing and certainly not financially rewarding - this writer has had experience of the latter - and he returns to the ZANU PF fold. The fact that the ruling party takes him back is proof positive of how weak the party has become now that the opposition has made significant progress. How long before he sees his future looking more promising if he makes yet another swop?
Who will trust him now?
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE `WAR' IN ZIMBABWE IS NOT AGAINST WHITES
BEN FREETH has eloquently described (most recently in The Spectator, November 7) what has happened to him and his family, and by extension to most white farmers in Zimbabwe. It is a terrible tale and among many similar stories, some are even worse. His description of the cruel and wanton destruction of his farm and that of his in-laws, the Campbells, deserves the widest exposure just as he and most white farmers who have become Mugabe's favourite targets deserve to be honoured today for their brave attempts, however hopeless it may seem, to stand against the tyrant.
That being said, I must disagree with his conclusion that `Zimbabwe's nationalist leaders today hate the white man just as Nazis despised the Jew". The men (and a few women) he calls nationalists are not nationalists, such as they once were; they have evolved into indescribably greedy, stupid and probably frightened bullies who hate what they fear most, the rightness of the white farmers' cause. Given the freedoms that Mugabe claims to have fought for, they could feed the nation and restore a once-viable and vibrant economy. The `blame' for the chaos that he (Mugabe) has created belongs firmly with that vain, cunning and wicked old man and his cronies (not, least the military supremos) who hang on to his coat tails - and well we know it.
Today's Zimbabwean tragedy is not only a wholly unjustified `war' against white farmers; there has been an undeclared war against his political opposition, demonstrably an opposition comprising a majority of his own black population. That is what he really hates and he is lashing out against white farmers in the fast-fading hope of restoring his popularity by giving away their lands and their lawfully earned possessions.
He is emboldened now because he no longer needs the farmers to generate the precious foreign currency that bought the loyalty of the military and his party apparatchiks. Diamonds, lots of them, have been found. Who needs oil when your military can kill peasant diamond miners with impunity and grab this new source of wealth. You can't eat diamonds but if you are wealthy enough you can import your victuals. Let the people starve and blame it on the white farmers.
No, Mugabe does not hate whites, he loves power.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
That being said, I must disagree with his conclusion that `Zimbabwe's nationalist leaders today hate the white man just as Nazis despised the Jew". The men (and a few women) he calls nationalists are not nationalists, such as they once were; they have evolved into indescribably greedy, stupid and probably frightened bullies who hate what they fear most, the rightness of the white farmers' cause. Given the freedoms that Mugabe claims to have fought for, they could feed the nation and restore a once-viable and vibrant economy. The `blame' for the chaos that he (Mugabe) has created belongs firmly with that vain, cunning and wicked old man and his cronies (not, least the military supremos) who hang on to his coat tails - and well we know it.
Today's Zimbabwean tragedy is not only a wholly unjustified `war' against white farmers; there has been an undeclared war against his political opposition, demonstrably an opposition comprising a majority of his own black population. That is what he really hates and he is lashing out against white farmers in the fast-fading hope of restoring his popularity by giving away their lands and their lawfully earned possessions.
He is emboldened now because he no longer needs the farmers to generate the precious foreign currency that bought the loyalty of the military and his party apparatchiks. Diamonds, lots of them, have been found. Who needs oil when your military can kill peasant diamond miners with impunity and grab this new source of wealth. You can't eat diamonds but if you are wealthy enough you can import your victuals. Let the people starve and blame it on the white farmers.
No, Mugabe does not hate whites, he loves power.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Taking it all in
A JUSTIFIABLY ANGRY UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL, MANUEL NOWAK
I am sure I am not alone in finding it difficult to get my thoughts down after reading/hearing the news each day. No sooner have I composed my thoughts and opened this new blog page than some newer development (sometimes personal) intervenes and the moment is lost.
For this reason I shall blog more like a twitter-er, or give lengthy tweets on this page at whatever level in time and space the day allows.
Starting today: all oppressed Zimbabweans' hopes for help or redress in the realm of Human Rights have been dashed by the coarse behaviour of the ZANU (PF) representatives of the government. Nothing unusual here. What is cheering, in a perverse sort of way is the full coverage given to the angry statement from the UN's Manuel Nowak. This capering of ZANU(PF) is a further demonstration of the weakness and insecurity of the so-called ruling party. One must use this latter adjective because we know that the MDC's part in `ruling' has been rendered almost useless, except for the efforts of the noble Tendai Biti who has managed to make a little progress in Finance, allowing people to get a few US dollars with which to feed themselves and stay alive a little longer.
The deliberations of SADEC today will be more interesting, if not more meaningful than usual.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
I am sure I am not alone in finding it difficult to get my thoughts down after reading/hearing the news each day. No sooner have I composed my thoughts and opened this new blog page than some newer development (sometimes personal) intervenes and the moment is lost.
For this reason I shall blog more like a twitter-er, or give lengthy tweets on this page at whatever level in time and space the day allows.
Starting today: all oppressed Zimbabweans' hopes for help or redress in the realm of Human Rights have been dashed by the coarse behaviour of the ZANU (PF) representatives of the government. Nothing unusual here. What is cheering, in a perverse sort of way is the full coverage given to the angry statement from the UN's Manuel Nowak. This capering of ZANU(PF) is a further demonstration of the weakness and insecurity of the so-called ruling party. One must use this latter adjective because we know that the MDC's part in `ruling' has been rendered almost useless, except for the efforts of the noble Tendai Biti who has managed to make a little progress in Finance, allowing people to get a few US dollars with which to feed themselves and stay alive a little longer.
The deliberations of SADEC today will be more interesting, if not more meaningful than usual.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tsvangirai in London too ambivalent
THIS IS BAD NEWS! MUST I `EAT CROW'?
A reliable friend in Zimbabwe is patently angry with me for `blogging' re my feeling upbeat about Morgan Tsvangirai's overseas visit and my welcoming his prospects for persuading his audiences that he will bring change to Zimbabwe. Here is my worthy friend's argument:
"We would like to see how/why you can feel upbeat, even vaguely; but we cannot afford to go online to read blogs any more at US42 cents a minute! As far as we and most people we know, things are worse by the day-----water (despite amounts of aid unseen for years), electricity, phones , violent crime (we have spent more on security in last 4 months than in previous 40 years) , inflation (only country in world to have inflation in real terms), extortionate charges by government, parastatals, utilities etc, decline in economic activity ([a family business], amongst many, closing down--worst 4 months ever), corruption, farm-grabbing, harassment of MDC members, civil society groups, journalists etc etc. Mr T and MDC are delusional and ineffective, their MPs unapproachable and out of touch with their supporters and reality; the only issue on which they have been vocal, forthright and united is the affront they have suffered by being given twincabs instead of something superior (i.e. Mercedes). The only exception to this sorry state is Coltart who has had some impact in education.
The current joke doing the rounds is that despite all this, Eddie Cross still writes interestingly------but about another country. They are losing urban support by the day and our ZANUPF acquaintances becoming quietly confident that if there is no dramatic change they will be able to win next election even without tricks.
The jeering at Southwark Cathedral is indicative of general feeling here. Of course one still hopes all this will change but what is the evidence out there, that we don't see here, that it might? What we saw on TV today was'nt it."
My previous blog, `Tsvangirai Telegenic..etc' was greeted by the rest of the folk I sent it to, with no comment. Does this silence speak volumes?
I will keep this missive short and await more commentary from those on the spot who clearly know better than I just how much hope there is or is not for the current regime in Zimbabwe.
In conclusion I must repeat, however, that the image of Robert Mugabe and his cronies basking in the sunshine of goodwill that warms Morgan and the MDC is not a pretty one.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
A reliable friend in Zimbabwe is patently angry with me for `blogging' re my feeling upbeat about Morgan Tsvangirai's overseas visit and my welcoming his prospects for persuading his audiences that he will bring change to Zimbabwe. Here is my worthy friend's argument:
"We would like to see how/why you can feel upbeat, even vaguely; but we cannot afford to go online to read blogs any more at US42 cents a minute! As far as we and most people we know, things are worse by the day-----water (despite amounts of aid unseen for years), electricity, phones , violent crime (we have spent more on security in last 4 months than in previous 40 years) , inflation (only country in world to have inflation in real terms), extortionate charges by government, parastatals, utilities etc, decline in economic activity ([a family business], amongst many, closing down--worst 4 months ever), corruption, farm-grabbing, harassment of MDC members, civil society groups, journalists etc etc. Mr T and MDC are delusional and ineffective, their MPs unapproachable and out of touch with their supporters and reality; the only issue on which they have been vocal, forthright and united is the affront they have suffered by being given twincabs instead of something superior (i.e. Mercedes). The only exception to this sorry state is Coltart who has had some impact in education.
The current joke doing the rounds is that despite all this, Eddie Cross still writes interestingly------but about another country. They are losing urban support by the day and our ZANUPF acquaintances becoming quietly confident that if there is no dramatic change they will be able to win next election even without tricks.
The jeering at Southwark Cathedral is indicative of general feeling here. Of course one still hopes all this will change but what is the evidence out there, that we don't see here, that it might? What we saw on TV today was'nt it."
My previous blog, `Tsvangirai Telegenic..etc' was greeted by the rest of the folk I sent it to, with no comment. Does this silence speak volumes?
I will keep this missive short and await more commentary from those on the spot who clearly know better than I just how much hope there is or is not for the current regime in Zimbabwe.
In conclusion I must repeat, however, that the image of Robert Mugabe and his cronies basking in the sunshine of goodwill that warms Morgan and the MDC is not a pretty one.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Sunday, June 21, 2009
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI UNDER INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY
TELEGENIC, ARTICULATE BUT NOT WHOLLY UNDERSTOOD
That Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is currently Zimbabwe's best hope for an end to its glaring problems is not generally doubted. What is still in the realms of wishful thinking is that the ordinary folk should experience the extraordinary turnaround that Morgan himself has recently experienced. From political pariah, target for murder, traitor, and police punchball this brave leader is now embraced by none other than the author of all his sufferings. It almost beggars belief.
So it is with intense interest that those of us Zimbabweans involuntarily exiled in Britain are watching, listening and praying - if so inclined - for his success. Today he performed well for watchers in Britain on the Andrew Marr show which is almost as good an annointing of an emergent national leader as you can get.
He has been given wide exposure in Europe and America: shaking the hands of world leaders of the stature of Angela Merkel and Barak Obama for instance. Its a great change from the ancient tyrant, Mugabe's indiscriminate embrace of everything non-Western.
When he smiles and his rotund, faintly scarred face lights up, he looks every bit the charismatic, friendly yet serious person I first met when continuing in my Whos Who, political-pundit-mode back in 1998. It was then that I asked Trevor Ncube, editor of The Independent newspaper at that time, if he would publish an interview I wanted to do to promote Morgan for his paper's readers. My subject's brisk, intelligent delivery of answers to pressing questions of the day hasn't changed either.
He certainly looks confident. Every inch the leader. My concern is that he has got his time cut out trying to make Mugabe look respectable. His sincerity in believing that this is the only route to delivery from the evil wrought by that man and his cronies, is not in doubt.
My only concern is the disjuncture of `then and now' for the people he hopes to rule. He waves away Marr's valid questioning the continuing grabbing of the last remaining farms (he knows as we all do that this is the only way through to the stony heart of his new partner) and of the continued infringements on the freedoms, - never mind the human rights - of those Zimbabweans perceived to oppose the ruling party. In essence, these, his MDC followers are the people who have so joyously elevated Morgan Tsvangirai to his present high position. Beatings, rapings, stealing farms? "That was then and this is now" is not a reassuring approach.
I don't know how he could do better but I do know that the begging bowl will fill more rapidly when we see indisputable evidence that the security of persons and property has been convincingly and irreversibly restored to that great country.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
That Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is currently Zimbabwe's best hope for an end to its glaring problems is not generally doubted. What is still in the realms of wishful thinking is that the ordinary folk should experience the extraordinary turnaround that Morgan himself has recently experienced. From political pariah, target for murder, traitor, and police punchball this brave leader is now embraced by none other than the author of all his sufferings. It almost beggars belief.
So it is with intense interest that those of us Zimbabweans involuntarily exiled in Britain are watching, listening and praying - if so inclined - for his success. Today he performed well for watchers in Britain on the Andrew Marr show which is almost as good an annointing of an emergent national leader as you can get.
He has been given wide exposure in Europe and America: shaking the hands of world leaders of the stature of Angela Merkel and Barak Obama for instance. Its a great change from the ancient tyrant, Mugabe's indiscriminate embrace of everything non-Western.
When he smiles and his rotund, faintly scarred face lights up, he looks every bit the charismatic, friendly yet serious person I first met when continuing in my Whos Who, political-pundit-mode back in 1998. It was then that I asked Trevor Ncube, editor of The Independent newspaper at that time, if he would publish an interview I wanted to do to promote Morgan for his paper's readers. My subject's brisk, intelligent delivery of answers to pressing questions of the day hasn't changed either.
He certainly looks confident. Every inch the leader. My concern is that he has got his time cut out trying to make Mugabe look respectable. His sincerity in believing that this is the only route to delivery from the evil wrought by that man and his cronies, is not in doubt.
My only concern is the disjuncture of `then and now' for the people he hopes to rule. He waves away Marr's valid questioning the continuing grabbing of the last remaining farms (he knows as we all do that this is the only way through to the stony heart of his new partner) and of the continued infringements on the freedoms, - never mind the human rights - of those Zimbabweans perceived to oppose the ruling party. In essence, these, his MDC followers are the people who have so joyously elevated Morgan Tsvangirai to his present high position. Beatings, rapings, stealing farms? "That was then and this is now" is not a reassuring approach.
I don't know how he could do better but I do know that the begging bowl will fill more rapidly when we see indisputable evidence that the security of persons and property has been convincingly and irreversibly restored to that great country.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Andy Young and the Obama feeding frenzy
Like everyone else on the planet, I was interested, first in the election of Barak Obama to the office of President-elect of the United States. I watched it while visiting my family in Connecticut. This state was pretty solidly behind the Democratic candidate and it was a rare event for me to find myself on the winning side. So many times in my former incarnation in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, I lost. This was because I was, and remain, an unrepentant `liberal'. However, this term is subject to constant re-definition. In Rhodesian-speak this description meant, to those of us who called ourselves liberal, that we were non-racial. I have said this many times before but it bears repeating: in the days of RF rule we were accused of being `commies' and, more ignorantly, by the more racist element of our society `kaffir lovers'.
The term`liberal' if applied to our Rhodesian/Zimbabwean ilk has taken on a negative meaning in the past decade or so because it implies that we were/are bending over backwards to advertise or prove our non-racial outlook, thus offending or irritating people of colour. `Patronizing' is possibly the best word for it.
How to escape all this in the new age of Obama?
I was fortunate to get a copy of Time magazine last week in which leading Afro-Americans gave their views on Barak Obama, before that great `inauguration' event. One of these famous men, Andy Young, visited Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe: he was a part of the `Anglo-American' thrust to end Rhodesian isolationism and bring Zimbabwe back into the international fold. We `liberals' in Rhodesia's Centre Party were privileged to meet him briefly and so it was with great interest that I read his particular `take' on Barak Obama. Of all the acres of newsprint and media-speak, his words were the first to express something I hoped would eventually be admitted by some guru, some individual whose credentials regarding race are untainted by the historic complexities of a racially unbalanced world order. This, in part, is what he said:
"... He [Obama] never set himself up as the saviour of the world. He set himself up as someone who articulates and represents and can hopefully lead us to be the best Americans that we can be. He isn't just black; he's an Afro-Asian-Latin European. [my emphasis]. That means he's a global citizen.... he defies categorization"
That's an attitude I have long awaited - in the hope that some inspired leader would shape it - as the `new world order' we were promised at the end of the Cold War, in the last decade of the 20th Century.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
The term`liberal' if applied to our Rhodesian/Zimbabwean ilk has taken on a negative meaning in the past decade or so because it implies that we were/are bending over backwards to advertise or prove our non-racial outlook, thus offending or irritating people of colour. `Patronizing' is possibly the best word for it.
How to escape all this in the new age of Obama?
I was fortunate to get a copy of Time magazine last week in which leading Afro-Americans gave their views on Barak Obama, before that great `inauguration' event. One of these famous men, Andy Young, visited Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe: he was a part of the `Anglo-American' thrust to end Rhodesian isolationism and bring Zimbabwe back into the international fold. We `liberals' in Rhodesia's Centre Party were privileged to meet him briefly and so it was with great interest that I read his particular `take' on Barak Obama. Of all the acres of newsprint and media-speak, his words were the first to express something I hoped would eventually be admitted by some guru, some individual whose credentials regarding race are untainted by the historic complexities of a racially unbalanced world order. This, in part, is what he said:
"... He [Obama] never set himself up as the saviour of the world. He set himself up as someone who articulates and represents and can hopefully lead us to be the best Americans that we can be. He isn't just black; he's an Afro-Asian-Latin European. [my emphasis]. That means he's a global citizen.... he defies categorization"
That's an attitude I have long awaited - in the hope that some inspired leader would shape it - as the `new world order' we were promised at the end of the Cold War, in the last decade of the 20th Century.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
WILL MISHEK SIBANDA BECOME CHIEF SECRETARY TO AN ILLEGAL CABINET?
SIBANDA Mishek
I am prompted to write yet another `People I Once Knew’ entry here, having been reminded some time ago by a VOA News report (Jan 2, 2009 - see ZWNEWS Jan 3) of my encounters in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe with Dr Mishek Sibanda. I know that he has served for some years as
Mishek was my former lecturer at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in 1978 when I was in my final year of part-time studies for a Masters degree in African History. He was employed at that time as a lecturer in the History faculty along with Dr David Beech, a towering scholar. Now sadly deceased, Beech wrote learned books on Shona history. Sibanda had come fresh out of the
Dr Sibanda and I were to meet again several times in different circumstances and this was before he was sent off to
The Rev. Banana lost his job when Zimbabwe’s Constitution changed in 1987. He was removed from the office of non-executive President while Mugabe was anointed (you could say now that he was self-apointed) as the country’s first executive President.
The next time I met up with Mishek (we were always on first name terms) he was ensconced as a civil servant in government offices in
It was an age of innocence: I was truly shocked when, in the course of the work, Mishek corresponded with me using government stationery for what was essentially a commercial operation and for which he too was being be paid. “On Government Service”, writ large across big, brown envelopes had replaced OHMS (On Her Majesty’s Service). Formerly, a colonial civil servant would scarcely have dared to use these for anything but government business. Some time later, postage stamps were added because it had become clear to the postal service that it would be swamped, cleaned out perhaps, by new civil servants availing themselves of what they regarded as a free-for-all postal facility (In the final event, even these stamps went out of fashion and I know not how the system worked after that)
Cautiously, I kept my thoughts about Mishek’s irresponsible behavior, or call it petty thievery, to myself because I needed help from his wife who had a job in the National Art Gallery and I wanted her collaboration with an International Artists Workshop which I had been asked (by Mrs Pat Pearce) to organize. But that is a story for another blog. This quiet man, Mishek Sibanda clearly knew which side his bread was buttered: working for the ruling party may have had its glory at the beginning. What a shame that his name, like the rest of them in that dreadful trough will go down in ignomy when the history of a once great country is written.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Thursday, January 1, 2009
WHAT HAPPENED TO HELEN SUZMAN'S INSIGNIA FROM MANDELA
The Late, Great Lady's Gong from Mandela is in a Harare Township
I have admired Helen Suzman for as long as I can remember. I never dreamed that I would meet her - this long-serving champion of justice and freedom for fellow South Africans who expressed herself so calmly and brilliantly in her career in Parliament. But not only did I meet her, but I shared with her an adventure in Harare's Mbare which I am sure she would have been anxious to forget.
The story goes like this: Wilf Mbanga a journalist who had (still has) a talent for persuading the great and famous - Desmond Tutu, Alister Sparks, Wole Soyinka were among his scoops - to agree to address large audiences of their admirers. Helen Suzman flew in to Harare about fifteen years ago, to address Zimbabweans attending a Willie Musarurwa Memorial banquet in Harare on the subject of Freedom of Expression. I served with Wilf on the committee of the Trust and had been involved in the usual planning and organization of this annual event.
I was more than pleased when Wilf called me the morning after Helen had delivered her speech and asked me to join him and a British journalist, taking Helen in his Mercedes on a tour of Harare's places of interest on her way to Harare's airport. We picked her up, together with her light, overnight luggage from her hotel. She was immaculate in a navy blue suit with matching handbag; her silver hair, groomed to perfection did not conceal the expensive gold stud ear rings. I wore my favourite grey tracksuit and carried a large matching, sack-like bag. It was a hot day and Helen removed her jacket as she entered the car and sat beside Wilf on the front seatwhile I (for reasons I cannot explain) sat on my bag beside the Brit on the back seat.
The tour included a visit to the Borrowdale Shopping Centre (Sam Levy's Village) and an uphill walk from the parking lot to the top of Harare's `Kopje' to see the 180 degree view of the City of Harare and the sourrounding countryside. We made small talk as we passed the Law Courts in Rotten Row, when Helen remarked "What I really want to see is a Zimbabwean African township" Okay, Wilf turned off after we crossed the flyover into the crowded lane behind the Rufaro football stadium. The pavements were filled with street vendors and Wilf had to slow down to make his way along the narrow road. Helen had just remarked "Is this your Zimbabwe's Soweto" when Wilf gave an alarmed shout as a strong black arm came through his window. At the same time a young vendor opened the front passenger door, grabbed Helen's handbag and her jacket from her lap and made off with them. It all happened with lightening speed. Wilf leaped out of the car, picked up a large stone and with the Brit gave chase, disappearing among the buildings on the roadside.
Helen was livid. "My insignia! It was on my jacket lapel - its my insignia from Nelson Mandela!" she wailed and she too leaped out of her seat, and stood beside the car calling down some amazing curses on the thief. Rich language, I thought, and perfectly justified. Meanwhile, what was I doing? I was sure she was going to be mugged on her feet. I leaned over and slammed Wilf's door shut, jumped out and hustled Helen back into the car. My own almost invisible handbag was untouched. Wilf and the Brit returned empty handed, matching Helen's language. A a quick u-turn and we were out of there, shouting at a passing police vehicle that we had been robbed.
Helen's stolen handbag had contained her plane ticket, her cash, her glasses, her keys to her house in Johannesburg's Houghton suburb - everything a woman keeps on her person when travelling.
"I have to get that plane, we've only got two hours before it flies" pleaded Helen. The next couple of hours were astonishing to say the least.
First stop after the robbery is the South African High Commission whose official town offices at the time were in the Sanlam Building in the city centre. But it is a Saturday morning and the offices are closed. We dash into a clothing shop on the ground floor, below the offices. In desperate haste we approach a young woman who is holding a telephone to her ear. She does not recognise Helen and, looking annoyed, says we must wait for attention.. "Where is the manager?" I demand. "I am the manager," she says archly. No progress here and we dash off like a bunch of rabbits to a shop beside the Treasure Trove in second street where we know that there is a Chinese who runs an efficient photograpy business. He recognises the urgency in our wild eyes and allows us to jump the waiting queue. Minutes later we have passport photographs of Helen. No mobile phones on us, we decide to split our forces. Wilf and Helen go in one direction to get a new ticket, using his credit card after I am dropped at the gate of the South African Ambassador's suburban home in Kew Drive, just half a block from my own home in Highlands. The iron barred gate is firmly locked and behind them a startled security guard, sees a middle-aged matron in a track suit dancing about like a monkey, clutching the bars, demanding to see the boss and claiming to be a friend of Nelson Mandela. (I knew the young man would not recognise the name of the famous lady we were trying to rescue). Nervously, the guard picks up his intercom phone and calls the Ambassador the estimable Mamabulo. By great good luck he is in the house. Miraculously, I am allowed inside. The ambassador comes running down the stairs, recognises me as I pace anxiously in his reception area. Getting the message pretty damn quick, he moves into action. We roar off in his official car to the SA passport offices in Princess Drive, the High Commissioner instructing some officer to meet us there, open the gates and the doors and get Helen Suzman a temporary passport.
The great lady, her photos, her passport and her ticket home are united. She catches the plane. Well done Ambassador, well done Wilf.
Helen wrote to thank us after she had replaced her lost possessions - but not the the treasured insignia.
With every one of the multitude of her admirers, I mourn her passing.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
REVELATIONS RE RHODESIA FROM 1978 ARCHIVES
KEN FLOWER A `DOUBLE AGENT' AND HICKMAN A WOULD-BE `TURNCOAT'
At last, when most adult and middle-aged Rhodesians who lived through the eventual political and military turbulance of a bush war at the climax of the Rhodesian crisis - which began with Smith's UDI in November 1965 - are dead, I have lived to hear Matthew Parris and David Owen confirm what we `white liberals' suspected, but would not have dared to suggest. Ken Flower, the CIO boss and the military man, Col. John Hickman were no friends of Ian Smith, although at the time, this was not well known.
The opening up of new files (1978) at the British national archives has enabled these sensitive secrets to move into the public domain.
Martha Carney's UK Confidential programme on Radio 4 hosted two men (why never any women, Martha?) who were involved in Rhodesia's history in one way or another. She gave space to Lord Owen (Dr David Owen, the former British Foreign Secretary, as we white liberals knew him when we met him in Rhodesia in 1978), and Matthew Parris (whose mother Terry was partially responsible for setting me on my political path in Rhodesia in 1966). The program was given advance notice of these archival revelations and my ears were bent firmly towards the radio, only to hear mighty little of Rhodesia's history other than the features outlined here, but it was enough. Speculation has given way to documented proof.
Researching through the few books I was able to bring with me into exile in England I find that Godwin and Hancock's " `Rhodesians Never Die' " (Oxford, 1993) were aware of these little hidden truths and gave them their first airing, but with some caution.
I never met Hickman although my husband was at school with his rival, General Peter Walls and knew him well as a boy). But we were friendly with Ken Flower in a careful sort of way (we played tennis on his Hoggerty Hill tennis court, but never discussed politics). His daughter will forgive me for this commentary because she probably knows that I was among those who persuaded her late father to write his memoir `Serving Secretly' about his work as a top man in Rhodesia's Central Intelligence Organization who went on to serve Bishop Muzorewa and eventually Robert Mugabe. (He died before this latter individual turned really nasty). My favourite story about Ken is of how I met up with him during the Independence party to host Prince Charles at Government House in Rhodesia in 1980. He and Emerson Mnangagwa were a little tiddly, to use a polite expression, and were hanging on to a tent pole in a great Marquee, reminiscing over their top security roles on either side of the Liberation Struggle. I boldly asked if they would help me to have access to their files so that I could write more biographies of the leading lights among the political and military of Zanu PF and ZANLA.
They fell about laughing, clutching the tent pole. I don't remember which it was but one of them gasped "We got a lot of our information from your published Whos Who!"
Ah well, so much for all that and God rest you, dear Ken Flower.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
At last, when most adult and middle-aged Rhodesians who lived through the eventual political and military turbulance of a bush war at the climax of the Rhodesian crisis - which began with Smith's UDI in November 1965 - are dead, I have lived to hear Matthew Parris and David Owen confirm what we `white liberals' suspected, but would not have dared to suggest. Ken Flower, the CIO boss and the military man, Col. John Hickman were no friends of Ian Smith, although at the time, this was not well known.
The opening up of new files (1978) at the British national archives has enabled these sensitive secrets to move into the public domain.
Martha Carney's UK Confidential programme on Radio 4 hosted two men (why never any women, Martha?) who were involved in Rhodesia's history in one way or another. She gave space to Lord Owen (Dr David Owen, the former British Foreign Secretary, as we white liberals knew him when we met him in Rhodesia in 1978), and Matthew Parris (whose mother Terry was partially responsible for setting me on my political path in Rhodesia in 1966). The program was given advance notice of these archival revelations and my ears were bent firmly towards the radio, only to hear mighty little of Rhodesia's history other than the features outlined here, but it was enough. Speculation has given way to documented proof.
Researching through the few books I was able to bring with me into exile in England I find that Godwin and Hancock's " `Rhodesians Never Die' " (Oxford, 1993) were aware of these little hidden truths and gave them their first airing, but with some caution.
I never met Hickman although my husband was at school with his rival, General Peter Walls and knew him well as a boy). But we were friendly with Ken Flower in a careful sort of way (we played tennis on his Hoggerty Hill tennis court, but never discussed politics). His daughter will forgive me for this commentary because she probably knows that I was among those who persuaded her late father to write his memoir `Serving Secretly' about his work as a top man in Rhodesia's Central Intelligence Organization who went on to serve Bishop Muzorewa and eventually Robert Mugabe. (He died before this latter individual turned really nasty). My favourite story about Ken is of how I met up with him during the Independence party to host Prince Charles at Government House in Rhodesia in 1980. He and Emerson Mnangagwa were a little tiddly, to use a polite expression, and were hanging on to a tent pole in a great Marquee, reminiscing over their top security roles on either side of the Liberation Struggle. I boldly asked if they would help me to have access to their files so that I could write more biographies of the leading lights among the political and military of Zanu PF and ZANLA.
They fell about laughing, clutching the tent pole. I don't remember which it was but one of them gasped "We got a lot of our information from your published Whos Who!"
Ah well, so much for all that and God rest you, dear Ken Flower.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Saturday, December 20, 2008
ALL HIS, MUGABE SPEAKS TRUTH
"Zimbabwe is mine" announced Robert Mugabe to his party Congress this week-end.
The Times added "all mine". That was closer to the truth: all the pain, the suffering, the torture, the starvation, the ruined economy, the devastated farming industry, the unholy killings of illegal diamond panners, the collapse of the health and education systems.... the list would fill this page, all these belong to Mugabe. That is all his; that is what this so-called liberator now rules over as Zimbabwe approaches the status of a failed state, HIS failed state. It is his failed state. Somebody must make him give it back to the people and then he must take the punishement for failing HIS Zimbabwe.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
The Times added "all mine". That was closer to the truth: all the pain, the suffering, the torture, the starvation, the ruined economy, the devastated farming industry, the unholy killings of illegal diamond panners, the collapse of the health and education systems.... the list would fill this page, all these belong to Mugabe. That is all his; that is what this so-called liberator now rules over as Zimbabwe approaches the status of a failed state, HIS failed state. It is his failed state. Somebody must make him give it back to the people and then he must take the punishement for failing HIS Zimbabwe.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Kirsty's success is something else
When I read of the garlands (and cash) being thrown at the successful, brilliant Olympics performer, Kirsty Coventry by the despicable Mugabe regime I wondered how they cope with their own internal contradictions. Kirsty, after all is a white Zimbabwean. All Zimbabweans are proud of her achievement, she has worked hard for it and deserves recognition from the country of her birth.
However - and this is a big `however' - the same recognition should go for countless hardworking and once successful people in Zimbabwean both white and black and who are not at all favoured by Mugabe because they support a legitimate opposition party, the MDC. Mugabe blames whites, especially British whites for the existence of the MDC and for all of his own many failures. In exalting white Kirsty, Robert Mugabe is going directly against his announcement that `the only good white is a dead one' and the many other uncharming expressions of distaste he has disgorged from his bilous and uncouth mouth over the past few years.
Surely, if we follow through this argument, Mugabe should wake up to the fact that there is (or was) a huge resource of talent, not only for sports individuals, in Zimbabwe. This was before he either stifled it because of the severe doubts about his own talent, doubts that have led people to reject him at the polls or caused a massive flight of talent out of the country. Kirsty was famous when she lived in Zimbabwe. Now she is an Olympian and travels the world but is based in the US. Mugabe hates the US, he hates whites but he loves success. At this time, unfortunately for him and his henchmen who regard Zimbabwe as their personal fiefdom, the success is not his, nor is it theirs.
As a post script to this rave, I have today read of the elevation of Mugabe's slavishly loyal Minister Aeneas Chigwedere to a position of Provincial Governor (of course, if all goes well in the current talks about power, he might not keep the job). I happened on this same day, to be re-reading Judy Todd's valuable testimony to the lives of the Todd family in her recent book Through the Darkness. I find the same `cognitive dissonance' or call it schizophrenia or split personality - or whatever in regard to race, in the fact that as recently as December 2001, this same Chigwedere delivered himself of a great eulogy, giving fulsome praise to a fine educationist. This was a white woman, Mrs Grace Todd, who he called `a great daughter of Zimbabwe'. He had formerly presented Mrs Todd with his manuscript entitled The White Heroes of Zimbabwe. I ask myself why this MS has not been published. Chigwedere, who stands so high in Mugabe's favour did not protest when Grace Todd's husband, a great, white Zimbabwean man, Sir Garfield Todd was, as a very old man, assaulted by ZANU (PF) thugs. I do not recall and have not read of any effort made by this same pompous historian and former schoolteacher to protest at the disgraceful treatment of the famous Grace's equally famous daughter, Judith who fought hard for black nationalism's cause. I hardly need to remind readers that Judy was virtually exiled by the ruling ZANU (PF), many of whose Ministers and top officials had been educated and even protected in the dark days of racial discrimation by the Todds. Judy, racially discriminated against, has been declared a foreigner in Zimbabwe, the country of her birth. Watch out, still young - and great- Kirsty!
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
However - and this is a big `however' - the same recognition should go for countless hardworking and once successful people in Zimbabwean both white and black and who are not at all favoured by Mugabe because they support a legitimate opposition party, the MDC. Mugabe blames whites, especially British whites for the existence of the MDC and for all of his own many failures. In exalting white Kirsty, Robert Mugabe is going directly against his announcement that `the only good white is a dead one' and the many other uncharming expressions of distaste he has disgorged from his bilous and uncouth mouth over the past few years.
Surely, if we follow through this argument, Mugabe should wake up to the fact that there is (or was) a huge resource of talent, not only for sports individuals, in Zimbabwe. This was before he either stifled it because of the severe doubts about his own talent, doubts that have led people to reject him at the polls or caused a massive flight of talent out of the country. Kirsty was famous when she lived in Zimbabwe. Now she is an Olympian and travels the world but is based in the US. Mugabe hates the US, he hates whites but he loves success. At this time, unfortunately for him and his henchmen who regard Zimbabwe as their personal fiefdom, the success is not his, nor is it theirs.
As a post script to this rave, I have today read of the elevation of Mugabe's slavishly loyal Minister Aeneas Chigwedere to a position of Provincial Governor (of course, if all goes well in the current talks about power, he might not keep the job). I happened on this same day, to be re-reading Judy Todd's valuable testimony to the lives of the Todd family in her recent book Through the Darkness. I find the same `cognitive dissonance' or call it schizophrenia or split personality - or whatever in regard to race, in the fact that as recently as December 2001, this same Chigwedere delivered himself of a great eulogy, giving fulsome praise to a fine educationist. This was a white woman, Mrs Grace Todd, who he called `a great daughter of Zimbabwe'. He had formerly presented Mrs Todd with his manuscript entitled The White Heroes of Zimbabwe. I ask myself why this MS has not been published. Chigwedere, who stands so high in Mugabe's favour did not protest when Grace Todd's husband, a great, white Zimbabwean man, Sir Garfield Todd was, as a very old man, assaulted by ZANU (PF) thugs. I do not recall and have not read of any effort made by this same pompous historian and former schoolteacher to protest at the disgraceful treatment of the famous Grace's equally famous daughter, Judith who fought hard for black nationalism's cause. I hardly need to remind readers that Judy was virtually exiled by the ruling ZANU (PF), many of whose Ministers and top officials had been educated and even protected in the dark days of racial discrimation by the Todds. Judy, racially discriminated against, has been declared a foreigner in Zimbabwe, the country of her birth. Watch out, still young - and great- Kirsty!
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Deary me, Arthur Mutambara has a problem
`I am coming out of Oxford. None of your prime ministers can challenge me intellectually'
Arthur is in a muddle. He was invited to lead the Welshman Ncube faction of the MDC when the split came in the wake of Mugabe's divisive, tactical move, restoring Senate seats in Parliament in 2005. He was last seen by this writer as a young student revolutionary, braving the teargas and the beatings of the Zimbabwe Republic police because students dared to take issue with the corruption of the Zimbabwe government's ruling ZANU (PF) party.
When he popped up again, he was a rocket scientist - the genuine article. Could he steer into his political laboratory the mass support that Morgan Tsvangirai had built up in the country over seven years? It seems not and clearly, his failure is hurting this vain man.
In his interview with Australian Geraldine Doogue he lost it. After a good start, denying reports that he was cosying up to Mugabe, he proceeded with a credible upstaging of Mugabe's anti-western, Afro-centric, self-regarding trumpet blowing. Trouble is Mugabe had already occupied mount Olympus and laid claim to the highest authority: "Only God can remove me from power" is what the old man revealed to us when he found himself with his back to the wall this year.
As for Mutambara's rudeness, crudeness really, in calling his interviewer stupid - was that really necessary in order to prove his own mental superiority?
Perhaps he should go back to exercising his great mind in the field for which he is best qualified. He is clearly and demonstrably not much good as a politician thus far.
I am sorry for the good people in his party - they are some of the best that the country has to offer and it is a pity that their principles would not allow them to stick with Morgan Tsvangirai. The country needs their integrity and good minds even though they did not go to Oxford.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Arthur is in a muddle. He was invited to lead the Welshman Ncube faction of the MDC when the split came in the wake of Mugabe's divisive, tactical move, restoring Senate seats in Parliament in 2005. He was last seen by this writer as a young student revolutionary, braving the teargas and the beatings of the Zimbabwe Republic police because students dared to take issue with the corruption of the Zimbabwe government's ruling ZANU (PF) party.
When he popped up again, he was a rocket scientist - the genuine article. Could he steer into his political laboratory the mass support that Morgan Tsvangirai had built up in the country over seven years? It seems not and clearly, his failure is hurting this vain man.
In his interview with Australian Geraldine Doogue he lost it. After a good start, denying reports that he was cosying up to Mugabe, he proceeded with a credible upstaging of Mugabe's anti-western, Afro-centric, self-regarding trumpet blowing. Trouble is Mugabe had already occupied mount Olympus and laid claim to the highest authority: "Only God can remove me from power" is what the old man revealed to us when he found himself with his back to the wall this year.
As for Mutambara's rudeness, crudeness really, in calling his interviewer stupid - was that really necessary in order to prove his own mental superiority?
Perhaps he should go back to exercising his great mind in the field for which he is best qualified. He is clearly and demonstrably not much good as a politician thus far.
I am sorry for the good people in his party - they are some of the best that the country has to offer and it is a pity that their principles would not allow them to stick with Morgan Tsvangirai. The country needs their integrity and good minds even though they did not go to Oxford.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Monday, August 18, 2008
CORRECTION: MUTAMBARAS DODGY MOVE, TSVANGIRAI 'S RUSSIAN ROULETTE
On reading further reports it seems to me almost certain that Arthur Mutambara was prepared to sign a deal with Mugabe if Mbeki had allowed it. We can be quite certain that Tsvangirai has the full support of his party to withold his signature if there is the slightest possibility that Mugabe will be up to his usual tricks. This time the old rogue remains determined to hold on to authority while pretending to be willing to share it. It now comes to a final race between the spectre of starvation and the person who blinks first at the negotiating table.
I hope I am right in putting my faith, as I always have, in the extraordinary courage of the majority who are willing to die if it comes to that, for democracy.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
I hope I am right in putting my faith, as I always have, in the extraordinary courage of the majority who are willing to die if it comes to that, for democracy.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Thursday, August 14, 2008
NO "DEAL": Mbeki & Mugabe vs Tsvangirai & Mutambara
Bronwen Maddox in The Times today quoted Richard Dowden saying "a deal stitched up by Mugabe, Mutambara and Mbeki isn't going to stick". This is true but somewhere along the line, the media had fallen, initially, for the line that on Tuesday night, Mutambara " struck a deal for a coalition government with Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction of the MDC" (Maddox).
Like all Zimbabweans, expat and the rest, I have been keeping a sharp eye on President Thabo Mbeki's power-brokering in Harare. I have it on good authority - from both factions of the MDC - that Arthur Mutambara had struck no "deal". My own understanding is that he had agreed to a "key issue" (his words) in the ongoing negotiations, one which did not have Tsvangirai's agreement. My informant revealed that it was Munangagwa giving out calculated disinformation, (as I would assume, to an eager press) who claimed that they - Mugabe's lot - had done a deal with Mutambara. There was some confusion because Mutambara was saying different things to different journalists - he is, after all, quite new to international negotiations. It is clear that he is kept firmly in line by his supporters.
With Munangagwa's shadow cast 0n the curtained stage, we should be wary of a plot to pour poison into the ears of those who so desperately need to know when the tragic show called Zimbabwe will end. We can be sure that Munangagwa has good reason to deceive, being the front man for the JOC. Those overfed fat cats running the military expect him to hang on to the key to the Congo larder as well as Zanu (PF)'s licence to plunder what is left of Zimbabwe's assets.
The bait offered to Mutambara Maddox has made clear, would be attractive enough on the face of it. On paper he can dictate the balance of power: Mugabe's Zanu PF party, together with Mutabara's MDC faction would hold 109 seats in the March 29 elected Parliament, to Tsvangirai's 100.
Today's news that Tsvangirai has had his passport confiscated as he prepared to depart for South Africa is an ominous sign. It is clear that he was planning to brief international supporters and /or to contact SADC leaders who will meet this week-end to hear from their Chairman whose mission to settle the Zimbabwe issue has not yet succeeded. Speculation on all this continues, drearily and wearyingly, back at square one.
A last thought: those of us with long memories can look back at a "deal" that the country's previous, white, colonial government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia struck with several factions of black nationalist politicians leaders (predominently Bishop Muzorewa) in the March 3 1978 transitional government agreement. It didn't stick because it became clear that the number of blacks occupying seats in Parliament did not amount to a grip on power. The military, the civil service, the police and the security branch was where the power lay - then as now.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Like all Zimbabweans, expat and the rest, I have been keeping a sharp eye on President Thabo Mbeki's power-brokering in Harare. I have it on good authority - from both factions of the MDC - that Arthur Mutambara had struck no "deal". My own understanding is that he had agreed to a "key issue" (his words) in the ongoing negotiations, one which did not have Tsvangirai's agreement. My informant revealed that it was Munangagwa giving out calculated disinformation, (as I would assume, to an eager press) who claimed that they - Mugabe's lot - had done a deal with Mutambara. There was some confusion because Mutambara was saying different things to different journalists - he is, after all, quite new to international negotiations. It is clear that he is kept firmly in line by his supporters.
With Munangagwa's shadow cast 0n the curtained stage, we should be wary of a plot to pour poison into the ears of those who so desperately need to know when the tragic show called Zimbabwe will end. We can be sure that Munangagwa has good reason to deceive, being the front man for the JOC. Those overfed fat cats running the military expect him to hang on to the key to the Congo larder as well as Zanu (PF)'s licence to plunder what is left of Zimbabwe's assets.
The bait offered to Mutambara Maddox has made clear, would be attractive enough on the face of it. On paper he can dictate the balance of power: Mugabe's Zanu PF party, together with Mutabara's MDC faction would hold 109 seats in the March 29 elected Parliament, to Tsvangirai's 100.
Today's news that Tsvangirai has had his passport confiscated as he prepared to depart for South Africa is an ominous sign. It is clear that he was planning to brief international supporters and /or to contact SADC leaders who will meet this week-end to hear from their Chairman whose mission to settle the Zimbabwe issue has not yet succeeded. Speculation on all this continues, drearily and wearyingly, back at square one.
A last thought: those of us with long memories can look back at a "deal" that the country's previous, white, colonial government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia struck with several factions of black nationalist politicians leaders (predominently Bishop Muzorewa) in the March 3 1978 transitional government agreement. It didn't stick because it became clear that the number of blacks occupying seats in Parliament did not amount to a grip on power. The military, the civil service, the police and the security branch was where the power lay - then as now.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
Sunday, August 10, 2008
ITS GOT TO BE BAD ENOUGH TO LET HIM GO
Isn't it too ghastly for words to have to face the fact that Robert Mugabe's personal escape from his just deserts may yet come about because of the very depths of depravity to which his ZANU (PF) regime has plunged?
A writer called Yarik Turianskyi whose question "Will Robert Mugabe face trial?" I noted on ZWNEWS yesterday, concludes that the answer may be a reluctant "Yes"
Certainly, the people who have suffered grievously at his hands, indirectly, we assume, through his abominable lieutenants would find it almost impossible to forgive him. It seems that you can get away with murder, as long as your victims are legion.
Auschwitz and concentration camps the world over have shown skeletal victims of the cruelty that humans (can we call them that?) visit upon each other. "How terrible! How wicked! This must never happen again!" we exclaim. And then we have gone back to our business, and we have let it happen again. Zimbabwean victims of Robert Mugabe are starving in a country capable of feeding not only inself but most of sub-Saharan Africa too.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
A writer called Yarik Turianskyi whose question "Will Robert Mugabe face trial?" I noted on ZWNEWS yesterday, concludes that the answer may be a reluctant "Yes"
Certainly, the people who have suffered grievously at his hands, indirectly, we assume, through his abominable lieutenants would find it almost impossible to forgive him. It seems that you can get away with murder, as long as your victims are legion.
Auschwitz and concentration camps the world over have shown skeletal victims of the cruelty that humans (can we call them that?) visit upon each other. "How terrible! How wicked! This must never happen again!" we exclaim. And then we have gone back to our business, and we have let it happen again. Zimbabwean victims of Robert Mugabe are starving in a country capable of feeding not only inself but most of sub-Saharan Africa too.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
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