Mandela: The Man, The Leader, The Legacy Mugabe can never be

By Courage Shumba

In the seven years leading to 1987 Mugabe had been ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans through a “special” brigade that reported directly to him. That unit, named the fifth brigade, trained by experts hired from North Korea, murdered thousands of Zimbabweans under the watch and directives of Robert Mugabe. 

From 1987 onwards Robert Mugabe desperately clung to power through a one party state system. He took control of broadcasting and censored newspapers in a way that steal robs Zimbabwe of many vital jobs and opportunities today.

It is rumoured that dissent within the party was punished through a combination of reprisals, expulsions and killings which robbed the country of critical ideas and progress.

A lot of those whose views were different from Mugabe’s including Zororo Duri and Chris Ushowokunze among others had their political careers destroyed or were killed in mysterious circumstances . Those that remained loyal and submissive became career ministers , ambassadors and holders of key civil service positions, in some cases until they died.

Mugabe’s legacy is about his survival . Mandela’s legacy was about the survival of South Africa. Mugabe’s legacy is about getting away with abominable moral crimes against his own people like Gukurahundi and Murambatsvina.

Mugabe and Mandela are not two sides of the same coin , two revolutionaries whose approaches are different, Mugabe is, in these circumstances and by comparison a counterfeit coin, a counter revolutionary, a dissident leader who abandons the masses and rules for a minority.

Robert Mugabe like Ian Smith unlike Madiba are minority leaders who prey on the peaceful nature and reluctance of our people to live under chaos and violence .

Learning nothing from the brutality and immorality of Gukurahundi, as recent as 2000, Mugabe boasted he had “degrees in violence” in a direct threat aimed at the opposition. It is his nature to seek to rule through force and intimidation. It is his legacy to rule through coercion and violence, to intimidate and brutalise a people who are supposed to be free.

His version of freedom cannot be the same as the liberation Madiba sought to achieve for his people, even if he (Madiba) could not deliver it in total, even if it is incomplete and discoloured by barking inequalities that still remain. Mugabe’s words about freedom are a lip service to a liberation war he has completely disowned, abandoned and betrayed perhaps never believed in.

Mandela was a patriot. Mandela loved his country beyond his party and beyond his own ambitions. Mandela was a leader who weighed facts, who knew the limits of state power and who understood the complexities and dynamics of the race conflict around him.

Mandela allowed South Africa to gradually emerge from the bitterness of racial conflict. He gave both white and black South Africans a moral conscience to accept one another as citizens which by far is the biggest victory of any battles South Africa will ever face. Mandela gave birth to the South Africa we see.

What remains now after this delivery, this birth of a country, is to clothe , feed it and change its dippers. That can never be as hard as the labour pains that brings the life itself. What remains to be done in South Africa today are purely matters of administration. What the leadership in South Africa need to do is to avoid being like  Mugabe and his crew who rob a country they are supposed to be giving to, who make refugees out of a free people, who brutalise their people at each election and in between.

Zimbabwe is an example of what happens when those in power forget about the people and individualise what is supposed to be a common destiny. What we see in Zimbabwe is what happens when those in leadership have no vision beyond filling the shoes of the administrationsthey fought yesterday. What we witness is a politics of secrecy and suspicion that is essentially unchanged from Rhodesia. We are still trapped by the philosophy of using state institutions to protect minority interests.

The liberation struggle has become a pretext for anarchy and madness by so called war veterans, now inside government, as they tear apart national laws and subvert national institutions to advance/ protect personal economic and political ambitions of no national interest.

The reality is that Mugabe and his relatives and a few people have conspired to take over what should be a national cake and eat amongst themselves. They have become a predator that undermines the honour and sacrifice of the fallen fighters who died for this country for us to be free. Mugabe and his company of crooks devalue and destroy the impact of the wishes of Tongogara and many of his men and women whose remains are scattered around Zimbabwe who died for our freedom.

Mugabe and his company of crooks can never be to us what Mandela has been to South Africa. Mugabe oversees a sleazy, corrupt and visionless administration that holds power to enrich its inner circle. He oversees a brutal police force, a secretive intelligence agency and an army all compromised by a leadership that cant put the country first.

The reality, which is sad, is that whilst Mandela will be mourned by his people for taking them thus far, for liberating them, for being a human leader, for accepting his limits as a person, for having a bigger vision for South Africa, for not making himself indispensible, for not making himself synonymous with the independence of the country,for being able to be a patriot , Mr Mugabe’s farewell will be met by open honest celebration and fear that if who ever takes from him is like him Zimbabwe is doomed. Mugabe’s involvement in the liberation struggle and his subsequent leadership are a cause of deep regret, resentment, apathy, confusion, hopelessness and unnecessary suffering.

Mugabe is a man with a tiny vision which has led to a Zimbabwe where the country is run on the basis of Mugabe’s fear in every and each discipline of its life. You have one tv station because Mugabe fears that an independent one will be used for propaganda by opposition. The whole innovation potential is tied down to a bureaucracy that chokes anything that shows life.

Look how poor we are, deserted we are, very rural and wilting for a country that is producing diamonds and under an indeginisation programme.Those diamonds are being stolen by people in leadership.That is Mugabe’s legacy.

If to prove anything you must recall that a few days ago we became aware that Happyson Muchechetere was getting a tenth of all revenue into that broke broadcasting monopoly yet for months staff there went without pay. That is Zanu PF , Mugabe for you.

Reader, for as long as Zimbabwe is under the patronage of Zanu PF we will remain stuck to the prejudice, limits, exclusions and conditions that separated us from the minority that ruled Rhodesia before 1980.

Mugabe unlike Mandela is not here for you or me. Mugabe is here to outsmart his political enemies,rule as long as he can, feed his family and leave them an empire of assets and wealth tucked away for their benefit before he is gone.

Mandela is an icon of the struggle for freedom and equality. Mugabe like many of his kind is no liberator. He is an Ian Smith and a Rhodesian in a black skin. Mugabe stands for all the things that our fallen fighters and icons like Mandela fought against. Mugabe stands for things that will humiliate, offend and degrade our people. Zimbabwe is still under repression, minority rule and dictatorship.

Whereas Mandela is liberator. Mugabe is an autocrat, a champion for the abuse of power and human rights, an obstacle to a just and decent Zimbabwe for all.

Long live Mandela a true liberator. As for Zimbabwe it will be good riddance when we are free from minority rule when these crooks finally make way and allow us to hope again.

We fear Mugabe’s legacy if it it should ever be followed.

Courage Shumba is a member of the NCA Political Party and writes in person capacity