The signs of a falling dictator

By Prosper Karuru

The way President Mugabe and his government are starting to call their own law abiding people ‘terrorists’ sounds very familiar with Muammar Gaddafi calling protestors ‘rats’ and ‘cockroaches’. One of the common denominators of these two dictatorship is a stern denial that people would dare attribute their problems their iron fist leadership brand. Gaddafi did not even believe that the protestors were Libyans, he maintained that all Libyans loved him and would die to protect him.

However I do not believe that Mugabe will fall in the brutal and messy way that Gaddafi did. The Zimbabweans seem to be preparing a more peaceful and contemporary send off to one of the last dictatorships standing in Africa.

The old-school way of the gun has proved to turn dictators into martyrs. By the time Mugabe leaves office, he would have aided in clearly documenting his blood-spattered bibliography.

Social media has well been transformed to become a consequentially legitimate fourth arm in the government; to question and expose the crumbling state of its leadership.It seems the more the regime detest and mock social media, the more it’s becoming influential in spring boarding voices that would normally have been suppressed.

Simultaneously judicial revolt clearly brewing in the courts is a clear sign that as the dictatorship falls, a solid trail of precedence will bear witness to the depths of ruthlessness in the regime.

Where the Zanu Pf government used to be on the offensive with propaganda, the current state of general consciousness in the country has put them on the defensive position. This makes them a reactive state entity, full of paranoia and anger.

Their policies and laws are now reactive. The invocation of Statutory Instrument 194 of 1987 to ban the distribution and carrying of the national flag is a clear sign of a reactive government. First they mocked #ThisFlag as a social media nonentity, now they create laws against it.

The problem with proliferation of reactive laws in totalitarian states like Zimbabwe is that they clog up the justice delivery system. Combined with hundreds of laws misaligned to the 2013 constitution, emotive laws being infused and resurrected by the government are meant to ultimately make their desires the law.

Preferably the confusions should reaffirm Mugabe as the centre of power both in his party and country. This is a firm and working tactic but only if the dictatorship is in the business of feeding people first. The government in Zimbabwe has lost touch of its legal mandate to the people, reactive laws will only serve to bury its dictatorship and formulate its despicable legacy of force.

Probably topping the list, one of the major signs of a stumbling dictatorship in Zimbabwe is the people becoming actional. One of the points that the current social movements have boldly emphasised is that as citizens we are now tired of constantly ‘fixing’ ourselves.

Pastor Evan Mawarire and others have been brave enough to lead the growing momentum to demand the government to start showing commitment to fix itself and address the wide ranging problems that people are facing.

As the small cloud of victory emerges in Zimbabwe, it is imperative that the leaders in these ongoing social movements continue in the path of a unitary force. The old Zanu Pf divide and rule tactics seem to obsolete due to the non-divisible commonality of poverty and suffering among the generality of people.

Once we could afford to ignore one another, our dire situations are forcing us to gravitate towards each other. Fear was when we wear torn apart, the only way forward as one is courage.