By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
Even the so-called Renewal Team was unable to renew anything – let alone itself; we are still stuck with the same dead wood in both the ruling party and opposition. African leaders and politicians have mastered the art of recycling.
Old, useless politicians are recycled and they, in turn, introduce new family members who also then recycle old, deadwood back into government offices where they dismally failed decades earlier.
Everything happening in Africa has happened several times before and we see “newer” players, like the little punk, Joseph Kabila, of the Democratic of the Republic of Congo, taking lessons from hardened political criminals like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
We might belong to DR Congo, Malawi, Kenya, Botswana, Angola or Zimbabwe but what happens wherever on the African continent affects us all in one way or other.
Zimbabwe is in both economic and political chaos. Zimbabwean refugees are flooding into South Africa to escape the economic hardships and political hooliganism being perpetrated by Mugabe.
As Zimbabwean refugees flee our country, Mozambican refugees are flooding into Zimbabwe for shelter and protection from the conflicts between their government and the RENAMO opposition.
Botswana is also host to refugees from Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan and other African countries while some of the same countries are accepting refugees from each other.
This is happening under the very noses of African presidents who sit down every month to talk about irrelevant issues that mean nothing to their countries while ignoring the number of refugees they are exchanging among themselves.
A recent UN report says that in South Africa, the biggest number of asylum applications, after Zimbabwe, is “from Ethiopia (9,300), Nigeria (6,600), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6,400). And these are all countries with very cordial relations among themselves.
Except for Botswana’s Ian Khama who once complained to Mugabe about Zimbabwean refugees in Botswana, African leaders would rather suffer with the unwanted refugees than admonish another African leader about it.
We have a moron in the Gambia who has decreed that he be referred to as “His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Abdul-Aziz Awal Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen Babili Mansa”.
The last two words in his ridiculous title apparently refer to him as “chief bridge builder” or “conqueror of rivers”. Why he wants to conquer rivers, instead of hunger and poverty in his country, only the devil knows.
But this practice of self-immortalisation started long back with the likes of Joseph-Desiré Mobutu who, after assuming power through a coup (of cause), renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake).
The circus clowns were on a roll in Africa.
Do not dare to forget: “His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.”
If a quarter of the energy our African leaders put in efforts at self-preservation was put into advancing their nations, Africa would be at a much better level today.
They, instead, create dynasties of greed.
Just last month, Equatorial Guinea’s longtime ruler, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, swore in his first son, Teodoro “Teodorin” Nguema Obiang Mangue, as Vice President.
Nguema is the longest-serving leader in Africa and the longest-serving president in the world.
Appointing his son to the Vice Presidency places the young Nguema in charge of State Security and National Defense – a pre-requisite in the creation of a dynasty.
Of cause, it is within the law because “the appointment is in accordance with the provisions of the nation’s constitution, which gives the president the prerogative to establish his government as he sees fit following a general election”.
However, young Nguema is allegedly wanted in the USA and France for, among other crimes, money laundering and embezzlement.
On 11 June 2012, the US Department of Justice filed a complaint against young Nguema, stating that he spent $315 million on properties and luxury goods between 2004 and 2011.
The complaint also revealed that young Nguema, ‘while Minister of Forestry, levied personal “taxes” against local and foreign timber companies for licenses to operate and export timber, such as a $28.80 tax for every log exported, to fund his lavish lifestyle’.
Now young Nguema is Vice President and is set to succeed his father as president.
In South Africa, President Jacob Zuma faces more than 800 corruption cases and this has thrown his ruling party into fearful turmoil as elections approach.
Unfazed, Zuma is trying to maneuver a wife from whom he is divorced, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to succeed him as South Africa’s president.
Just at about the same time up north from South Africa, Uganda’s 71-year-old president, Yoweri Museveni, appointed his wife Janet as the new Minister of Education and Sports.
Ugandan news reports say that ‘Mrs Museveni retired from elective politics this year declining to seek re-election for her Ruhama constituency in Ntungamo district meaning that her retention in the Cabinet took many by surprise and may hint at Museveni’s plans for retirement in 2021’.
All this happened just about the same time that Museveni promoted his son, Kainerugaba Muhoozi, to the rank of Major-General in the Ugandan army. He is seen “as the most powerful soldier in Uganda’s army as he heads the Special Forces Command, which is considered to be an army within the army because it has all units of the military such as an infantry and Air Force and is in charge of the president’s protection and key government installations including the country’s oil fields”.
Meanwhile, a very humble man insists that all he ever is amounts to: “The Head of Government and Commander In Chief of Zimbabwe Defence Forces; the First Secretary of ZANU (PF), the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency, Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe” has taken everything not nailed down in the country and is subtly trying to maneuver his second wife Grace into a position to succeed him.
It’s not that Mugabe thinks his young lass is clever at all; she is not and we all know how dumb people always try to fill in the empty spaces in their heads.
It’s a question of security.
Robert Mugabe has killed thousands and his family has stolen millions. They own farms, companies and properties that need protection because of the manner in which they were acquired.
They cannot afford to trust anyone to succeed Mugabe, except one of their own. So the succession battles we see are not political as such; they are a search for a person to protect the Mugabes’ ill-gotten wealth.
No one is on their radar!
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