By Obert Gutu
Surely, the gods must really be crazy! The renaming of Harare International Airport to Robert Mugabe International Airport on Thursday, November 9, 2017, marks a new low in both the political and aviation history of Zimbabwe.
The MDC is a social democratic political party ; it is a people’s project and as such, we abhor and condemn any attempt to personalize and privatize national institutions such as the Harare International Airport. The Zanu PF regime, fronted by the nonagenarian, Robert Mugabe, has certainly lost its marbles.
It is beyond debate that as the Zanu PF regime continues to crumble like a deck of cards, Robert Mugabe is fully determined to take the country down with him. He now perceives Zimbabwe as his personal property and not a republic.
The State has been virtually captured by Robert Mugabe and his wife and as the economic meltdown continues unabated, the entire government is on auto – pilot as Mugabe and his spouse are spending their time addressing spurious and nonsensical rallies meant to massage their personal egos. What a shame!
Almost every city and town in Zimbabwe has got a road named after Robert Mugabe. As if this was not enough,US$1 billion of State funds has been budgeted to construct the Robert Mugabe University, a private university that will be owned by the Mugabe family.
And it is just a matter of weeks before Grace Mugabe is appointed State Vice – President in Zimbabwe. The circus continues as the toiling masses of Zimbabwe watch with bated breath. When is this madness going to stop? When is this lunacy going to be curbed?
The State – owned national airline, Air Zimbabwe Corporation, is in the intensive care unit, saddled with a debilitating debt in excess of US$300 million.
Instead of resuscitating the national airline, the Mugabe family is reported to have invested in a private airline, Zimbabwe Airways, that is going to literally take over all the lucrative routes that used to be plied by Air Zimbabwe, particularly the Harare – London route.
Robert Mugabe and his cohorts have since reduced the Republic of Zimbabwe into Robert Mugabe (Private) Limited ; a private limited company wholly owned and controlled by the Mugabe family.
Thousands of gallant sons and daughters of the soil who paid the ultimate sacrifice to liberate us from decades of racist colonial subjugation must be turning in their graves right now. Is this what they died for? Did these heroes and heroines lay down their lives in order to enable Robert Mugabe to ransack and privatise the Republic of Zimbabwe?
As the country’s largest and most popular political party and as the country’s government – in – waiting, the MDC would like to assure the suffering masses of Zimbabwe that Harare International Airport remains as Harare International Airport.
As soon as a new democratic government takes over power after elections next year, this façade of renaming Harare International Airport to Robert Mugabe International Airport will be promptly reversed. In fact, there are more deserving national heroes such as Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Takawira, Lookout Masuku and many others after whom the Harare International Airport can be justifiably renamed.
The people of Zimbabwe have endured decades of political oppression, rampant corruption and gross mismanagement of the national economy under the autocratic and fascist rule of Robert Mugabe. The day of reckoning is nigh. The toiling masses of Zimbabwe will very soon be reclaiming their dignity and liberty from Robert Mugabe and his corrupt gang of political thugs and looters. That’s for sure.
Obert Gutu is the National Spokesman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T)
