I don’t know why I have lived this long: Mugabe

By Mgcini Dlamini | Nehanda Harare Bureau |

ZVIMBA – President Robert Mugabe says people should stop questioning why he is alive because it is God’s plan.

Addressing mourners gathered at his rural home in Zvimba for the burial of his last sibling Bridget Mugabe, who passed away on Sunday, the 89 year old leader said he had no answer to the longevity of his life.

“Bridget is gone, not because we could not take care of her but because her time was up. People should therefore not question why I am still alive when all others are going. I don’t know why I have lived this long while all others are gone, it is God’s plan,” Mugabe told mourners.

There have been reports over the past week that Mugabe is bed ridden or dead, but his first public appearance in 2014 after his sister’s death put paid on the rumours.

Mugabe’s health has spawned endless speculation among Zimbabweans.

Rumours sparked by his recent absence from the spotlight have been swirling around Harare in the past two weeks, some suggesting that the veteran leader was seriously ill and others even suggesting he had died.

Bridget, who was admitted at Parirenyatwa Hospital since 2010 after collapsing during the burial of her elder sister, Sabina at the National Heroes’ Acre in Harare, died of heart failure.

The president’s only surviving sibling suffered from breathing complications.

She was on life support for the past three until the time of her death.

Mugabe revealed to the mourners that he was more British than British citizens.

“I am very British you know, that is, I even measure distance in my miles. It is easy because the ratio is 5 miles to 8 km, so for that ndinomboti pamberi nemaBritish,” the president said.

Mugabe described his sister as an intelligent and strong person who was not afraid to even take on men in physical fights.

The President went on further narrating how Bridget was tortured by the settler regime and he castigated the use of force to coerce people to follow one’s political view.

The mother and grandmother, who died at the age of 79, was reportedly tortured by Rhodesians for at least a month.

The late Bridget, who was a trained science teacher, was actively involved in the liberation struggle. She is said to have even assisted the seven heroes who fought in the first Chimurenga battle in 1966.

“Bridget was too academic as opposed to her sister Sabina who was practical. She depended on me for survival and I stayed with her at State House as she could not purchase her own place. That is why we have included the psychomotor element in our education because we don’t want hollow education. We want a kind that equips learners with skill to be self-sufficient,” Mugabe said.

He said his father abandoned them when he was 11 years old.

“I even wrote him a letter expressing my unhappiness about how he had left us alone. My uncles later reprimanded me saying I was being disrespectful. I was forced to apologise. He came back in 1944 while I was teaching in Matabeleland but I never managed to see him.

“When I came back, he had died but had left me another burden because he had brought with him his new in-laws’. Now that I was now the eldest, I had to take care of them all but I was only 21,” the president said.