In side Mugabes Mind Set.

By Lazarus Garakara
by Lazarus Garakara on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 11:49pm Zimbabwe is mine. These are the words which the west use to mastermind a hate campaign aimed at the Zimbabwean President, none other than Gushugo, a.k.a, Bob Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Following the Lancaster House agreement which was epitomised by the declaration of independence of the then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe [House of Stones], the policy of reconciliation and reconstruction was to be the order of the day. The aim of this was so that the wounds of the past years of liberation struggle were to be buried and the horrendous remains never to be exhumed from the grave. With all the promises that were made to the liberation war fighters [heroes], which were eventually achieved through frustration of the status quo agreement of Lancaster House agreement, what has happened today in Zimbabwe beggars belief. The country which was once called The break basket of Africa is now literally on its knees and the hopes of ever getting up from this position seem slimmer and slimmer by the day, but instead what we will envisage is the slow constant change of position towards a prone position and the ones that feel the pinched as usual are those on the bottom of the ladder. Bearing in mind that we do not have a welfare system in place, can you stop for a minute and just imagine what life symbolises in this state. The downward collapse and bad publicity of the country is blamed on Robert Mugabe by most western countries as an isolationist tool which has up to this point proved success among the so called first world states, but to the detriment of the populace of the ordinary Zimbabwean people who are left to suffer as they has no other means of getting by. Without forgetting the terms and conditions of the Lancaster House signed by the UKs Conservative Government on Maggie Thatcher under the watchful eye of Prince Charles, the 1997 change of government to that of the New Labour Party, now pretty much defunct barely three weeks after the formation of a Coalition, the old agreements was thrown to the gutter by the new British government due to the nature of the UKs Constitutional theory of implied repeal, and this was further confirmed by the newly appointed Culture Secretary Claire Short. She is on record as saying that the Labour Party was not bound to uphold the old governments promises. This was followed by a sentiment of betrayal by the Zimbabwean government which was left with no other alternatives but to grab the white owned farms by violent means which could have been prevented, but for the arguments of the Labour Party in UK. I sometimes find it ironic or rather absurd that the status quo in Zimbabwe should be blamed on Mugabe and his so called power hungry cronies in both the government and the Armed Forces. In any case, Tony Blaire can again be seen as the main perpetrator of the terrorism which has left Zimbabweans pointing the blame on none other than Mugabe once again. Ironic, really. Prior to all the above mentioned outcomes, there have been attempts within Zimbabwe to have Mugabe and his cronies toppled from the realm of political rule, but with miserable outcomes on those that tried to achieve this. The first attempt, though not a ballot attempt was that of the dissidents in the southern city of Bulawayo. Their argument was that Mugabe had cheated the country and that he Mugabe was solely responsible for the death of the rightful leader of Zanu PF, none other than Josiah Tongogara. Josiah, for the record, died in a raid orchestrated by the Rhodesian

government under the orders of Ian Smith. As a result,the newly appointed provisional government of Zimbabwe, under the orders of Mugabe was forced to retaliate with measures which were later to regretted up to this point; the massacre of thousands of Ndebeles. At this stage Mugabe was not yet President and as such the provisional President of the newly independent Zimbabwe was Canaan Banana, the man who was later to spend the rest of his life in a maximum prison on allegations of sodomy; charges raised by one of his Police Security men who had fallen victim to the Reverends evil deeds. Takere was the next victim to test the force formed by the Mugabe regime in the fierce run up to a general election. All the funding that Tekere had managed to acquire for his campaign was of no significance to the mighty Zanu Zapu election campaign. Tekere only managed to gain a few votes here and there and once again, Mugabe was left to flourish with the countrys political forum. The year 1993 was a year that was rumoured to be the down fall of Zanu and Zapu with the emergence of Ndabadinghi Sithole, a breakaway radical of the Zapu PF controlled by the late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo. Sithole forced himself in exile and since 1980, spent most of his life in the USA where he managed to amass a great wealth of funding from Human Rights organisations and other sympathetic busy bodies. What Sithole failed to realise was that the people of Zimbabwe had moved on from the post 1980 era and also he failed to realise that the new government had done pretty much well in ensuring that the coalition of Zanu and Zapu was there to stay like conjoined twins attached at the hip. Thus when he eventually told the Zimbabwean people of his plans to unite the country, he found himself surrounded by supporters who were not interested in his views, but rather their expectations where on what material goods he had brought for them from overseas. What people were looking for were the Nikes and the Reeboks which made more sense as compared to his long and mainly boring speeches which were not worthy of listening too. In any case, most people saw in Sithole the real meaning of betrayal and thus when election time arrived, it was no wonder that Mugabe was once again voted into power legitimately by the people. Jonathan Moyo the renowned critic of the Mugabe regime was once famous for his gibes against the establishment in his days as Professor of Political Science at Rhodes University. What surprised most people was that upon his return to Zimbabwe, he was quick to take the side of the same establishment which he had for many years criticised for the lack of Human Rights and other deplorable issues that he had once raised. Today, he is pretty much a wet bull dog, walking around the streets of Harare with no particular role in the government, and I should mention that his tail is pretty much between his legs as he carries on with his daily errands of implementing order in the much dysfunctional government reform structure. The emergence of The Movement for Democratic Change under the leadership of Morgan Tsvangerai, the current Prime Minister of the coalition and former head of the Workers Union, brought hope for many Zimbabweans and the western countries that really wanted to see the departure of Mugabe through the ballot box. However, with all the noise that this party brought with it, many within the party have been left to wonder where the democratic principles of this party are founded. Following Tsvangirais constant refusal to have a new leader of the party chosen by an election within the party, many within the party machinery have doubted the ability of their leader of ever bringing democracy to the nation.

I for one am of the view that the current coalition government of the country is nothing more than an appeasement to the west so that the people of Zimbabwe are not left to suffer for long while Mugabe pushes through his last few years as Premier of the country for the next 3 years. The sad reality is that the future as it unfolds before our very own eyes is very worrying. The question I am normally left with usually takes the form of the aftermath of Russia after the death of Lenin and the eventual execution of Trotsky. Russian history seems to me the way that the country [Zimbabwe] is clearly headed towards and this at time can be a worrying thought. That basically means going back to the death of Lenin who may in a way epitomise the legacy of Mugabe. The question is, who will take the place of Stalin. Will it be Tsvangirai or anyone else for that matter? Please, do feel free to critic this article and all points that you may feel to be inaccurate as this will only help with the distribution of correct and up to date information which every person is entitled to.