Zimbabweans pray for liberation from their liberator – Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe has decreed that his iron fist shall continue to rule Zimbabwe!

The Mugabe government of Zimbabwe is the most corrupt, dysfunctional, and incompetent in Africa. And, on a continent that has the most corrupt, dysfunctional, and incompetent governments in the entire world, Mugabe’s achievement in this regard is a truly dubious distinction. Therefore, those of us who rue the slings and arrows of Mugabe’s outrageous governance will observe national elections there on Thursday with quixotic feelings of cynicism and unconquerable hope.

Of course, no one doubts that Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party will declare victory just as it has in every election since Mugabe led Zimbabwe to Independence in 1980. The only suspense this time is whether the wave of democracy that recently washed away tyrants from countries like the Ukraine, Syria and Kyrgyzstan will now surge it’s inexorable force of peaceful revolutionary change over Zimbabwe.

Hope springs eternal…

Robert Mugabe, 81, personifies the big dada pathology that has afflicted most of post colonial Africa: A guerilla fighter who liberated his people from white racists only to plunge them into deeper throes of oppression by his ruthless, greedy and inept leadership of their independent nation.

Zimbabweans celebrated the birth of their nation 25 years ago. But it soon became patently clear that the chaos, violence and rank incompetence that attended its Independence Day celebration were foreboding of things to come.

Indeed, Mugabe wasted little time assigning his unskilled guerilla comrades political portfolios to ensure his absolute control throughout the country. No political opposition or dissent was tolerated and soon fear and intimidation became the method of governance in Zimbabwe.

Nevertheless, even two decades after independence, a herd of white farmers still managed the most profitable sector of Zimbabwe’s economy: agriculture. And, for a proud black freedom fighter who promised not only political but also economic liberation from the white man, this fact hovered as a glaring humiliation and contradiction over Mugabe’s leadership. In 2000, he decided to do something about it.

It would be a terribly oversight, however, not to mention the simmering dissension among the ranks of Mugabe’s comrades in arms who 20 years later had little to show for their dedication to his cause. Especially since Mugabe’s action against the white farmers was prompted as much to appease them as to honour his commitment to spread black empowerment benefits throughout his country.

A bountiful harvest was always guaranteed by an uneasy and exploitative collaboration between white farm owners and black farm workers…

Therefore, to the relief and exultation of restive blacks, Mugabe announced sweeping land reforms in which his government would seize the “farms of white colonialists to give to landless peasants and the veterans of the war of liberation.” A noble idea to be sure; but so was the cause of national independence 20 years early that did so little to empower the 70 percent of Zimbabweans who remained mired in extreme poverty.

Unfortunately, like his plan for black economic empowerment, Mugabe’s plan for land reforms has been an abject failure: Five years ago, there were 4000 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe; today, there are only 400 (mostly unproductive) farms left. Five years ago, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of sub-Saharan Africa; today, it is a basket case of starving people. Indeed, according to a March 12 report in The Times:

“Most of the seized farms went to President Mugabe’s loyal cronies in government who used them for weekend retreats. Virtually every Cabinet minister and senior security official now has at least two farms. Even then, they are not given the title deed, just a long lease which the President can revoke at the first sign of disloyalty.

It has been a catastrophe. These people had no idea how to farm commercially; and farms that would normally be overflowing with maize and other crops lie fallow, now covered in waist-high wild grass. Farm machinery stands unused in abandoned fields.

Incidentally, instead of seizing white farms, it would have made far more sense to impose (price and production) controls on them pursuant to the national interest. White farmers would have complied. What’s more, Mugabe could have spun this as a form of nationalization consistent with his plan for black empowerment.

In addition to ruining Zimbabwe’s agriculture, Mugabe also precipitated hyper-inflation that is now over 400 per cent. Indeed, in 2000, Zimbabwe’s currency was Z$40 to $1; today, it is over Z$10,000. Now add to this structural collapse the escalating spectre of AIDS that is killing 1 child every 15 minutes and only then one gets a glimpse of the living hell that is Zimbabwe on the eve of national elections.

Therefore, given this horrific record of failure, it might seem incredulous to most people that Mugabe is so assured of reelection. But there are two principal reasons for this cynical assurance:

First, Mugabe has a national network of political cronies, security police, spies and thugs that make Stalin’s regime of oppression and intimidation seem feckless. And, this network has already ensured that the silenced opposition has no means (through national media or grass roots campaigning) of mobilizing votes or protest against Mugabe’s rule. Moreover, his compromised judiciary ruled recently that those who escaped repression to live abroad will have no say (via absentee ballots) in the outcome of Mugabe’s election.

Second, Mugabe has cajoled the vast majority of his people into thinking that no one more powerful than he cares about them. Moreover, that only he, their Big Dada, stands between their current misery and even worse conditions that would befall them if “foreign agents were allowed to derail Zimbabwe’s great revolution”. (Fidel Castro, eat your heart out!)

Regrettably, thanks to the malevolent neglect of rich nations and the complicity of many African governments, Mugabe’s brainwashing of his people has been quite successful. After all, despite showing aggressive interest in the outcome of elections where dictatorships rule over mostly white populations, the Bush Administration has demonstrated precious little interest in the fate of black Zimbabweans. (Indeed, it was especially disappointing that Secretary of State Dr Condoleeza Rice offered no encouragement to Zimbabweans to vote against Mugabe on Thursday when she presented America’s annual report on Countries with Human Rights Abuses only yesterday.)

It must be said, however, that black American and African leaders have shown even less concern about Mugabe’s thriving dictatorship than President Bush has demonstrated. Indeed, it is instructive to note that whilst America’s putative black leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson, was all over television during the past 48 hours, he never once commanded the world’s attention to
the plight of the poor and oppressed people of Zimbabwe. Instead, Jackson used his considerable influence to commmand media attention to the plight of Michael Jackson (the indicted child) whose legal ordeal Jackson compared to the oppression suffered by Nelson Mandela under apartheid.

(Sadly, it has long seemed futile to keep hope alive for Michael Jackson’s sanity. But, with Rev. Jackson collaborating in this abject mockery of Mandela, it might prove difficult to keep hope alive for his political integrity. Click here for more details on how other “African American” leaders have challenged the American government to help Michael Jackson as they ignored poor starving Africans in the Sudan.)

Meanwhile, Africa’s most powerful leader, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, has not only embraced Mugabe’s flourishing dictatorship but has actually undermined efforts by South African Trade Unionists to help organize opposition to Mugabe. In fact, much to the dismay of Zimbabwe’s marginalized opposition Party (Movement for Democratic Change – MDC), Mbeki recently announced to the world that “President Robert Mugabe’s government had taken action to ensure a level playing field and there was no violence or intimidation in Zimbabwe.”

Zimbabweans feel betrayed by Mbeki’s embrace of the ruthless tyrant who has destroyed their lives!

MDC spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi, said that Zimbabweans were “stunned” by Mr Mbeki’s observations and added, rather sardonically, that maybe Mbeki “knows things that those of us who are on the ground do not know”.

All things considered, it seems highly unlikely that any change will come to Zimbabwe after Mugabe orchestrates national elections on Thursday. Nevertheless, long-suffering, humbled and dreadfully intimidated Zimbabweans deserve not only our humanitarian concerns but also our active support. Therefore, please use the links below to register your outrage at this conspiracy of neglect by key world leaders.

We can remain hopeful that the spontaneous revolutions that have erupted all over the world in recent months might penetrate Mugabe’s considerable defenses. Indeed, Zimbabwe’s courageous Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo has even said a public prayer for a Ukrainian style uprising to overthrow Africa’s lone reigning big dada.

Alas, the conditions of poverty, disease and hunger are so severe that Zimbabweans may not have the strength to march in the streets even if they wanted to….

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