Mikiya
3 July 2008
opinion
Last week just as Zimbabwe was going through the sham process of run-off election to choose a president, a concert was being organized to commemorate Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday in London's Hyde Park.
The ringing irony of these two events struck me poignantly. But let's state from the beginning that all those self-proclaimed Africanists should bury their heads in shame that the 90th birthday of a personality like Mandela had to take place in London and not somewhere in down town Johannesburg, Cape Town Abuja, Accra or Nairobi. The iconic figure of a man who embodies that most coveted virtues and values sorely needed now on the African continent was once again on stage not on African soil but in Europe, being honoured simply for what he embodies.
There he was on stage in Hyde Park surrounded by singers, actors and various popular culture personalities. Never mind that he was on crutches, who wouldn't be at 90 and after what he went through for 27 years on Robben Island. After all the din and cacophony of the music had died down, Mandela told the gathering that they should not forget his prison number - 46664, that it remained the symbol of carrying on the struggle to combat all forms of human frailties, of disease, of impunity and graft and all manner of inequality, which have been his life's purpose. And now that he has become old and infirm, he was passing on the torch for the struggle to continue. As I watched I couldn't help thinking that the man was giving his valediction. Though on crutches, I couldn't help praying to God to grant him many more years. We need him around.
We all remember don't we, that when Mandela was released from prison, he headed the first multi-racial government in South Africa, and once it was clear that power has been wrested from the claws of henchmen of apartheid bigotry and has been consolidated, he promptly stepped aside. As soon as freedom was established, he saw his work as done, and moved on to become the father of South Africa nay African continent. Like his kindred spirit - Mahatma Ghandi, who also in 1948 promptly turned over power to Pandit Nehru as soon as the British colonialists relinquished it and even had to fast unto death if the Hindu/Muslim conflict that ensued soon after independence did not stop. Mandela, like Ghandi before him over the years has even grown bigger in stature as the conscience of the world--upbraiding arrogant power and championing the poor, sick and the forgotten.
All the above is just to say how rare these sorts of men are becoming. When Mandela turned over power to Thabo Mbeki after a term as president of South Africa, he was just about the age of Robert Mugabe, knowing that the exigencies of running a government is better suited for a younger man who would be able to grasp the detailed nuances of administration. Today, warts and all, South Africa is in far better shape than Zimbabwe, so much so that hordes of Zimbabwean young men and women brave the veldt and its dangerous animals to cross into South Africa to seek succor.
I am not for one moment, reducing the differences in economic well-being of the two countries to only the reason that Mandela handed over to Thabo Mbeki and Mugabe has not done the same. The fact however remains that on Robert Mugabe's watch, Zimbabwe has gone to the dogs. Nearly three decades of sham democracy and turning the United States, the United Kingdom and any other countries that criticized him into bogeymen for his monumental failure, he has turned Zimbabwe into a veritable failed state. There are some whose support for Robert Mugabe is based solely on the fact that he fought a war of liberation against Ian Smith's stupid racialist ideology of the supremacy of white rule, a battle he has continued ever since he took over power in 1980, in the guise of anti-imperialist rhetoric. No one is denying him the credit for winning the war against Ian Smith. Having won the war, what did he do with the victory? Nothing. Indeed the place is now worse off than it was when he took over. Let us say it plainly; Mugabe lacks the temperament suitable for governance. Were Zimbabwe under another person's leadership, we will be singing a different song. Its proximity to South Africa alone, with judicious handling is enough to keep it afloat, maintain its once buoyant agriculture and through it grow its industrial sector. Malawi and Mozambique (even after suffering disastrous flood) are two countries that have put to good use good leadership practices that precludes sit-tightism and their proximity to South Africa.
How anyone can begin to make a case for Mugabe's incompetence after 28 years boggles the mind. Being a highly educated man, with, according to an account 20 degree certificates under his armpit, all collected while serving time under Ian Smith, it is sad that he has come to this pass. It is as if he gained nothing from all the reading. The tragic flaw in this once upon a time African hero, is that he forgot to grow into a statesman and steeped in the "they" versus "us" politics of the guerilla years, he refused to discard its bitterness which he brought to bear in dealing with everyone, even with former colleagues in the "Bush war". In these last days of his pathetic rule, he is now deserted, alone and wasted. Nothing illustrates this waste and forlornness than the scores of the people he is ruling over voting with their feet in search of means sustenance and survival.
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I dont think its the land issue that is the problem. Its more the murder and torture of his own people. Crimes against humanity should be punished.
Rotten African Press is so corrupt that they seem to underestimate readers. It is cristal clear that if Mugabe change his position on the land ownership issue, the same press that velify him today will praise him for doing that. It is so sad African pressmen are for profit rather than truthfulness.