Stench of Mugabe’s Decaying Rule Hangs Heavy
Harare – If the state of the toilets in public and even private
buildings in Harare were a measure of the inclusive government’s progress,
then it has failed miserably.
In the courts, in the ministries, in all public buildings and some
privately owned office blocks, the putrid smell of human waste is perhaps
President Robert Mugabe’s most telling legacy.
Emaciated prisoners in fetid cells where water pipes have not been
fixed since the days of Rhodesian rule are another legacy of Zanu-PF’s
staggering failure, which goes way beyond the 10 years of political turmoil
since the Movement for Democratic Change emerged.
Even top government schools which used to produce some of the best
education results are shells. Some of the bricks and mortar are still there,
but the windows, desks, doors, blackboards and books are missing.
Despite this aversion to maintenance, Mugabe’s power is slowly ebbing,
mostly because he can’t get hold of the cash for his power base.
The re-detention on Tuesday of 18 activists accused of a repetitive
plot – trying to overthrow Mugabe – was the most serious Zanu-PF breach of
the political agreement to date, even if 15 were freed on bail 24 hours
later.
There are so many breaches of the political agreement it is
astonishing that it still there at all. But neither side has any
alternative.
As one diplomat said after the rearrests: “Prime Minister (Morgan)
Tsvangirai can’t threaten to walk out more than once. So he has a very
difficult balancing act. But we do wish he, personally, would speak out more
critically.”
Mugabe never gives up, even as his control – now limited to a
diminishing group of thugs in the riot police and their senior officers, the
hard core of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and military
intelligence – is waning.
The ordinary policeman is much more interested in organising a
roadblock to extract bribes from motorists than looking for the mythical
weapons Mugabe claims photo-journalist Shadreck Manyere, still in detention
in hospital on Friday, had stashed somewhere among his laptop and cameras.
It has begun to dawn on some Zanu-PF civil servants that the US
Marines, the British Army and Rhodesians on Zimmer frames have not been
massing on the border, as their CIO masters have been telling them.
Mugabe has been at this particular game – keeping Zimbabwe on a war
footing for a mythical invading force – for decades.
His methods are not working as well as they used to, but he is not
finished yet. Three times in the past week he put off a meeting to address
his violations of the political agreement.
Will he make concessions after he has attended President Jacob Zuma’s
inauguration?
Probably not. Then what?
Then the MDC will have to recommend that the SADC tries to resolve
outstanding issues, which even some of its apologists recognise are, indeed,
outstanding.
Emerging from this mish-mash unity government are insights into
Zanu-PF.
It is, mostly, spectacularly incompetent and Mugabe knows it. He even
makes jokes about some party officials behind their backs over lunch.
Mugabe, at 85, is in control of his petulant generals and not the
other way around. He is not senile, nor is he in poor health.
He is the chief manipulator and is trying to work out how to get his
hands on foreign funds to rescue Zanu-PF from obliteration. The party has
run out of money and it has always needed huge resources to keep going.
The CIO needs projects to keep money flowing to its coffers, and there
are fewer and fewer ways of creating new enemies to jump-start campaigns and
deploy personnel.
The cancellation of the Zimbabwe dollar was the blow Mugabe hadn’t
counted on.
As economist John Robertson said last week, central bank governor
Gideon Gono can no longer manipulate the exchange rate, allowing Zanu-PF
cronies to exchange one US dollar for trillions of Zimbabwe dollars.
Mugabe also uses his other weapon, charm, to disarm his opponents.
“He is so charming we sometimes have to remind ourselves what he has
done to us personally and to the country,” said a top businessman after
meeting Mugabe.
If Mugabe were to die or retire his departure, in practical terms,
would not be noticed.
He plays no role in government operations except the arrests and
violence, disruption and theft of crops from white-owned farms.
Could he stop that? Yes, he could, but he chooses not to. The white
farmers were always going to be a soft target, according to one ex-CIO
official.
Zanu-PF tried to manipulate a teachers’ strike this week, but it was
outmanoeuvred by the Progressive Teachers’ Union because teachers would
rather earn $100 than nothing.
Mugabe has had nothing to do with the reopening of hospitals, schools,
a few gold mines, or the token payment of civil servants in a currency they
can use.
These are the few fruits of the unity government so far, as well as
much less political violence, fewer arrests, and shops groaning with
imported groceries.
Meanwhile, Mugabe has to constantly violate the political agreement of
last September to push the MDC into the covers.
He needs to find a way to protect himself from the taint of gross
violence during last year’s elections. None of his agents who committed the
violence on his orders have been prosecuted, even though their names are
known and there are witnesses longing to testify.
So that is another reason he fouls the political agreement: he is looking for a deal to get them and him off the hook.
Source: IOL
Posted by Dave Fish Eagle
on May 10, 2009. Filed under Politics & Foreign.
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