By William Muchayi
In spite of his desire to portray himself on the global stage as the last surviving Pan Africanist, Robert Mugabe’s reign has been a disaster. A glimpse on the achievements of Fidel Castro up to his death only reduces the impoverished Southern African president to a clown.
Fidel Castro was a genuine revolutionary who felt that he was part of a movement driven by a true conviction, principles and a belief that the revolution was not an end in itself but a means to that cherished dream of improving the lives of Cubans.
In this regard, Castro had to undergo personal transformation before he dreamt of being a catalyst in the 1959 Revolution. Regrettably, Robert Mugabe never went through this transformational process nor did he rely upon any particular ideology/ideologies to make the revolution a success.
The man has been a counterfeit from the beginning to the end, starting with his nationality, surname (Mugabe) as opposed to Matibili, accent, hair let alone gait. It is through this mastery of disguise that he duped millions of Zimbabweans into believing that fluency in English speaking is synonymous to wisdom.
Mugabe never had personal transformation from within, hence, the country being stuck with a man with the mental capacity of a teenager in spite of old age best known for tantrums and the inability to forgive real and perceived foes.
After gaining power in 1959, Fidel Castro realised that Cubans couldn’t fill their stomachs with liberty but had to be well fed in order to minimise their chances of revolting against him, hence, the introduction of the First Agrarian Reform of 17 May 1959 as one of the first acts of the Revolution.
Underpinning this reform was a sheer desire to address the inequality in land distribution before the revolution whereby 73% of the land was owned by just 9% of the population. Under no circumstances was land redistribution used as a political gimmick to advance an individual’s interests but a genuine reform meant to address inequality among landless Cubans.
Not only did subsequent land reforms that followed help to reduce inequality among the people, but, rigorous attempts were made by Castro to build infrastructure in acquired land to maximise production. In contrast, true to the traits of a pseudo-revolutionary, Robert Mugabe chased away black peasants who invaded white owned farms soon after independence in order to address land inequality since that wasn’t convenient to his political calculation until the 1990s as his popularity began to wane.
Unlike Fidel Castro whose land reform was guided by the Communist ideology meant to address inequality in land distribution, Robert Mugabe’s main motives were to resuscitate waning popularity, appease restless war veterans, the need to punish the white community who appeared to support the opposition as well as an attempt to decapitate the latter’s economic base.
On this premise, it can be argued that by 1980 and the early 1990s, it wasn’t convenient for Robert Mugabe to address the land question in spite of the inequalities and promises made during the liberation struggle.
It is for this reason that no attempt was made by his regime to build infrastructure in acquired land, for, land reform came as an afterthought to advance personal interests as opposed to address inequality. As a result, most of the acquired land is underutilised to the extent that newly resettled farmers lease some of these farms to their previous owners.
In addition to his unique political stamina that elevates him way above most of his contemporaries in the 21st century, Fidel Castro was a firm believer in the magic of Socialism which he viewed as the best ideology in the world and if properly implemented could transform the lives of Cubans for the better.
Due to this conviction, he made sure that Cuban infrastructure surpassed that of the West. According to the World Health Organisation Global Health Experience database, in spite of the crippling sanctions imposed by the United States, in 2014 Cuba dedicated 11.1% of her GDP to health compared to Robert Mugabe’s paltry 6.4%.
In the same period, most countries in the developed world couldn’t match Cuba in healthcare investment with Canada dedicating 10.4% of her GDP to health, Belgium (10.0%), Denmark (10.8%), Japan (10.2%) and Netherlands (10.9%). According to the latest World Health Organisation data published in 2015, Cuba’s patient/doctor ratio is 1:150 (1 doctor per 150 Cubans) compared to Zimbabwe’s 1: 12 000 (1 doctor per 12 000 patients and 1:400 patients in the United States of America.
This monumental achievement by Fidel Castro is best understood within the context of the United Nations that prescribes a 1:200 patient/doctor ratio while the World Health Organisation recommends 1:500. Due to this investment in healthcare by Fidel Castro, Cuba is in the top 25 countries in the world for life expectancy which is normally viewed as an indicator of human development and subsequent quality of life.
According to the 2015 World Health Organisation data, life expectancy in Cuba has increased from the 1970s to 2015 from 70.04 to 78.7 years approaching an expectancy in the United State of 79.8 years. And, since 1959, Cuba’s infant mortality rate has fallen from 37.3 to 4.3 per thousand live births, a rate equivalent to Australia’s and lowers than the United States’ that stands at 5.8.
In contrast, Zimbabwe’s infant mortality rate as of 2016 was an alarming 28.1 deaths/ 1000 live births for males with 23.6 deaths/1000 live births for females and a life expectancy of 60.7 years, ranking her on the world life expectancy scale of 156 compared to Cuba which is in the top 25 countries in the world.
Robert Mugabe’s lunacy is exposed as he shuns local hospitals in favour of Far East institutions where he gets medical care at the taxpayer’s expense. This mediocrity in the Mugabe administration is laid bare by David Parirenyatwa, the impoverished country’s Health Minister who appeals to Walter Magaya of Prophetic Healing Deliverance Ministries for financial assistance to combat the typhoid epidemic in Harare while the First Family dines in the Far East gobbling millions of dollars.
For long, Cuba’s healthcare system has been the envy of many even in the developed world with the United Kingdom in 2000 despatching a delegation from the Department of Health made up of 100 GPs to learn about how the country, in spite of all odds against her manages to deliver such excellent care on a far smaller budget.
Indeed, Castro never sought medical help from outside when he got poorly but relied on the healthcare infrastructure that he presided over since 1959. In contrast, isn’t it on record that Bona had to fly to the Far East as a health tourist where she gave birth at the taxpayer’s expense?
In addition, Cuba has trained a surplus of healthcare personnel in its medical schools, sends 50 000 of them annually abroad to provide care in developing countries. During the Ebola crisis in West Africa in October 2014, 15 000 Cuban medical workers were dispatched to the region to participate in the relief, making them the largest single national medical force.
As reported by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Trade, medical products and services account for 20% of Cuba’s export revenues as the country has begun to charge for services rendered by its health professionals when deployed abroad in some instances.
In addition to all these medical strides, the country has also invested immensely in biochemical research specialising in biotechnology, genetics and cancer research. Alas, what has Mugabe achieved as he masquerades as the last surviving Pan Africanist?
Embarrassingly, of late the regime has sought the assistance of the Palestinian International Cooperation Agency to train Zimbabwean medical students in the fields of orthopaedic surgery and child chiropractic as these domains are not available in the country. In fact, does Mugabe needs to be reminded that Palestine is an Israeli colony?
Even in the education sector where the nonagenarian had made significant strides at the beginning of his reign, standards have significantly deteriorated as he clings onto power. While Zimbabwe boasts of a literacy rate of 90.9% (2015), Cuba had a 100% record over the same period. According to the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), Cuba’s youth literacy rate stands at 100%.
In 2015, the World Bank reported that the country has the highest investment in education worldwide, surpassing countries in the developed world. According to the same report, Cuba invested nearly 13% (12.9%) of GDP in education. This staggering figure is a stuck contrast to that of the USA and Canada that stood at 5.9% and 5.5% respectively.
During the same period in Europe, France spent 5.9% of her national budget on education, Germany (5.1%), UK (6.2%), Italy (4.5%) and Spain (5%). Zimbabwe allocated 5.7% of GDP on education in 2016.
Apart from investments in education, Fidel Castro was proud of Cuban education unlike Mugabe who shuns local institutions in favour of Far East universities where he educates his children except for Grace’s dubious PhD granted by the University of Zimbabwe.
According to the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, Zimbabwe is ranked the 150th least corrupt nation out of 175 countries compared to Cuba that stands at 56. It is none other than Mugabe himself who has presided over this rot since 1980.
Apparently, the nonagenarian is reported to own not less than 14 farms in spite of the one man one farm policy parroted in public and not forgetting villas scattered all over the world. As a true revolutionary opposed to capitalist exploitation of Africa by the West, Cubans intervened militarily in Algeria, Congo, Angola and Cape Verde not because Fidel Castro sought to benefit financially from such adventures.
In contrast, Mugabe’s intervention in the DRC was mainly influenced by personal economic gain. A 2004 United Nations report on the plunder of diamonds in the DRC implicated the nonagenarian, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vitalis Zvinavashe and others in the racket. And, currently Zimbabwean troops have been deployed in Equatorial Guinea on secret mission and the nation is kept in darkness.
Given all this incompetency, is it any wonder that Mbuya Bona’s boy is being referred to in some circles as the ‘mad man from the tropics,’ contrary to the image he wishes the world to remember him for as the last surviving Pan Africanist? African dictators lack not only conscience but ambition, the brains and will power to develop the continent, hence, the sorry state of affairs that define her.
William Muchayi is a pro-democracy activist who can be contacted on [email protected]
