Dear Editor,
I refer to your editorial captioned “Zimbabwe so far” (08.04.09). The tidal waves that hit Mugabe recently in the March elections are a clear indication of how he usurped power and regarded the country as synonymous with his name. It is an established fact that the ailing leader of Zimbabwe has been a disaster from the beginning. He was good as a revolutionary leader, in an independent nation he was and has been a disaster. This is truly surprisingly to all those who have held him in high esteem, but such assertions beg to be justified. The question we are all asking is: Where are the Zimbabwe election votes? Mugabe’s party is calling for a recount even before the official results are announced, putting the cart before the horse? The man has strong justification why he should not go at all costs. Where did he go wrong in his 28 years rule?
During the first six years after independence (1981 to 1987), Mugabe unleashed the Korean trained fifth brigade that killed close to 20 000 people, most of them civilians in the regions known to support the then main opposition, ZAPU led by Joshua Nkomo, later to become vice president 1987 -1999. This was a self inflicted genocide marking the beginning of many other catastrophes at the hands of Mugabe.
Next was the action of War Veterans who in 2000, after the humiliating defeat in the referendum, where the Trade Union, then led by Morgan Tsvangirai won the vote against, invaded ‘white owned farms’. Mugabe called this invasion, ‘black empowerment’, where Blacks were reclaiming what was theirs, the land. Apparently beneficiaries turned out to be his party members and ministers who ended up getting more than one farm. The process of this land reclamation was accompanied by the looting of farm implements and killing of hundreds of people. This marked the free-fall of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown; from being the bread basket of Africa to one with a battered economy.
