THE TRUTH ABOUT MUGABE

Many of us grew up admiring President Robert Mugabe because we thought he represented everything that an African leader should be.

And because I cut my political teeth in an African movement that so strongly reveres him, I became enthralled by what I thought was his visionary benevolence and upright leadership. I used to regard anyone who didn’t support Mugabe as a reactionary and a puppet of the West, because that’s what I was taught. I was taught that to be critical of Mugabe is to have a ‘colonised mind’. But later I decided that I was not going to have heroes imposed on me. I began to reject the idea that to be regarded as a true African, I had to defend any leader who showed the West the door. I rejected this because I came to learn that telling the West to back off was not enough to be a revolutionary. A few years ago after graduating from my Engineering studies, I committed to learning more about the history and realities of Zimbabwe and indeed, the leadership of Mugabe. I have come to recognise that Mugabe is not as revolutionary as I was raised to believe. In fact, he is highly reactionary. Not only are his race politics not rooted in progressive Pan African ideology, but his class and gender politics are just as bigoted.

The land redistribution programme in Zimbabwe was necessary. In fact, it is necessary in all of Africa. That a white minority should own means of production and enslave a native majority is not only unjust, it is inhuman. No reasonable person can argue the opposite. Steve Biko, in ‘I Write What I Like’, touched numerously on the issue of a black comprador bourgeoisie who rises out of the defeat of a colonial bourgeoisie. He correctly asserts that this crop of the black elite functions as a buffer of imperialism. It is not an accident of history, therefore, that Zimbabwe has a very strong intelligence. The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is so powerful that it has been ranked as one of the best intelligence systems in the world. Even as the healthcare system has all but collapsed, public servants can’t be paid adequately and the education system is deteriorating, funding for organisations such as the CIO and the Police Internal Security Intelligence continue to function. Throughout history, and indeed under the leadership of Mugabe, black Zimbabweans have suffered the worst forms of dehumanisation.

It was black people who died during the Gukurahundi genocide in Matebeleland. It was black people who were displaced and violated during Operation Murambatsvina. It has been black students, particularly members of ZINASU, who have been expelled and forced into exile by the ZANU-PF regime. It was black people who were beaten up during the 1997-1998 food riots in Mabvuku, just as they were beaten up during the bread riots of 1993. It was black people who died in mysterious car accidents or blatant killings in the hands of the State-people like Talent Mabika, Tichaona Chimiya, Gift Tandare and many more. Quite frankly, more black people have died in Zimbabwe under ZANU-PF rule than all whites killed during the land invasion period combined. And the more I learn, the more I realise just how wrong I was in my earlier youth to defend a regime so vicious and indeed, so anti-black. There’s no leader who loves black people who would do to them half the things that Mugabe has done to the black people of Zimbabwe.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: