Mugabe reveals painful history

By Fungi Kwaramba and Mugove Tafirenyika

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe yesterday revealed a painful past of abandonment and loss of his closest relatives as he told mourners that he could not even explain his long life.

Speculation has been swirling that the 89-year old strongman is sick — but he managed to walk for some distance during the funeral.

Mugabe, who spoke for 67 minutes, told hundreds of people at the burial of his sister Bridgette that he started to fend for his family when he was only 21, after his father had abandoned the family in Zvimba.

“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,” said Mugabe.

Mugabe, who will be turning 90 on February 21, has buried all his siblings.

Regina Gata is Mugabe’s only surviving half-sister.

Mugabe, who lacked the usual spiritedness in his step, had the crowds eating from his palm as he eulogised about Bridgette who died on Sunday morning after three years in a coma.

Service chiefs, government ministers, diplomats and scores of people drawn from across the country, came to pay their respects to Mugabe who revealed another side of him.

Mugabe said his father left the family in 1934 after the death of his eldest brother Michael.

Mugabe’s father never communicated and went on to start a new family in Bulawayo; a city that the Zanu PF leader said was famous for fast life and beautiful women.

“I even wrote him (his father) 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,” said Mugabe.

Abandoned by his father, raised by his fanatically religious mother, and devastated by the death of his elder brother Michael, Mugabe’s childhood left him lonely.

Africa’s oldest president, who is often secretive about his past, also revealed that his father and mother married in 1918, and their first child — Michael — was born a year later, followed by Raphael in 1922.

Raphael died six months later. He was born in 1924, two years ahead of Donato, who is late.

Mugabe’s other sister Sabina, died in 2010.

Despite having been stripped of his knighthood by Britain, Mugabe told the multitude of people who attended his sister’s burial that he was “very British.”

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

Mugabe was not the only speaker at the burial with his half-sister Regina and his nephew Leo Mugabe, also revealing another side of the man who has ruled the country for the past 33 years.

“Baba varipo apo vairova zvebasa, (that man was a strict disciplinarian, who would beat the hell out of you),” said Regina.

Leo, who appeared drunk, told mourners that the name Mugabe often placed them in difficult situations.

“The names we carry, which belong to our uncles haunt us,” said Leo, who is Sabina’s child.

Bridgette, 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 years until the time of her death.

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

He re-counted the family history to mourners and said he never forced his siblings to join the liberation struggle.

In his usual lecturing, Mugabe narrated how Bridgette was tortured by the settler regime which he castigated for resorting to force.

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

The late Bridgette, 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 Chinhoyi battle in 1966.

She was declared a liberation war heroine.

Among the prominent people and heads of security services at the funeral were vice president Joice Mujuru, the majority of ministers, army commander Constantine Chiwenga and and police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri among others.

The industry was also well represented by, among others, Dairibord boss Antony Mandiwanza, former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Kombo Moyana, former Arda general manager Liberty Mhlanga, Sydney Gata and another ex-RBZ governor Gideon Gono. Daily News