“Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe says “only God” can remove him from office, as the opposition MDC considers pulling out of next week’s run-off election amid escalating violence.

I found Mugabe’s claim that he is a holy appointee to be decidedly disturbing. The man has decided that he is above other mortals and his destiny is to be decided by the greater power.

His continual need to be better than the average person is even more disturbing. I have stated many times that a politician is a ‘civil servant’ which would mean that they are the servant of the people. They are put into office by the people’s choice – not by a politician’s will and guile to remain in office.

Mugabe says and does everything he needs to - illegal or otherwise - to hang on to office, and is even prepared to threaten the country with war if he doesn’t get his own way. A holy appointment? I doubt it…

So I got to thinking. Mugabe is one person who, by no stretch of the imagination, has not lived within the remit of the ten commandments. And I have no want to get pulled into a religious argument, but just think about it, and kindly remember that it was Mugabe who brought the subject up...

“You shall not kill” - Herbert Chitepo, Chris Ushewekunze, Maurice Nyagumbo… and so many others (not least the 80-plus people that have lost their lives in the violence since the March 29th ballot). People may argue that Mugabe himself was not responsible for these deaths, but if the order came down from his office, he is an guilty as the people that actually carried out the killings.

“You shall not steal” - the land grab, the seizure of ZIMASCO to sell to a Chinese company - the profits being gobbled up by the Mugabe government, and, of course, there is so much more… We read about how Mrs Mugabe - the erstwhile (Dis)Grace - was able to buy some US$80000 at an advantageous price for their recent trip to Rome. The fact that this much-needed foreign currency was made available to the family, even though it is in huge demand elsewhere within Zimbabwe’s fiscal responsibilities and needs, and available at an specially reduced rate, is indicative of the deception being perpetrated upon the population as a whole.

“You shall not commit adultery” - and while Mugabe’s late wife, Sally (who the Zimbabwean people adored for her humanity), lay on her deathbed, he was busy bedding the woman that is now his wife. And Mugabe refuses to believe that he has done anything wrong. His first wife was incapable because of her illness, and unable to control himself, he couldn’t even wait for her to pass away before he got involved with someone else.

“You shall not lie” - Mugabe said, amongst many other things, that Morgan Tsvangirai would not be arrested during the campaign - and within twenty four hours Tsvangirai was arrested.

There are examples upon examples of Mugabe’s duplicity - like the continual claim that his regime is under full economic sanction, when, in reality his administration is targeted by specific sanction, which, more often than not, are raised to allow them to travel - but to list all of the lies here would be repetitive and time and space consuming…

The proof is there for us all to read and see. Mugabe has proved himself to be a person of much less calibre than the person he would like us to perceive.

Mugabe, brought up and educated by Jesuit priests, is living proof that politics and religion should never be mixed.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man