President Robert Mugabe flew out of Zimbabwe amidst a political storm without uttering a word. He saw in person the tensions engulfing his unchallenged rule of Zimbabwe when his second wife and current First Lady Grace Mugabe openly snubbed his own deputy and acting President Joice Mujuru.
GUEST COLUMNIST RASHWEAT MUKUNDU
Zimbabwe’s affable First Lady and Mugabe’s first wife Sally Mugabe died in 1992.
If there is an awkward moment for any leader, it is to be in-between two warring parties, yet without power to control the situation.
The President may have decided on Rome, conveniently to attend a religious ceremony and also to gather courage to face his uncertain future. His wife Grace told the nation recently that she had instructed Mugabe to dump Mujuru or else she would do it herself.
We are left wondering who is in charge and who tells who what to do. Has Mugabe, who turns 91 in four months, ceded his authority to Grace? We hear even the First children are fed up with particular individuals in Zanu PF and want Mugabe to act, (and) if he does not, they will.
Great empires are not maintained by timidity, said Cornelius Tacitus, a great Roman senator and a historian, hence leaving Rome back to the hot, dark and uncertain Harare, Mugabe will need to gather all his courage to face the future and pronounce his thinking either confirming or denouncing the message that has come from the mouth of Grace over the past two weeks.
Mugabe looks vulnerable and in an unenviable political position for the first time in his political life, with as many people, including his wife claiming to speak on his behalf, he has unusually kept quiet and appears hiding behind the “mighty” Grace.
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The First Lady has virtually undermined Mugabe by speaking not only on internal party issues, but national political issues which only the President must take leadership on. The undermining is certain with or without the President’s consent.
Can Mugabe’s juniors in government and Zanu PF now trust and respect him when as the State media says he unleashed his wife on them to criticise, attack, rubbish and do all sorts in the name of defending her family interests?
Who was or still is in a better position to judge, manage, and discipline Mujuru if she is incompetent, corrupt or divisive one may ask? If Mugabe cannot manage his juniors who we hear are incompetent and corrupt, how can he then manage the whole country and facilitate processes that fulfil our socio-economic aspirations?
In essence, the First Lady may as well know something that we don’t about the state of the President and his capacity or lack thereof to lead the country at this moment, hence her boldness to challenge the President.
Despite his mistakes, one feels for Mugabe at this moment as he is caught up in his own trap by, first, leaving the succession debate too late, and, secondly, leaving his succession to his wife.
Mugabe should have made a decision on his future long back, but now he has a firestorm brewing and on his return from Rome he must use the Harare International Airport runway to make pronouncements about his Zanu PF colleagues.
These are not ordinary colleagues, but fellow comrades-in-arms, who sacrificed their all for the country and have in many respects been loyal to him all these years. If they have been corrupt and incompetent, it is because he allowed them to be.
The President, despite what all others may say, has lost control of his succession; he is now a factional leader and will be forced to make pronouncements to that effect on his return. If he does not, then it may as well be that the seat of power has permanently shifted from the President to the First Lady.
While in Rome we hope Mugabe is reminded of Julius Caesar’s words in 49BC “alea iacta est” — the die us cast — meaning he was crossing the River Rubicon, passing a point of no return in his decision to confront his foes.
The airport speech upon Mugabe’s return will have to mark the turning point in the long and outstanding issue of his succession. Zimbabweans need him to speak and show leadership whether it is to endorse Grace or to sack Mujuru — then let it be. This matter cannot be postponed any longer.
The reason why the President’s speech and leadership matters is because we all want to get on with our lives. Our lives have come to a standstill as the government machinery follows Grace everywhere she chooses to go.
Information minister Jonathan Moyo claims the ministers are listening to people’s needs, but surely our needs are in black and white. We have no water in cities and towns, our education and health are in intensive care, unemployment is high.
We therefore want our government ministers working on these issues urgently and not attending “useless” rallies. My colleagues at the State media are not enjoying this kind of journalism. Week in week out, they have started their major news story with the same introduction “The First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe blah . . . blah . . . blah . . .”
As many Zimbabweans struggling with life, we want Mugabe to steer the country in a new direction, focused on delivering on government’s promises, not messages of hate and unbridled power contestations.
As Zimbabwe, we are now like the old Rome infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions, self-conceited, uncaring and looking up to itself.
Zimbabwe, like Rome, is now ruled by fear and the ruling elite more concerned about the throne, caring far less what happens to the Empire and its subjects. The ruling party and its leadership are obsessed with power and political games like the Roman Emperors.
