Mugabe: Unmaking of a hero (II)

Last week when I signed off with a promised to return to this subject, the Mugabe saga kept on playing under our very eyes on live television. The Army tanks that remained in the streets of Harare were hailed and garlanded by enthusiastic Zimbabweans of all ages and colours. President Mugabe remained holed up in […]

Last week when I signed off with a promised to return to this subject, the Mugabe saga kept on playing under our very eyes on live television. The Army tanks that remained in the streets of Harare were hailed and garlanded by enthusiastic Zimbabweans of all ages and colours. President Mugabe remained holed up in his residence, the so-called Blue Roof Mansion, leaving the country and the world at large in stupefying suspense. After what seemed to be as rounds of negotiations with the Zimbabwean Army top brass, aided by a sprinkling of diplomats from the concerned neighbouring countries, we waited with bated breaths for a scheduled broadcast to the nation by Mugabe on that Monday night expecting him to at last throw in the towel and resign. 

Instead Mugabe was seen rambling on about the future as if the grim looking Generals in his sitting room wearing battle fatigues and the unusual sight of tanks surrounding his gaudy palace did not matter. Majority of those who watched the broadcast were not just disappointed but were dismayed by Mugabe’s inability to seize the moment and leave with some modicum of pride. It was only when the impeachment process was to begin in the House of Assembly that the embattled old man was constrained to face reality and bite the bullet. It was a sad end to someone who believed in his own invincibility, immutability and irreplaceability. 

I bet you reader that you would believe so if you were in Mugabe’s position. Now at the age of 93, Mugabe had been head of government in Zimbabwe since 1980, for the lengthy period of 37 years. During this period most countries have had a turnover of heads of government. Zimbabwe’s colonial master, the United Kingdom has had six heads of government and United State of America had seven. Zimbabwe’s neighbour the Republic of South Africa which only became independent in 1994 had 3 heads of government. Our own Nigeria has had a turnover of ten heads of government within the period. Mugabe would probably be ranked as one of the longest serving head of government in history.

Nature was kind to him also. He lived to a very ripe old age and lasted in reasonably good shape. Forget about that shuffling on public occasions while walking to speech podiums and taking a minute nap at public events. The old man remained as sharp as ever to the very end. Along the way President Mugabe saw off many of his compatriots, friends and foes alike, to their graves. In the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) party itself, his close working colleague during the Lancaster talks, Edger Tekere who would later turn against him died in 2011. Another founder of ZANU, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole who also fell out with Mugabe died in 2000. The same with Enos Nkala in whose house ZANU itself was founded. Nkala did rounds as a minister after independence and fell out with Mugabe. He died in 2013. 

All opponents of Mugabe within the other parties, black or white, died one after the other. Joshua Nkomo, the grand old man of Zimbabwe politics and leader of Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), who served as a second Vice-President to Mugabe for many years, died in 1999. Bishop Muzorewa who led the United African National Council (UANC), a party that was soft to the Rhodesian whites’ aspirations and even served as a titular Prime Minister before the Lancaster talks, went into a political limbo at independence for many years and returned to his Maker in 2010. 

Similarly the white supremacist, Ian Smith, the Prime Minister 1964-79 and leader of Rhodesian Front, died in 2007 a very bitter man, though smug in the satisfaction that Mugabe had ruined what they had built and cherished. Ian Smith, an ardent racist and advocate of permanent white rule had never believed that Mugabe or any black leader would come to any good. General Peter Walls, who as head of the Rhodesian Armed Forces led the counter-insurgency war against the guerrilla armies of ZANU and ZAPU, lived the rest of his life in Cape Town, South Africa and died in 2011. David Smith who was Ian Smith Deputy Prime Minister, and also for a short while represented his white folks in Mugabe’s new government of national unity died in 1996 in Harare.

Probably if Mugabe had taken a walk from government in 1990 or thereabout he would have a done a Mandela and lived the rest of his life as a hero. Immediately after independence Mugabe had projected himself as a pragmatist that was ready to use existing structures to move Zimbabwe forward. He extended the olive branch to the white population and invited them in a spirit of national reconciliation to team up with the black population in building a new Zimbabwe. For a time he succeeded. Zimbabwe prospered with a boom particularly in agriculture and mining, the mainstay of the economy. The boom clearly showed in the country as new schools, hospitals and roads were built, giving Zimbabweans one of the highest standards of living in Africa. By the early 1990s Mugabe was a hero who had proved to the white supremacists that indeed the country could be led efficiently by a black leader. His reputation soared so much that he was even knighted by the Queen of England in 1994.  

Unfortunately the issue of land reforms had festered and needed to be resolved. At independence in 1980, the white farmers numbering only about 6000 owned over half of the large-holding farmlands and the most productive in the country which was actually protected from appropriation by law under the Lancaster House agreement. The white farmers though few in number were well organized, resourceful and had accounted for three-quarter of the output in the agricultural industry. They had never shied away from exerting their influence to collectively get what they want as they were even the backbone of the Rhodesian Front, the white supremacist party that ruled Zimbabwe before Independence. 

President Mugabe had faithfully observed the Lancaster House agreement for ten years but the pressure was growing particularly among the guerrilla war veterans for a more equitable redistribution of land among the entire population. It was the high-handed manner he handled the land matter that finally destroyed the economy of the country and his Presidency. By the close of the last Century Zimbabwe had become a basket case with economic sanctions by the Western countries hanging perilously over it, with a worthless currency and a traumatised citizenry, close to 90% of them out of job. The whole region felt the brunt of what happened to Zimbabwe as the citizens fled in droves across the border. It is estimated that there could be over 3m Zimbabweans living and working in the Republic of South Africa.

The coup could be a saving grace as anything could be better for this beleaguered country. It is a beautiful and resourceful country with one of the most highly educated citizens in Africa awaiting the right leadership to take them to the next level. The new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has an unenviable task.