It was heart-rending to read Robert Mugabe’s all too partisan address to his party ZANU-PF in Harare on the very eve of Nelson Mandela’s historic funeral (Times of Malta, December 14).
The leadership examples left to posterity in neighbouring southern African states by these two men could not be more markedly different.
Initially they used a similar language. I vividly remember hearing Mugabe speak eloquently and articulately of reconciliation in a prosperous multi-racial nation-state, way back in 1980, on the eve of the first general election in Zimbabwe following the Lancaster House agreement. He won that election largely on the strength of a purely Mashona tribal vote, whereas Joshua Nkomo’s Ndebeles represented a smaller tribal base and lost accordingly, although the real father of Zimbabwean nationalism was the latter not the former. Since then it has become manifestly evident that Mugabe’s ruthless and errant party in power has lost much even of that tribally-rooted support.
Those of us who risked their lives in the wake of a civil war believing in the Western principle of majority rule would be sorely disappointed by the resulting product, no thanks to rhetoric and ideology. As one African colleague had told me at the time, in all seriousness, if rather cynically, democracy in Africa generally meant “one man, one vote, once only”.
The South African experience, greatly inspired by Mandela’s vision and humanity, has been rather different, in spite of the strictures of ‘affirmative action’. Long may it last.
Polling stations and ballot papers became a sick joke
In the case of Zimbabwe, however, not only has Mugabe, 89, been in power ever since – that is since May 1980, for nearly 34 years – he has also studiously and ruthlessly manoeuvered his way to remain there, even when a majority of voters, probably to his surprise, had clearly asked him to go by means of the ballot box.
Henceforth, in spite of weak South African moderated talks to find a workable compromise solution, it has become very difficult, almost impossible, for the democratic opposition to as much as rally in a peaceful assembly without being attacked by the regime’s thugs or security police.
This has constrained it to reject official election results time and again as fraudulent, whatever some other African ‘observers’ might suggest in deference to the perceived last remaining nationalist African ‘liberator’.
Mugabe’s policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul has not worked, often pandering to a populist-driven racism, while some European ‘merchants’ clearly have been far more interested in blood diamonds than human rights or anything of the sort.
Polling stations and ballot papers became a sick joke, tens of thousands of people have died or been killed, the economy took a tumble and more so the quality of life in what once was, in spite of the shunned minority rule (albeit without apartheid on the South African model) an infrastructurally and economically functioning state, exporting wheat, tobacco and indeed diamonds.
But not so long ago Ms Mugabe was caught red-handed in Spain dealing in Zimbabwean emeralds! So much for a ‘Marxist’ distribution of wealth!
In a speech to his party congress on December 13, Mugabe (who was supposedly re-elected last July) inveighed against meddling rival factions within ZANU-PF and appealed: “So, let us hear the people”. But it seems that by “the people” he really means his own party members, if not the stalwarts and goons. If only Zimbabwe could have a Mandela for Mugabe, the ‘liberation’ dream of old – reconciliation and prosperity in a democratic multi-racial state – might still come to pass in this very beautiful, generally friendly and potentially rich country.
The people of Zimbabwe (not Mugabe’s hangers-on) should finally get the chance freely to choose their President.
After all, that’s what independence means: popular sovereignty, not vote-rigging or brutal intimidation from above to stay in power until death.
Going to church in Harare cathedral on Sunday mornings and queuing to shake the Pope’s hands in Rome is not nearly enough to redeem you of your sins and erroneous ways, Mr President.
Don’t be a Scrooge this Christmas, think about it as you approach the venerable age of 90. Ponder on Mandela’s example to his country and the world.
Henry Frendo coordinated the voluntary repatriation to Zimbabwe from neighbouring southern African states in 1980. He chaired Malta’s Refugee Appeals Board from 2001 to 2013.