"Given the vitriol and hatred toward Grace Mugabe, I suspect she will move in and out [of her mansion in Harare] but spend more time out of Zimbabwe." Welshman Neube, opposition leader, Zimbabwe
"I appeal to all genuine people of Zimbabwe to come together. We are all Zimbabweans ... we need peace in our country and jobs, jobs, jobs." "He [Robert Mugabe] is now the former president of Zimbabwe." Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwean President-elect
A supporter holds up a toy to welcome Emmerson Mnangagwa, known as "The Crocodile," back to the country on Wednesday in Harare. CNN
Mr. Mnangagwa, Robert Mugabe's former vice-president, is full of praise for the military with which he is closely aligned. He extended his praise to the speaker of parliament and the other party leaders who have all supported the dismissal of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean ruler-for-life-almost and their support for his return from exile after his summary dismissal as vice-president and heir to the presidential throne for which he considered himself to have been groomed.
At Mugabe's side for almost 40 years, one of the original freedom fighters who helped sovereignty succeed in independence from foreign rule when his country was Rhodesia, not Zimbabwe -- a British colony -- he is cut from the same cloth as Mugabe. Robert Mugabe may have made the decisions to brutally attack white Zimbabwean farmers and divest them of their holdings, in the process destroying the country's agricultural preeminence, but it was his enforcer, Mnangagwa, who enacted those decrees.
Known for vicious brutality, he was popularly referred to as the 'crocodile'. His own ambitions coincided in lock-step with that of Robert Mugabe's wife Grace -- who succeeded in persuading her doddering husband that she would far better carry on his priceless legacy that impoverished the country, sending it into hyperinflation, raising unemployment to impossible levels, creating food and medicine shortages while she burned through the state treasury on shopping sprees -- and she won.
When she persuaded her husband to dismiss his faithful colleague who had carried out all his destructive orders as the heavy of the team, neither she nor her husband imagined the reaction, which became a popular revolt in the guise of a military coup. While she fled the consequences, her husband remained in place to meet an African Union delegation to persuade him to step down, but he remained steadfast in his belief that he was beloved of his oppressed people until ZANU-PF dismissed him after the failure of diplomacy persuading a tyrant to depart.
Now Emmerson Mnangagwa is prepared to rule in the place of his former mentor. He will complete Mugabe's latest 'term' in office. And in taking his place he will without a doubt truly take his place. The people who believe that they have been delivered from the iron clutches of a tyrant are about to understand that Mugabe's replacement is a replica of the original. This is the fate of Africans; to be abused by one tyrant only to face similar abuse by another. The next 'election' will be held under the same conditions as all those which saw Mugabe 'elected' and re-elected.
As for the ambitions of Grace Mugabe, while they are shattered in the political-power sphere, she still has all the riches that she looted from the country that has reeled in a state of dysfunctional poverty for years. The agreement was reached that Mugabe and his family will remain in the country and permitted to retain possession of their 'assets'. The vast mansion in Harare that Grace Mugabe looted the treasury to build to house the nation's first lady will remain hers.
The farms she commandeered from other black Zimbabweans who had been allotted them after their divestiture from their white owners may be another thing, if anything remotely resembling justice and an effort to put Zimbabwe back on a working track is pursued. As for the vast wealth acquired by Grace Mugabe as the largest landholder and real estate portfolio in the history of the country, her personal adornments, designer clothing and jewellery, and the way she managed to acquire it all, who knows?
In continued deference to the elder statesman of African leadership post-colonialism -- a man whom even Nelson Mandela made no effort to reprimand for his ruination of a nation and his racial abuse -- for whatever few years left of his life Grace Mugabe will be safe. On his death she would be well advised to make her presence in Zimbabwe a mirage, taking with her into exile whatever she can spirit out of the country. The crocodile has a maw full of vengeful teeth.
Robert Mugabe kisses his wife, Grace Mugabe, at Independence Day celebrations in Harare on April 18, 2017 CNN
"This is political theatre. Chiwenga and the army want to give Mugabe a soft landing, a dignified exit." "They are working on the choreography of how this will be done. By calling a full summit (the regional leaders] are showing respect for Mugabe, the last of the liberation war heroes. Mugabe wants the full fanfare as he exits stage left." "The regional leaders will be showing deference to Mugabe, even though they can't wait to see the back of him." Piers Pigou, southern Africa expert, International Crisis Group
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, right, arrives at the Zimbabwe Open University in Harare. CNN
Isn't this typical Africa? That Mugabe transformed Zimbabwe from its colonialist oppressor state as Rhodesia and succeeded in bringing his country to independence was indeed something to celebrate. Initially, the white government in power, acceding to African rule as natural justice would have it, that the original inhabitants of a land and the vast majority of the country needed to shake off the shackles of third-class inhabitants to re-assume their heritage status represented an honourable undertaking and victory.
That the man who won independence for his country, renaming it and declaring that Black Rhodesians as Zimbabweans proud of their ancestry and their rule over their own land could also be generous in victory, slowly became transformed himself by 37 years in power to end up so harming the future prospects and prosperity of his country that he destroyed it, was unforgivable. His tyranny ensured that all the land was returned to black rule, including farms owned and operated by white Zimbabweans for generations, as functional, producing sources of food to feed the nation.
That all fell by the wayside as white farmers were violently thrown off their land, their properties confiscated and handed over to those who could claim they were in the forefront of freeing the country from its white oppressors. Which might have been viewed as just desserts, but which in the end, destroyed the nation's agricultural industry it once exported abroad as well as feeding itself. Now, food and commodities are scarce, unemployment is high, inflation skyrocketed and currency hugely devalued.
Supports of Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai rally in
Harare in August. The long-time MDC Leader’s illness but refusal to step
down has left the party rudderless, and in ‘a very bad place,’ one
activist says. JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/Getty Images
Opposed by a political party that is moderate in its outlook and a leader not seeking self-aggrandizement but the opportunity to lead the country back to prosperity and sound management, Morgan Tsvangirai, once dismissed from power sharing as leader of the MDC may be given the opportunity to return to government. Unless, as seems more likely ZANU-PF, Robert Mugabe's ruling party to which the nation's military appears loyal, will re-invest the presidency with the man Mugabe and the party had groomed to be his successor, a man with the same cutthroat instincts as Mugabe, named "the Crocodile", an erstwhile enforcer for Mugabe.
Envoys representing South Africa's Jacob Zuma, himself an embattled president mired in corruption and self-availment, had been tasked with persuading Mugabe that it would be in his best interests and that of the nation to 'resign' his presidency at age 93. While his wife Grace Mugabe has already fled Zimbabwe, knowing that the dismissed vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who along with General Constantine Chiwenga, head of the armed forces would be likely to hold her accountable for Mugabe's latest excesses and insistence that she be his replacement, he had steadfastly refused to 'resign'.
Sanctioned by the United States in 2003 identifying him as one among other officials "who undermine democratic processes and institutions in Zimbabwe", Mnangagwa, widely considered to be as corrupt and abusive as Mugabe, is supported by the military and as such more likely than Tsvangirai, to replace Mugabe. The result of which could be that Zimbabwe's brief celebration at the removal of their dictator will be short-lived, when a replacement dictator steps in.
Robert Mugabe kisses his wife Grace during during the country’s 37th
Independence Day celebrations at the capital, Harare, in April, 2017.
Her unpopularity may drive voters to opposition camps, a senior member
of a rival party says, as she is ‘the most hated woman in Zimbabwe.’
JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/Getty Images
Mugabe's authoritarian rule and mismanagement of the country leading to the steep economic decline of the nation has made him a deeply unpopular figure, although he himself thinks that he is held in deep affection by ordinary Zimbabweans. That his wife Grace Mugabe, continued to spend huge sums of state treasury on designer clothing, jewellery, the building of several mansions, throwing costly parties while ordinary people suffered economic marginalization and scrounged for food, certainly failed to endear her to the population.
The unfortunate thing is that there will be no 'clean sweep' of the stables in this country; one corrupt megalomaniac will simply replace another. And the envoys from the Southern African Development Community which had sent them to appease Mugabe's hurt feelings by assurances given to him that he remains fondly regarded as one of the heroes of African liberation, will return whence they came, satisfied with a job well done.
Mugabe in talks about his future, in this image tweeted by the editor of Zimbabwe's Herald.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
