Mugabe has ruled (?) Zimbabwe for almost thirty years and he considers himself the ‘elder statesman’ of Africa. He believes that he is untouchable and should be deified for what he has done for the Zimbabwean people.

If we were to believe everything that he claims, then Zimbabwe has a strong and viable economy and should not be thrown out of any deal just because of his presence. Anyone doing business with Mugabe should be under sanction as well.

But I look back at what he has really achieved, and I see very little that he can claim as a success.

When Mugabe was brought to power - and let’s face it, certain Western countries were falling over themselves to have him installed in office - he was considered the ‘darling of the West’ even though he and his ‘freedom fighters’ had visited terror upon terror upon the people of then Rhodesia.

Let’s remember the massacres at the various missions, the wanton destruction of national resources (the Salisbury fuel depot as a prime example), and the slaughter of so many workers throughout the farming community of then Rhodesia.

Then came independence and shortly thereafter Mugabe unleashed the Korean-trained Fifth Brigade on the people in the South of the country. Commonly called the “Gukurahundi”, an estimated twenty to thirty thousand people perished until the Peace Accord was signed by Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo in 1987.

Having established ZANU PF as the only political party, he and his government - for want of a better word - set about asset stripping the country of anything not bolted down.

Finance Minister after finance minister failed to maintain the economy and it began to fall into disrepair.

In early 2000 began the land grab - with Mugabe selling the idea to the population that the commercial farm lands were to be returned to the ‘landless blacks’ - forcibly if need be. And those evictions continue today - but very little of the land is handed over to the peasantry but to Mugabe’s senior apologists.

Then came the disruptive and destructive Operation Murambatsvina - which still remains in evidence today. Mugabe’s government recently boasted that 4000 houses had been built for the victims - none of them having power or water - and invariably they will be given to ZANU PF supporters.

These are just a couple of the destructive policies that Mugabe has used in his attempt to hang on to power. He believes that by empowering his supporters that his much vaunted, but stolen position in history is safe.

Mugabe is no longer a young man, and he must be worrying about how to hold on to power no matter what (he once declared that he would rule Zimbabwe ‘from beyond the grave’). He is aware that his appeal is waning and that without his expected and enforced support, that he will be held accountable - together with his security chiefs and senior political hacks - for the damage, death and destruction that his rule has wrought.

So Mugabe continues to play a multi-faceted game - one where his actions and reactions are orchestrated and planned

The trick for any party opposing him is to calculate what his reaction would be and ensure that it is nipped on the bud, or eradicated completely, thus reducing the vengeful acts that he and ZANU PF hand out with frightening regularity.

That Mugabe needs to be stopped is tacit - and the likes of SADC, the AU or even the UN are not going to achieve much as he just dismisses their feeble attempts to rein him in - so perhaps the act of stopping Mugabe falls to the people.

The voice of democracy in Zimbabwe may be stifled at present, but each day it grows stronger and stronger.

Mugabe cannot sustain the attack for very much longer.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man