They do say we should be wary of a soft-spoken tyrant. And this is relevant when it comes to Mugabe. We are all used to his breathing fire and his melodramatic allegations and threats. In fact, we are all hardened against it.

“A rather subdued Robert Mugabe finally opened the Second Session of the Seventh Parliament on Tuesday, where Morgan Tsvangirai was also present at the official opening for the first time as Prime Minister.

Observers say it appears the political rivals may have made some concessions to be ‘civil with each other’. Last August Mugabe was humiliated and left rattled after MDC-T parliamentarians jeered, heckled and sang ‘ZANU PF is rotten’ during his speech, but there was none of that this time around. Some MDC MPs, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were told by the top leadership in the inclusive government not to repeat last year’s performance.”

For someone who has nothing but disdain for the colonial era, he is quite happy to revel in its glory, is he not?

Mugabe loves any kind of opulence - whether it is a parade or the latest suit - he has to have the best. And the opening of parliament suits him down to the ground.

How can the man that ridicules the West have a 32 horsemen escort dressed in the BSAP uniform of yesteryear? Mugabe hates anything to do with the British - or Zimbabwe’s predecessor, Rhodesia. (The British South Africa Police – BSAP - was the police force of Rhodesia.)

Mugabe’s love of all things fine and flashy has become quite garish - and this, I believe, is because his market is somewhat limited with the travel sanctions in place against him, his family and all of his apologists and loyalists.

Mugabe’s wife has the ability to shop until she drops and it is often reported that ‘plane-loads of goods arrive for Amazing (Dis)Grace and circumvent customs…

How she would dearly love to shop again in London and New York!

So Mugabe has decided to soften his tone and has even gone so far as to say that he would like to be friends with the Queen again…

But we know that a leopard doesn’t change his spots. He has nothing but ridicule and disdain for the Western way of life - but opens Parliament with all the pomp and ceremony of a colonial ruler!

“A regal Mugabe and his wife, resplendent in a blue outfit, were riding in the gleaming Rolls Royce once used by Lord Soames, the last governor of Rhodesia. As he mounted the saluting dais and the national anthem was played, a chorus of jeering and salutes began.”

It is nothing short of a slap in the face for the history of Zimbabwe that Mugabe should choose to open Parliament with a backdrop that is nothing more than the colonial past that he hates so much.

Mugabe fails to hoodwink that people of Zimbabwe, and fails entirely to convince the West that he is a changed man.

Beware of a soft-spoken tyrant - although I do prefer him as the angry, much-deluded dictator that he really is.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man