Mr Nicholas Sengoba
What looks like a power struggle is brewing in Zimbabwe. The current president, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (82), who came to power in 2017 as a solution to the long-standing Robert Gabriel Mugabe problem, finds himself at a crossroads.
Mugabe was independent Zimbabwe’s first leader from 1980 to 1987 as Prime Minister and as President from 1987 to 2017. At the age of 93, Mugabe had become what Uganda’s also long-standing president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni once described as ‘Africa’s problem’.
The leaders who stay in power for too long. Though when it caught up with him, Museveni now in power for 39 years, later improved it with an addendum, ‘…without being elected’. He did not speak about the type of election because many have benefited from the shambolic version.
Mugabe at the helm for 37 years, left power screaming and kicking with the military breathing down his neck. By this time Mugabe had run into the ground what was once a prosperous country full of potential.
What was touted as South Africa’s bread basket had become a basket case with the economy rich in agricultural and mineral wealth, on its knees. Mugabe had overtime played the trick all dictators love. Create a well-facilitated informal, parallel state packed with family and cronies while the formal state is neglected to collapse.
The family and cronies become so powerful and privileged that whoever wants to survive in the country must either know them or someone who does and must be ready to bow before them. Corruption becomes the way of life as they grab whatever they can lay their hands on knowing full well that they will not be reprimanded.
It leaves the social safety net with gaping holes and crowds of desperate people. The latter are preoccupied with survival that they can hardly organise and rise up to wrestle the country out of the hands of the dictator.
The stage is left for the wolves in power to grow fat and eventually devour one another. As Mugabe gazed mortality in the face, he started working on a plan to promote his wife. This entailed him eliminating his rivals and possible replacements.
That is how independence war hero retired Gen Solomon Mujuru, aka Rex Nhongo, died in a mysterious fire. It is the same way Mnangagwa was forced to flee into exile to save his life after he was fired from the Vice Presidency. Meanwhile, the Mugabe family was rising.
Mugabe’s wife Grace Ntombizodwa Marufu, 41 years Mugabe’s junior; his one-time secretary who he allegedly picked from a typing pool at the office and oversaw her rising through the ranks from a concubine to a wife, increasingly became very influential.
As the head of the Women’s League in the ruling ZANU-PF party, it was obvious that Grace was eying the presidency. She worked on all her deficiencies including hastily earning university degrees without attending lectures.
A PhD from the University of Zimbabwe was conferred by her husband two months after joining the programme. It was obvious that Zimbabwe would not accept another Mugabe lying down and this had the potential of sinking not only the Mugabes, but all those that were associated with him. So, enter the military and political actors. They had to create an impression that the problem was Mugabe and his family and that removing him would be the solution.
Again, a fallacious trick picked out of the absurdly cynical book of dictatorship that helps pacify an angry population and give the political class some breathing space to regroup and continue with their misrule. The dirty people who benefited immensely as they helped the dictator in fortifying himself are sanitised and made to look clean and capable of moving the country forward.
So Mugabe was pushed out and Mnangagwa, nicknamed the crocodile, partly because of his viciousness, came in as leader to replace him. Mnangagwa, who once assured Mugabe that Zimbabwe was not personal property for him to rule perpetually, is now like Mugabe trying to extend his second term beyond 2028. He is also keeping things in the family.
His cabinet is packed with relatives and friends. For instance, his son David Kudakwashe Mnangagwa is the Deputy Minister of Finance, while his nephew Tongai Mafidhi Mnangagwa is the Deputy Minister of Tourism.
His wife Auxillia Mnangagwa, a former intelligence officer, was also conferred a PhD like Grace Mugabe before her by her husband. It is obvious that Zimbabwe is back to square one if not much farther. The government is still a corrupt outfit held in place by strong-arm tactics.
The people are still facing shortages of essentials, including food. The majority of the youth are unemployed. The poor are fleeing the country for greener pastures, especially to South Africa where they are not exactly welcomed by the locals who occasionally visit violence on them.
Meanwhile, Mnangagwa is feuding with his deputy, retired General Constantino Chiwenga, the man who led the military in pushing Mugabe out. His recent moves in the army to relieve the army commander, Lt Gen Anselm Nhamo Sanyatwe, a Chiwenga loyalist, from his post to the Ministry of Sports is viewed as a measure to purge the ranks and fill them with Mnangagwa loyalists. Like or hate him, Museveni was right.
When leaders stay too long in power, with time they become exactly what they fought against to get there. They steal elections, jail, exile or kill their opponents.
They concentrate power in the family and loot the state dry which leaves them and their cronies as ‘the state’. Eventually, the people give up and just wait for time or their own kinsmen to cause change, which is not very common. Mugabe’s ghost is haunting Zimbabwe and giving the country sleepless nights.
Mnangagwa, who rose on the crest of hope, is now a symbol of despair. He is a classic example of why emergency stop-gap measures should never become permanent solutions. A thief may be essential in catching thieves but not in banishing the notion of thieving. Replace the name Mnagagwa with that of most long-serving African leaders who came to replace dictators and you will see that the more things change the more they remain the same, - if not get worse.
The first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church went to be with the Lord, yesterday, Easter Monday; a day after Christians commemorated the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead on Easter Sunday. May God be with Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergolio) until we meet again and grant fortitude to his family, friends, admirers, and all followers of the faith. Kitalo nyo!
X:@nsengoba
