Dear Editor,
Mugabe seems to be making the same mistake that was made by Ian Smith, that of undermining the significance of voters. Smith made the unforgettable statement that Zimbabwe (Rhodesia then) would never be ruled by a black person in his lifetime, “and not even in a hundred years time.” But that statement was contradicted in 1980 when the black government came to power. Smith went on to live for more than 20 years with a black man at the helm. Mugabe now says, “Zimbabwe will never be ruled by the MDC.” Mugabe used to downplay the strength of the MDC and never thought they could offer him a formidable challenge, let alone trump him in an election. In as much as both parties did not receive the desired majority (so the Zimbabwe Election Commission says), the given percentages should reveal to Mugabe that he is not a mighty indomitable power, but a sinking titanic. Who rules and when he/she rules depends on the electorate.
For Mugabe to shout ‘never ever’ is a sad repetition of history. People voted Mugabe out and it boggles the mind that again he will soon be shouting empty rhetoric at gatherings of non-critical audiences and waving his wrinkled but dangerous fist around. He needs to realize that the wishes of the people are mightier than his fear about past sins and the resultant clandestine desires and machinations to remain in power. He has tortured, mutilated, assaulted and killed Zimbabweans at different times in the country’s history. He has managed thus far thanks to his cunning and manipulation of the security services.
Mugabe has been using various strategies to coerce the top army and police chiefs to support him. Senior security and military officials are living large in a sea of deprivation. Each time the Zimbabwe government buys new cars for ministers; these guys get new cars as well. There is a new car almost every two years. Another privilege is having the government pay their telephone bills. One colonel has two cell phones and a landline whose bills are settled by the government. Now many of these guys are veterans of the war of independence. Their children’s school fees are paid for by the government, even up to university level, most of them outside Zimbabwe. This year, the Zimbabwe government expanded the Fort Hare University scholarship scheme to cover several other universities, including Nelson Mandela Metropolitan, Cape Peninsula, Witswatersrand, Walter Sisulu, KwaZulu-Natal, Venda, Rhodes, and Johannesburg Universities. Some 481 students are said to have benefited. This was a vote buying measure; the parents of those kids were bought over to Mugabe’s side. And these kids swell the ranks of informers that spy on behalf of the regime among Zimbabwean students in South Africa.
For senior officers the benefits of following Mugabe’s violent agenda are evident: promotions to senior positions; multiple farms; a privileged standing among society’s upper class; vehicles and other expensive gadgetry; security servicemen to act as labourers and security guards. Most of the junior personnel are driven to acts that are against their consciences, out of fear of seditious charges being preferred against them. Then we have the mayhem perpetrated by the war veterans, Zanu PF activists and Zanu PF youths who are seduced into violence for Mugabe by the donation of a few perks in the midst of hunger and poverty. Moreover there has been an increasing militarization of the state with military and security personnel now responsible for central government policies at parastatals and other government departments. This development is a reflection of Mugabe’s growing reliance on the military to maintain his iron grip on power. Prior to any major election, these men are dressed in civilian attire and sent out to campaign for the ruling party. Those unfortunate enough to have fallen foul of them because they are thought to belong to the opposition carry the tell-tale signs of their “treachery” in the form of both physical and emotional scars.
Persons at the forefront of Mugabe’s reign of terror need to know that he gets rid of those whose services he no longer requires. Just a year ago, he silenced Archbishop Pius Ncube, his best known living critic. Now we hear the woman who was used in that scandalous fracas died recently under mysterious circumstances. This is the same way army personnel such as Gunda came to their end. It is typical of Mugabe’s cruel rule that a long list of persons from ministers through senior government officials to non-public figures have had their lives terminated to further his nefarious objective of staying in power. It is unfortunate that most of the people being used by Mugabe in perpetuating his stay do not realize that he will discard them when his fears for the official opposition transmogrify into paranoid fears about his inner circle.
Finally, the perpetration of politically-motivated violence against people in general and against those agitating for a better Zimbabwe in particular needs to be documented. Details of cases of violence resulting from each major election should be available when a new dispensation sets in. It is therefore a imperative for every able person in Zimbabwe to put down on paper the details of all human rights abuses they come across. The broken and charred limbs, the burnt-out homesteads and the general loss of dignity in Zimbabwe we see on the world television channels are not normal. We should never see it as normal. We should never allow a situation to develop where we perceive it as normal. It must be dealt with, not now and probably not soon but dealt with it eventually should be.
Yours faithfully,
Clyde B. Chakupeta
