Can Zimbabwe negotiate past Zanu pf’s God complex?
Citizens are wary of Zanu pf’s god complex, President Mnangagwa’s malarkey, and the government’s incompetence in managing the raging coronavirus epidemic.
The world watched in fear — and others in shock — on Jan. 6 as pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Congress to reverse the outcome of the Nov. 3 election and block Joe Biden’s path to the White House.
As other leaders around the world called for calm and peace, Zimbabwean President Emmerson D. Mnangagwa blasted the U.S. for imposing sanctions on the country he leads under the guise of promoting democracy.
But in Zimbabwe — and in Uganda among other African states — the U.S. insurrection was the least of their worries.
The Ugandans headed into the polls on Jan. 14 to select a new president in a race between 76-year-old incumbent Yoweri Museveni and 38-year-old musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine.
The elections were neither free nor fair as they lacked transparency and credibility.
The people of Zimbabwe desperately needed (and still need) to find ways to deal with Zanu pf’s God complex and President Mnangagwa’s empty rhetoric, lack of social intelligence, and poor oratory skills so effortlessly exhibited by his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe’s tumultuous political career saw a hero-turned-into-a-villain in less than four decades. The lesson here is that time and power should never be mixed in politics. Perhaps it should be left in the hands, more precisely, brains of modern-day “Einsteins.”
A president missing in action
At a time when the country was looking for inspiring leadership to face an invisible enemy in the form of covid-19, the President was missing in action, enjoying his annual leave.
The president was on holiday while covid-19 went around doing its business of infecting and killing people as it saw fit.
The country was left in the untried, untested and potentially dangerous hands of his deputies: Retired General Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi.
There is nothing to write home about or get aroused by as these two men — crashed, cooked and refined in the art of war rather than diplomacy and economic management — took over the governance of an ailing nation desperate for good leadership and new direction.
But Zimbabwe, copying exactly from Africa’s hidden and mysterious 101 dummy guide on dictatorship shared in a secret underground society of so-called liberators, is recycling deadwood in key leadership positions.
The President continued on his holiday despite the surging covid-19 cases. But that was until the virus claimed one of his own.
Sibusiso Moyo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade died of covid-19 complications, prompting the President to cut short his leave.
The invisible enemy is purging Zanu pf-linked politicians like it’s no man’s business.
As the government officials die in hospitals they neglected for so long in favor of foreign medical care, it is time for them to pay closer attention to infrastructure development back home.
The president has responded by imposing tougher lockdown rules.
Zimbabwe is a circus. A circus of the worst kind. With human casualties. And now, the country has collapsed to the point that the situation is even worse even for a country at war.
Except that Zimbabwe is not at war. It is only under economic and political mismanagement.
Zimbabwe deserves better
Zimbabwe’s political story in the last three years — or rather since the November 2017 watershed coup — is nothing but a script taken out of a dystopian political horror movie; garnished with criminal plots, scandals, and outrageous cover ups.
Maybe things were better under Mugabe’s rule. The worst just got worse. The heat is hot enough to fry the sun. Yes, that’s how bad it is.
And one wonders if hell is as bad as Zimbabwe. Or maybe Zimbabwe is that aforementioned hell.
Well, can the country get out of Zanu pf’s God complex? It’s a long shot but the people — especially — the youth have to play their part.
