Uncertainty In Zimbabwe On Mugabe's Burial Eclipses Mourning

Nelson Chamisa, left, leader of the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, consoles Grace, wife to former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe at his residence in Harare, Thursday Sept. 12, 2019. Zimbabwe's founding leader Robert Mugabe made his final journey back to the country Wednesday, his body flown into the capital amid the contradictions of his long, controversial rule. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

BY ANDREW MELDRUM, FARAI MUTSAKA

HARARE, ZIMBABWE (AP) — Controversy over where and when Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe will be buried has overshadowed arrangements for Zimbabweans to pay their respects to the deceased leader.

Mugabe will not be given a state burial on Sunday at the national Heroes’ Acre site, family spokesman Leo Mugabe announced Thursday. The burial will be a private, family affair, he said to press outside Mugabe’s Blue Roof house.

“There have just been discussions between President Mnangagwa and Mai (Mrs.) Mugabe and it would look like nothing has changed,” said the ex-president’s nephew. “The family ... said they are going to have a private burial. We don’t want the public to come. They don’t want you to know where he is going to be buried. We are not witnessing burial on Sunday, no date has been set for the burial.”


The announcement came after President Emmerson Mnangagwa met with Mugabe’s widow, Grace, and other family members to try to resolve the burial dispute.

Instead of an interment on Sunday, Mugabe’s body will be on view to the public at a place near Mugabe’s birthplace in Zvimba district, said Leo Mugabe, who added that the family had not decided if he would be buried in Zvimba.

Speaking at the Mugabe house, Mnangagwa said his government would respect the family’s wishes over the burial, saying they have “the full support of the government. Nothing will change.”

The ongoing uncertainty of the burial of Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore at the age of 95, has eclipsed the elaborate plans for Zimbabweans to pay their respects to the former guerrilla leader at several historic sites.

The burial dispute has also highlighted the lasting acrimony between Mnangagwa and Mugabe’s wife and other family members. Mugabe was deposed in November 2017 by Zimbabwe’s military and his former ally Mnangagwa. Grace and other family members still resent his ouster, apparently resulting in their refusal to go along with state burial plans.

Shortly after Mugabe’s death, Leo Mugabe said the former strongman died “a very bitter man” because he felt betrayed by Mnangagwa and the army generals who were his allies for close to four decades before they put him under house arrest and forced him to resign.

The government had earlier announced that Mugabe would be buried at the Heroes’ Acre monument, a burial place reserved for top officials of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party who contributed to ending white colonial rule.

It has long been taken for granted that Mugabe would be buried at Heroes’ Acre. Mugabe had overseen the construction by North Korea of the monument atop a prominent hill and featuring a grandiose towering sculpture of guerrilla fighters. Mugabe gave many speeches at the site and his first wife, Sally, is buried there next to a gravesite long reserved for the ex-leader.

Mugabe’s casket will be displayed to the public at several sites. It will be shown Thursday and Friday at Rufaro Stadium in Harare’s poor Mbare neighborhood.

On Saturday a ceremony will be held at the National Sports Stadium, which several African heads of state and other prominent officials are expected to attend. Supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party are being bused from all over the country to go to the stadium ceremonies.

Grace Mugabe is expected to stay beside the casket the entire time.

Earlier Thursday at Blue Roof, Mugabe’s 25-bedroom mansion in Harare’s posh Borrowdale suburb, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader paid his respects to the man who had been his bitter political foe.

“I am here to do the African thing that is expected ... to pay honor,” said Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party.

“In politics we have had many differences but we are here to reflect on his contribution. ... We are here to pay condolences to the Mugabe family, all Zimbabweans and indeed the whole of Africa. It is only fair and necessary to see that we unite to see that he is given a decent burial and a peaceful send off. Today is a day of mourning.”

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Zimbabwe’s Crumbling Economy Spoils Coup ‘Celebrations’

HARARE, ZIMBABWE (AFRICA NEWS AGENCY)--Harare ‑ It’s only a few weeks before the coup plotters celebrate the Second Republic, which came after the military helped oust Robert Mugabe, then-leader of the country for the first 37 years since independence.

With the coup having started on November 14, Mugabe succumbed to pressure and signed his resignation letter on November 21 when his long-time allies, among them Emmerson Mnangagwa and then-Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Chiwenga turned their backs on him and opted to topple him.

Mnangagwa, having been fired from the government on November 7 following attacks by the G40 factional grouping and fleeing the country the next day after talks of a planned hit on him, returned home on November 22 from South Africa, where he had sought refuge.

On November 24, he was inaugurated as President, promising that Zimbabwe was open for business, her economy would boom, and jobs would open up.

Instantly, he was an avowed reformist. He travelled to all corners of the world trying to woo the support of the international community. All he came back with was promise after promise.

The investors were waiting on the July 30, 2018, elections to see if Mnangagwa would follow the law to the letter and to the spirit.

During the election campaign period, Mnangagwa promised guaranteed jobs, improved health facilities, money in the banks and in automated teller machines ‑ all in all, a new Zimbabwe. He claimed Zimbabwe had wasted several years in isolation under Mugabe.

The elections came and went. The electorate voted for their candidates, with the protagonists being Mnangagwa himself and opposition MDC Alliance’s youthful leader Nelson Chamisa.

Chamisa lost to his nemesis by a small margin and contested the win in the Constitutional Court. A ruling was made and Mnangagwa was declared the winner.

But now, the nation is licking its wounds.

First to spoil his supposed plans was the August 1 deadly shootings in the capital by the military, where seven civilians died as a result of gunshot wounds.

The military fired live ammunition on fleeing citizens following protests over an alleged electoral theft.

Since then, everything has gone ballistic. The legitimacy Mnangagwa was seeking following the November coup is seemingly up in smoke.

Next was the cholera epidemic which claimed the lives of 54 people and left thousands seeking medical attention after a breakout of the waterborne disease in Glen View and Budiriro high-density suburbs.

Now, the economy is burning. And there seems to be no solution in sight as yet.

On October 1, the government scrapped the US$0.05 flat fee charge for every electronic or mobile money transfer or payment transaction and replaced it with a new tax regime, where both individuals and companies would be charged US$0.02 for every dollar transacted.

With a lot of public outcry and resistance, new finance and economic development minister Mthuli Ncube rejigged the policy, exempting all transactions under US$10 and putting a cap of US$10 000 charge for any transaction above US$500 000.

But still, the situation has turned grave.

The transfer rate has gone haywire, at one point shaking the market after shooting through the roof to 600%, meaning a $600 transfer for every US$100.

The authorities blame illegal foreign currency dealers for the crisis on the market. Law enforcement agents have already been set on the street forex dealers. But the opposition says fiscal indiscipline by the government is the major source of the country’s problems.

Fuel queues, a few weeks ago, snaked out at service stations, where either petrol or diesel would have been delivered.

At some stations, it’s either the fuel tanks underground were empty, or the little available was reserved for those with cards.

At others, the fuel attendants limited what motorists could get.

For now, the situation has improved a bit, with the government said to have stocked up.

In shops, prices are going up on a daily basis, if not by the hour.

There are now multi-tier pricing systems in several shops.

Basic commodities like cooking oil and sugar, if available, are being rationed in shops.

Even beer in most shops has not been spared the rationing.

At pharmacies, the attendants are demanding foreign currency for one to get medication. They have even inflated the prices in US dollars.

For blood pressure pills that usually go for $9, the price has jumped to around US$20, or about $160 in the surrogate bond note or transfer rate.

Meanwhile, Chamisa claims the crisis will only halt if Mnangagwa concedes that he stole the July 30 election.

He says only legitimacy will solve the situation Zimbabwe finds herself in.

Chamisa’s MDC Alliance party maintains no investor would want to pour their money into a “bottomless” Zimbabwe.

Economist Chris Mugaga says the government is “clearly running out of ideas and time”.

“The government sold the nation a dummy for too long. They were milking a buffalo thinking it’s a cow, now it’s kicking them from its udder and they are wondering why,” he was quoted recently in private media.

The Zimbabwe Council of Churches has tried to bring Chamisa and Mnangagwa to the negotiation table for a way out, but that option seems to have hit a brick wall.

Zanu-PF, the party in government, insists elections determined the legitimacy issue.

“Elections were held and are gone…Let’s look ahead in terms of our economic development, that is the challenge we are facing, the stabilisation of our economy…” Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo was quoted as saying recently.

The ruling party insists its leader Mnangagwa’s doors are open to anyone with a solution to the crisis.

It’s only a matter of time before anyone knows which direction the co country is taking.

African News Agency (ANA)

As Zimbabwe’s Leader Preaches A New Era, Military A Concern

Military tanks in Harare, Wednesday, Aug, 1, 2018. Rioting erupted Wednesday in Zimbabwe’s capital as opposition supporters clashed with police and army troops over delays in announcing results from the presidential election, the country’s first since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

BY FARAI MUTSAKA

HARARE, ZIMBABWE (AP) — As Zimbabwe’s president preaches democratic reform in a country emerging from decades of repression, the scenes of soldiers dispersing opposition protesters after a disputed election have cast a shadow on promises of a new era.

Speaking to reporters after being declared the winner of the first vote since the fall of former mentor Robert Mugabe, a relaxed-looking President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday praised the “flowering of freedom.”

But some observers said Zimbabwe’s future depends on whether he can convince the military hardliners and former generals who make up his inner circle to share his vision.

After decades as Mugabe’s enforcer amid killings of thousands of people in Matabeleland in the 1980s, land seizures from white farmers and elections marred by violence, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa now faces what might be his biggest challenge: asserting control over the security apparatus that put him in office.

Jubilant Zimbabweans cheered the military in November when it rolled into the capital, Harare, and pressured Mugabe to resign after 37 years in power.

But when troops returned to the streets on Wednesday amid gunfire that left six people dead, there were no longer hugs, kisses and selfies. Residents fled, and when Mnangagwa’s election win was announced the reaction was subdued, not celebratory.

“We have removed Mugabe but not Mugabe-ism,” opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said.

Asked whether he was confident that the government and military support his claims of democracy, Mnangagwa said: “I cannot guarantee that everybody will share my vision. But I believe that the majority of my party members, as well as the generality of Zimbabweans, will share that vision.”

It was not immediately clear who ordered the military into the streets. Under Zimbabwe’s constitution only the president has the power to authorize the deployment of defense forces. Police have said they invited the military to step in under a law that says they can do so, but some Zimbabwean lawyers said the constitution remains supreme.

Mnangagwa has refused to say whether he knew in advance about the military’s deployment and has not publicly criticized its actions. While hearings began on Saturday for opposition supporters accused of inciting violence in Wednesday’s protests, there was no sign of action taken against soldiers. The president has said he will appoint a commission of inquiry once he is sworn in.

“How (Mnangagwa) manages the internal dynamics will have a strong bearing on how his democratic project pans out,” said political analyst Alexander Rusero in Harare. “Unelected power will define his path if he fails to take strong measures to impose his will on the military and others close to him.”

Zimbabwe’s military has a history of siding with the ruling party and was often been accused of deploying in rural areas to intimidate villagers into voting for Mugabe, according to Human Rights Watch. The opposition ahead of Monday’s peaceful election raised concerns that soldiers were applying that pressure again.

While Mugabe maintained control of the military for most of his rule, the military now appears to control Mnangagwa, said Dewa Mavhinga, the Human Rights Watch director for southern Africa.

“It appears the military is fully in charge” after Wednesday’s actions, Mavhinga told The Associated Press. “The one chance to press the reset button and make a clean break with the past has been lost following the actions of the military in the full glare of the international community.”

Unlike Mugabe, Mnangagwa has attempted to take a conciliatory tone in public and extend a hand to the opposition, mindful that the international community is watching closely while considering whether to lift sanctions and invest in the once-prosperous country.

While the president speaks of freedom of expression, however, the main opposition party accuses soldiers of detaining, assaulting and intimidating supporters in parts of the capital. Police raided the party’s headquarters on Thursday and arrested 18 people.

“Is he even in charge?” Gladys Hlatywayo, a political analyst in Harare, asked of Mnangagwa.” The military put him in power, he is answerable to them.”

Constantino Chiwenga, the general behind the military operation against Mugabe, is Mnangagwa’s deputy in the ruling party and was appointed a vice president. Another general who announced the operation on television, Sibusiso Moyo, is now foreign affairs minister.

The opposition has expressed concern about possible fissures in the establishment, including the military. While addressing the ruling party’s parliamentary candidates in March, Mnangagwa claimed that he was aware of an internal plot to impeach him after the elections.

“One theory is that there is a parallel authority headed by ambitious securocrats which have control of the security institutions,” said Alex Magaisa, a political analyst and law lecturer at Britain’s University of Kent. “That is the problem when power has been delivered to you by others. They own you. They see you as a placeholder, a puppet who has no need to be consulted.”

If Mnangagwa had to rely on the military to win the election he remains in its grasp, Magaisa said.


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Zimbabwe Opposition Cries Foul In historic Post-Mugabe Vote

Leader President Robert Mugabe casts his vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe, Monday, July 30, 2018. Zimbabweans are voting in their first election without Robert Mugabe on the ballot, and with some 5.5 million people registered to vote. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

BY CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA & FARAI MUTSAKA

HARARE, ZIMBABWE (AP) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader on Monday said reported voting delays were a “deliberate attempt” to undermine his supporters in the country’s first election without former leader Robert Mugabe on the ballot.

The allegations by Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, intensified concerns about management of the election and the prospect of a dispute over its outcome.

The voting turnout was high and, in a break from the past, peaceful. Even Mugabe, widely accused of repression and mismanagement during his 37 years in power, was cheered by crowds as he arrived to cast his ballot.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former deputy president, has promised a credible vote that he hopes will bring international legitimacy and investment to this southern African country, though a seriously flawed process could signal more stagnation.

Mugabe, 94, ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until his resignation in November under military pressure and many people are anxious for change.

The opposition was concerned about delays at polling stations in urban areas, where support for the opposition has traditionally been strong, while the ruling ZANU-PF party has dominated many rural areas in past elections marred by violence and irregularities.

“There seems to be a deliberate attempt to suppress and frustrate” urban voters through “unnecessary delays,” Chamisa said on Twitter. He acknowledged that there was a “good turnout.”

Long lines formed outside many polling stations in Harare, the capital, and elsewhere. Anyone in line as of the 7 p.m. closing time could still vote, though opposition parties were concerned that their supporters could drift away if forced to wait for hours.

Some observers welcomed Zimbabwe’s freer political environment but cited worries about bias in state media, a lack of transparency in ballot printing and reports of intimidation by pro-government traditional leaders who are supposed to stay neutral.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, accused of engineering flawed election wins for Mugabe in the past, has said this vote will be free and fair.

“We need peace and we need everyone to be comfortable to go out and exercise their right to vote without fear,” said Priscilla Chigumba, a judge who chairs the commission. She said she was confident that voting at most of the country’s nearly 11,000 polling stations would be completed by closing time.

About 5.5 million people were registered to vote in an election viewed by many as an opportunity to move beyond decades of political and economic paralysis.

A record of more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties were participating. If no presidential candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Sept. 8.

“I want to do this and get on with my business. I am not leaving anything to chance. This is my future,” said Emerina Akenda, a first-time voter.

The main contenders were the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe stepped down, and 40-year-old Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who became head of the main opposition party a few months ago after the death of its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

After voting in the central city of Kwekwe, where bystanders were silent and grim-faced, Mnangagwa said he was committed to a Zimbabwe in which people have the “freedom to express their views, negative or positive.”

Piercing whistles and cheers greeted Chamisa as he voted outside Harare. He said he hoped voting in rural areas would be fair.

Despite Mugabe’s troubled legacy, dozens of cheering Zimbabweans gathered outside the polling station in the capital where he voted. Struggling to walk, Mugabe raised his fist to acknowledge them. He had his finger inked and was assisted by his wife into the booth.

Mugabe on Sunday said Chamisa was the only viable candidate and rejected Mnangagwa and the ruling party, saying: “I cannot vote for those who have tormented me.”

Chigumba, the electoral commission chief, said police had been informed about two presidential candidates who might have violated the law by campaigning after the cutoff time. She didn’t name them, but they likely were Chamisa and Mnangagwa. Both issued public statements on Sunday.

Even though Monday was a public holiday, some government offices were open so that those who had lost identity cards could get replacements and then cast their ballots.

Inside polling stations, voters were given three ballot papers: one for their presidential pick, another for member of parliament and a third for local councilor. Polling officers helped voters put each ballot paper in the right box.

“We need change because we have suffered a lot here,” said 65-year-old Mable Mafaro while voting in Harare. “We have suffered a lot. That’s all.”

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Guess Who’s Still A Factor In Zimbabwe’s Election? Mugabe.

Elections observers from the European Union and the African Union sit on bleachers as leading opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa addresses a campaign rally in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Saturday July 21, 2018. Just 3 percentage points now separate Chamisa and former Mugabe deputy and current President Emmerson Mnangagwa ahead of the July 30 presidential vote, according to a new survey by the Afrobarometer research group. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

BY FARAI MUTSAKA

MASVINGO, ZIMBABWE (AP) — Zimbabwe’s former leader Robert Mugabe has been forced out but he’s hardly faded away. Ahead of this month’s historic election, dozens of people in T-shirts with his image danced to anti-government songs while vowing revenge.

The 94-year-old Mugabe, who led this southern African nation through 37 turbulent years before his dramatic, military-backed resignation in November, has emerged as a player ahead of the July 30 vote — on the side of the opposition.

A visit by The Associated Press to the largely rural province of Masvingo found that anger over Mugabe’s removal has been channeled into supporting candidates who challenge the ruling ZANU-PF party that he long controlled.

“They removed Comrade Mugabe using military force. We should show them that the ballot box is supreme to the gun,” thundered Phionah Riekert, a 31-year-old loyalist of Mugabe and his wife, Grace. Youths and elderly women punctuated her campaign speech with song, dance and the beating of drums.

Riekert seeks a parliamentary seat as a candidate with the National Patriotic Front, which was formed with Mugabe’s backing in March by members of a youthful faction loyal to him called the G-40. They had been purged from the government and ruling party by new President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s military-backed administration.

The G-40 has been suspected in the grenade attack last month at a campaign rally that killed two aides while the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe deputy, was just “inches” away.

The National Patriotic Front has joined an opposition coalition backing the top challenger to Mnangagwa, 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa of the main opposition MDC party, while fielding close to 100 candidates in 210 constituencies countrywide.

The margin between Mnangagwa and Chamisa has narrowed to just 3 percentage points, the Afrobarometer research group said Friday after sampling 2,400 voters across the country between June 25 and July 6.

While Mugabe has not addressed any political rallies he remains a weighty presence in places like Masvingo, where support has swung between the ruling party and the opposition in past elections.

“G-40 was influential in this province during Mugabe’s time. They have been regrouping, they have the capacity to cause quite an impact,” said Godfrey Mtimba, a journalist who has covered Masvingo for a decade.

Some residents, however, said they remain fond of Mugabe but will vote for Mnangagwa.

Kudzai Mugarati said he still wears Mugabe T-shirts but hides them underneath his clothes. Part of that loyalty is tied to his land, part of a farm seized from white owners and divided among black supporters years ago during Mugabe’s often violent campaign of evictions.

“We cannot abandon Mugabe. He is our hero, he gave us this land. But we cannot leave ZANU-PF, so the best thing we can do is not to talk about him,” the 58-year-old Mugarati said.

At a shopping center near Masvingo’s main army barracks, people openly discussed politics in a sharp contrast to previous elections, when the opposition alleged harassment and attacks by security forces.

“You have come to intimidate us with your uniform,” one opposition supporter shouted, pointing at an approaching soldier. Both laughed and embraced, with the soldier going on his way.

Nearby, a group danced to pro-Chamisa songs blaring from the speakers of lawyer Derrick Charamba’s car.

“I am just dancing because the beat is good. The lyrics are rubbish,” said Edmund Wasosa, a ruling party supporter. “Chamisa is still too young. We need experienced hands.”

Despite the apparent peace, the election’s credibility has been threatened by disputes over the transparency of the voters’ roll and the printing of ballots. Charamba, an opposition official, has taken the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to court in one of many cases brought in recent weeks by NGOs and others.

Mnangagwa has pledged that the election will be free and fair. While Mugabe scorned Western election observers, the new president has invited them for the first time in nearly two decades. A credible vote could lead to the lifting of international sanctions and a boost for Zimbabwe’s collapsed economy.

While some still miss Mugabe, no one is eager to remain trapped in the high unemployment and severe cash shortage he left behind in the once-prosperous country.

Curious voters have packed rallies and waited for hours to see both Mnangagwa and Chamisa as a new Zimbabwe tries to leave Mugabe’s shadow.

“We welcome every vote. Mugabe, we welcome your vote,” Chamisa told one Masvingo crowd in a cold rain this month. He has denied allegations of financial support from Mugabe in exchange for making the former first lady a vice president if he wins.

“We want a new dispensation, a fresh start,” Chamisa said, to cheers.

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ZIMBABWE: Mapfumo Blasts Mnangagwa’s Government

Thomas Mapfumo image via The Zimbabwe Mail

HARARE (THE ZIMBABWE MAIL) – Chimurenga music maestro Thomas Mapfumo on Tuesday took a dig at the change of guard at Munhumutapa Building, saying the ouster of former president Robert Mugabe and his replacement with President Emmerson Mnangagwa only ushered in “cosmetic changes”.

Popularly known as Mukanya, his totem, the Chimurenga music icon is in the country after more than a decade in self-imposed exile in the United States.

He is set to perform at the Glamis Stadium in Harare on Saturday, his first show since the fall of Mugabe last November.

In an interview on Tuesday, the musician was cautiously optimistic about the country’s future, saying its prospects were doomed without the youths playing a leading role in its affairs.

“This is not the change that people are looking for,” he said of the new dispensation that swept to power following a soft-coup by the military, which facilitated Mnangagwa’s dramatic ascendancy to power.

“The people want a good leader — a man who is not a thief, a man who does not steal from the people, a man of the people, a man who will stand for the people, a man who will stand for the poor,” thundered the outspoken musician.

Mapfumo, 72, said this was time for the youths to rise.

He said it was not possible for the current crop of politicians, who are in the twilight of their careers, to clean the mess they created in nearly four decades.

“These guys are now old and I urge you youngsters to rise and stand up. This is your future, this is your country and do not let them destroy it because then you will not have any country,” he said.

“Just unite as a people and rebuild the economy of the country, stand up and say ‘enough is enough’.”

He said if the transition was done in good faith, then the people’s will should prevail.

“If they did this for the people then they should make people forget about the past; they have to work for the people and make them think of a good future. They should promote the lives of the people of Zimbabwe.

“And there is a lot to be revisited; there are a lot of issues,” he said.

Mapfumo is disturbed by the poverty prevailing in the country as people have been turned into vendors.

“After 14 years away in the US, I come back to see people living in squalor, people are selling anything on the street and everywhere there are potholes. Amidst the poverty, you have others smartly dressed in suits and driving beautiful cars,” he said.

He called on Zimbabweans to unite and turn their swords into ploughshares.

“We are still one people, this country is beautiful but there are people who are destroying it,” said Mapfumo. “Where we are today, let’s put our heads together and build Zimbabwe, we have to love one another and unite,” he added.

Mukanya last visited his home country in 2001 when he staged a memorable concert at Boka Auction Floors, attended by over 8 000 music fans.

Also referred to as the “Lion of Zimbabwe”, Mapfumo championed the plight of rural masses during the 1970s by singing protest songs that included Hokoyo and Pfumvu Paruzeva which were banned by the colonial Ian Smith government.

In 1989, Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited released the album Corruption which criticised Mugabe’s authoritarian regime.

It was followed in the year 2000 by Chimurenga Explosion album comprising hard-hitting singles Mamvemve and Disaster, which were banned by State broadcaster ZBC.

He then lost five of his posh cars, which he said were confiscated by government on what he claimed were trumped-up charges of him having received stolen property.

After the banning of his music and this car incident, Mapfumo decided to take his family to the US where he chose to live in exile.

Mapfumo’s recent return to Zimbabwe has been welcomed by his music fans.

The dreadlocked singer said he would like to meet Mnangagwa and MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa among others.

“We want to meet Mnangagwa and Chamisa so we can tell them what we think they should do for the people. Actually, we want to meet everyone,” he said.

Mukanya recently dedicated his World Music Award to the people of Zimbabwe for their resilience over the years despite the difficulties they have been going through.

He also called on African leaders to fight for a united Africa with a single currency. “Africa is divided and this division has brought about poverty and corruption when actually the continent is one of the richest.

“In the West, they know that Africa is rich, hence they want us to remain divided. If we get united then these countries would come to us begging.

“I am advocating for one Africa, let there be no borders; one should easily be able to just cross into Zambia, Malawi or South Africa — wherever you want to go in Africa.” – Daily News

Rethinking Politics In Africa

BY ANDREW MWENDA

ZIMBABWE (THE INDEPENDENT) There is a widespread assumption that presidents in Africa who rule for long do so out of personal greed for power. This accusation has been made against Robert Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 before he was forced to resign recently. It is also the accusation against President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda as the ruling party seeks to amend the constitution and remove age limits so that he can run for the presidency in 2021. Yet when individual cases are examined closely, one finds the reality much more complex and nuanced. Let me illustrate.

In August 2008, while attending the Australian Davos Connection conference on the Hamilton Islands in the Pacific Ocean, I met a man called David Coltart. He was a legislator representing the Movement for Multiparty Democracy in Zimbabwe led by Morgan Tsvangirai. We were invited to a private dinner with the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd and two other people.

Coltart told us that in the March 2008 presidential elections in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai got 50.7% while President Robert Mugabe got 43.2%. Even before the results were officially announced, Mugabe sent a team to discuss a transition with the MDC. The two sides met for two days. On the third day the MDC team went to the venue but the government side did not show up.

They tried to reach their counterparts by phone in vain. Later they learnt that the top brass of the ZANU-PF and the security services led by Emmerson Mnangagwa (who had led Mugabe’s campaign), which also included army chief, Gen. Constantino Chiwenga, went to Mugabe and asked him why he was “abandoning them.” Mugabe told them he was not abandoning them. He said they had simply lost an election. No problem, they told Mugabe; we can change the results. And they did.

When the results finally were announced after a month, Tsvangirai had 47.9 against Mugabe’s 43.2%. This called for a second round. The state unleashed such violence and terror against the MDC that Tsvangirai pulled out leaving Mugabe to run alone and win by 85.5%. Mnangagwa was accused of orchestrating the violence.

This story is instructive. It shows that Mugabe’s confederates in ZANU-PF and the security services saw his conceding electoral defeat and handing power to a victorious opposition as betrayal. In agreeing to hold on to power, Mugabe was actually acting more out of group than personal interest.

Secondly Mnangagwa, together with Chiwenga are today hailed as the new messiahs who ended Mugabe’s long rule. Yet they were the ones responsible for stifling a democratic transition in 2008. Indeed, Mugabe was more as a hostage of their power than its architect. And when he sought to initiate a transition to a young generation using his wife, they kicked him out.

Therefore, the celebration of Mugabe’s fall by many Zimbabweans, African elites and the Western media is misinformed. Mnangagwa and his conspirators do not represent a transition of power but maintenance of the status quo. Paradoxically, Mrs Grace Mugabe and her confederates in the G40 represented some form of a transition from the old guard in ZANU-PF.

The coup makers made it clear that their aim was to protect the power and privileges of the ZAPU-PF old guard. The Western media welcomed this non-transition because now they can bribe Mnangagwa with “aid” and removal of economic sanctions so that he can return property confiscated from whites or compensate them. The price will be to hand that country back to multinational capital, not to the people of Zimbabwe.

The lesson is that there are often more complex social dynamics behind political decisions in Africa. Yet most of our commentary tends to reduce such decisions to “personal greed” by presidents. We accuse our leaders of personalising power yet it is us personalising political decisions. We are too lazy and biased to dig beneath the surface and see the actual dynamics shaping our politics. Most of what we have is not knowledge but prejudice; and what goes for analysis is mere speculation.

African academics, politicians and journalists write very few, if any, books. And when we do, we use concepts, adjectives and tropes borrowed from Western academics and journalists who write about Africa. Yet these Westerners rely largely on their prejudices to write about Africa. Thus, even when we have facts, we don’t use them properly to explain why a particular decision in an African country was made.

All too often when analysing politics in Africa, we speculate about “what must have happened” instead of relying on “what actually happened”. Preconceived biases about leaders in Africa become a substitute for knowledge. Hence, existing “knowledge” about African leaders clouds rather than illuminates our understanding of the continent’s politics.

This is not to say leaders in Africa are not power hungry. Rather it is to argue that their individual preferences play a much more limited role compared to the collective interests of the groups they represent. And while our leaders make mistakes, these mistakes when carefully examined, are rarely stupid. It is easy to imagine that we or our preferred politicians would not have acted differently. This is rarely true. When examined closely, political leaders are rarely free actors. Their decisions are imposed upon them more by circumstances than by their personalities.

Look, postcolonial Africa has had 278 changes of leaders. Almost all of them – whether democratically elected politician, nationalist leader for independence, revolutionary hero of an armed struggle, an upstart hoisted to power by a popular insurrection, a military coup maker or peaceful successor to the death of an incumbent president – has come to power promising democracy, honest government and development. Nearly all our countries are still poor and corrupt today. Africa has not produced a South Korea.

If only 20% of our countries for 20% of the time were characterised by poor performance, we would say Africa has a political problem. If 40-50% of our countries for 40-50% of the time performed poorly, we could say Africa has a serious political crisis. But when 80-90% of our nations for 80-90% of the time perform badly, and when these problems remain in spite of 278 changes of leaders over a period of 60 years, and seem impervious to changing political systems, means of acquiring power etc., then the causes must have deep structural roots. We need to begin an entirely new conversation about politics in Africa. It is time to break the chains of the intellectual diet we have been fed about it.

Uncertain Future For Former Ethiopian Dictator Mengistu After Mugabe’s Fall

BY AGGREY MUTAMBO

Former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam who fled into exile in Zimbabwe in 1991. File image via Daily Nation

HARARE, ZIMBABWE (DAILY NATION) -- The change of guard in Zimbabwe may have been the unwanted thing in the life of Robert Mugabe. But another former African strongman may be facing an uncertain future as a result.

For years, Robert Mugabe gave asylum and then protected Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Ethiopian dictator who still carries a death sentence on his back.

Government officials in Mugabe’s administration had variously argued that Zimbabwe owed a lot to Mengistu, especially after he reportedly helped Africans during the Bush wars that delivered independence to that country in 1980.

MNANGAGWA

But last Friday, Emerson Mnangagwa took over as Zimbabwe’s new President, bringing with him the uncertainty over whether the Ethiopian dictator will be protected as he had been under Mugabe.

Mengistu, sometimes known as the Butcher of Addis Ababa, had fled to Zimbabwe in 1991 after rebel forces toppled his 17-year autocracy that started with the assassination of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.

Throughout his rule, Mengistu ran the country with a feared iron grip, assassinating members of his own junta perceived to oppose his rule.

When from 1983 Ethiopia faced a serious famine which saw global celebrities come together to raise money to help the starving people, Mengistu sought for food aid and technical aid from western powers. At the same time, he retained military and diplomatic ties with the former Soviet Union.

FAMINE

But things did not change much in Ethiopia. The chronic famine in the north continued, the same with the war in Eritrea.

Ethiopia’s economy failed to grow, forcing Mengistu to use the military and his close political associates to maintain his grip on power.

But Ethiopians were unhappy with the situation in the country leading to more unrest.

As a result, the Ethiopian strongman had to use force in his quest to remain in power.

But he could not do this for long and eventually he was defeated by rebel groups forcing him to resign in 1991 and flee into exile.

But even in his absence, Ethiopian courts found him guilty of genocide.

TORTURE AND KILLINGS

His administration was directly put on the spot over the killing 2,000 people and torturing of 2,400 others at the height of the country’s civil war.

Initially, he was sentenced to life in prison, alongside key lieutenants in the junta known as Derg in 2007.

But prosecutors appealed the sentence. He was handed a death sentence in 2008, still in absentia.

Despite the verdict and calls by then Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi to have him extradited, Zimbabwe under Mugabe often offered to protect him.

In the wake of the sentence, for instance, Mugabe’s officials claimed Mengistu would remain “our guest”.

In Zimbabwe’s new leader, some have seen him an extension of Mugabe, especially since he was a long-time ally and former spy for Mugabe until they fell out on succession.

Zimbabwean opposition politicians had indicated they would accept to rendition Mengistu to face jail.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, for instance, told a reporter in 2008 that Zimbabwe would not accept “dictators on our land.”

World Health Organization Revokes Appointment Of Mugabe

In this file photo dated Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe during his meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma, at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria, South Africa. In a statement Sunday Oct. 22, 2017 World Health Organization director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus announced he has decided to revoke his appointment of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a “goodwill ambassador” after the choice drew widespread international criticism.  (Image: Themba Hadebe/AP)

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (AP) — The head of the U.N. health agency has revoked his appointment of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a “goodwill ambassador” after the choice drew widespread outrage and criticism.

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus last week told a conference in Uruguay on non-communicable diseases that Mugabe had agreed to be a “goodwill ambassador” on the issue. Mugabe was present at the announcement.

After flood of outrage and concern was voiced by international leaders and health experts on Mugabe’s appointment, Tedros said in a statement Sunday that he had “reflected” over the past few days and “decided to rescind the appointment.”

He said he revoked Mugabe’s position in the best interests of the World Health Organization. Tedros also said he had consulted with the Zimbabwe government about his decision.

The 93-year-old Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state, has long been criticized at home for going overseas for medical treatment as Zimbabwe’s once-prosperous economy falls apart and the country’s health care system deteriorates. Mugabe also faces U.S. sanctions over his government’s human rights abuses.

The United States called the appointment of Mugabe by WHO’s first African leader “disappointing.”

“This appointment clearly contradicts the United Nations ideals of respect for human rights and human dignity,” the State Department said.

Health and human rights leaders chimed in. “The decision to appoint Robert Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador is deeply disappointing and wrong,” said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a major British charitable foundation. “Robert Mugabe fails in every way to represent the values WHO should stand for.”

Ireland’s health minister, Simon Harris, called the appointment “offensive, bizarre.” ‘’Mugabe corruption decimates Zimbabwe health care,” tweeted the head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth.

Two dozen organizations — including the World Heart Federation and Cancer Research U.K. — released a statement slamming the appointment, saying health officials were “shocked and deeply concerned” and citing his “long track record of human rights violations.” The groups said they had raised their concerns with Tedros on the sidelines of the conference, to no avail.

The heads of U.N. agencies and the U.N. secretary-general typically choose celebrities and other prominent people as ambassadors to draw attention to global issues of concern, such as refugees (Angelina Jolie) and education (Malala Yousafzai). The choices are not subject to approval.

The ambassadors hold little actual power. They also can be fired. The comic book heroine Wonder Woman was removed from her honorary U.N. ambassador job in December following protests that a white, skimpily dressed American prone to violence wasn’t the best role model for girls.


Zimbabwe’s government has not commented on the decision to revoke Mugabe’s appointment, which the state-run Zimbabwe Herald newspaper had earlier hailed as a “new feather in president’s cap.”

The southern African nation once was known as the region’s prosperous breadbasket. But in 2008, the charity Physicians for Human Rights released a report documenting failures in Zimbabwe’s health system, saying Mugabe’s policies had led to a man-made crisis.

“The government of Robert Mugabe presided over the dramatic reversal of its population’s access to food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care,” the group concluded. Mugabe’s policies led directly to “the shuttering of hospitals and clinics, the closing of its medical school and the beatings of health workers.”

Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has been criticized at home for his frequent overseas travels for medical treatment that have cost impoverished Zimbabwe millions of dollars. His repeated visits to Singapore have heightened concerns over his health, even as he pursues re-election next year.

The U.S. in 2003 imposed targeted sanctions, a travel ban and an asset freeze against Mugabe and close associates, citing his government’s rights abuses and evidence of electoral fraud.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Mugabe Says Mandela Too Soft On Whites, In Documentary

This file photo shows British politicians, leaders of the Zimbabwe Patriotic Front and the UANC hold a conference in London to discuss the future of the independent state ofZimbabwe, formerly the British colony of Southern Rhodesia December 1, 1979. L-R: Lord Peter Carrington, Ian Gilmore, Joshua Nkome, and Robert Mugabe.

AFP
Sunday May 26, 2013

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe criticises Nelson Mandela for being too soft on whites, in a documentary giving a rare and intimate look into the family life of one of Africa's longest serving and most vilified leaders.

In a cosy lunch setting with his wife and children, the 89-year old speaks on a wide range of issues from his controversial hold on power, to his relationships with former British premiers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

The two-and-a-half hour interview, described in detail by British and South African media ahead of its airing, shows the usually bellicose and sharp-tongued Mugabe as a loving family man.

Dali Tambo, the son of South African anti-apartheid hero Oliver Tambo, produced the documentary, which will be broadcast on South African public television next Sunday.

In the programme, Tambo dines with Mugabe's family at his wife Grace's dairy farm.

The interview comes just months before crucial general elections in the country which in recent decades has gone from being the breadbasket of southern Africa to its biggest problem child.

One of Africa's most popular liberation leaders, Mugabe has clashed with the West over controversial policies which saw white-owned farms violently seized over a decade ago.

In neighbouring South Africa, where white land ownership is still a flashpoint, Mugabe says former president Nelson Mandela was not hard enough.

He said former colonial masters Britain -- with whom he has had a fraught relationship over the land grabs -- "will praise you only if you are doing things that please them".

"Mandela has gone a bit too far in doing good to the non-black communities, really in some cases at the expense of (blacks)," Mugabe said of his former South African counterpart.

"That's being too saintly, too good, too much of a saint," he is quoted from the documentary in South Africa's Sunday Independent.

Despite Mugabe's disagreements with former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who died in April, he says he preferred the Iron Lady to her later successor Tony Blair.

"Mrs Thatcher, you could trust her. But of course what happened later was a different story with the Labour Party and Blair, who you could never trust," said Mugabe.

"Who can ever believe what Mr Blair says? Here we call him Bliar."

But despite having governed for 32 years, Africa's oldest ruler also insists on staying in power.

According to The Guardian in Britain, the topic of the upcoming vote unleashes Mugabe's fiery rhetoric as he bangs his fist on an armrest and insists: "There is a fight to fight."

"My people still need me," he told Tambo.

"And when people still need you to lead them, it's not time, sir, it doesn't matter how old you are, to say goodbye."

Mugabe is currently sharing power with his rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after violent disputed polls in 2008. No date has yet been set for this year's elections although Mugabe is pressing for them to go ahead as soon as possible.

According to The Guardian, Mugabe pours out his heart during the meal on his love for his wife and their "oneness".

In unusual candour Mugabe also explains his affair with Grace while still married to his sickly first wife Sally -- he wanted to give his mother grandchilden.

"As Sally was still going through her last few days, although it might have appeared to some as cruel, I said to myself 'well, it's not just myself needing children, my mother has all the time said, ah, am I going to die without seeing grandchildren'."

He married Grace, his secretary over 40 years his junior, after Sally Mugabe died in 1992.

The couple have three children.