President Robert Mugabe last week claimed he held onto his post because he was fighting regime change, which was being orchestrated by the Americans, the latest in a string of disingenuous arguments by the veteran leader.
NewsDay Comment
The long and shot of it is that Mugabe holds onto that post because he does not fathom being anything but a President and the seeds of his life presidency were long sworn.
By claiming the Americans want to unseat him, Mugabe is trying to avoid pertinent questions about misrule, his 36-year tenure and corruption that have blighted his government, resorting to deflecting instead of answering concerns at the heart of the matter.
With or without the West, Zimbabweans have become tired of Mugabe’s continued rule and would do with a change of leadership just to freshen up the country’s politics.
Mugabe does not have a monopoly to fighting the Americans and many of his supporters would certainly appreciate it if he passed the baton to someone else, even in his party, to continue with that mission.
Instead of addressing the country’s real needs and wants, Mugabe chooses to use platforms in fellow African countries to fight imaginary battles instead of addressing bread and butter issues.
All the countries in the region implemented two-term presidential limits and they would be hue and cry if their leaders said they were clinging onto power to fight an enemy, real or imagined.
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Zimbabwe has also come up with two-term presidential limits, but recent pronouncements from Mugabe are reason to worry.
Recently, he said he would rule until God came for him and now he says he continues in power to fight regime change — no one knows how long this battle shall be — indications that he is not about to go anywhere, in spite of Constitutional provisions blocking his continued stay beyond 2023.
It is a pity that gullible Africans praise Mugabe as a pan-African yet they would not accept his kind of leadership in their countries.
Very few countries, in spite of the rhetoric, would accept a leader who presides over such economic decline and the plunder of the economy through blatant corruption.
No country in the world, never mind Africa, would accept a leader saying $15 billion was carted out of the nation and yet no one is held to account.
On his journeys, Mugabe always speaks with a sense of bravado, which has many Africans in awe, but Zimbabweans have grown tired of what they see as all talk and no action.
What Zimbabweans want now is change because they have grown weary of self-serving statements, such as the one by Mugabe that he will continue in power.
Zimbabweans are tired of high sounding rhetoric that does not put food on their tables.
