The vast majority of the world may not be particularly interested in recent events in Zimbabwe, and the few that are watching are doing it from a position where they couldn’t help even if they wanted to…

The election sham is as good as over with the withdrawal of Morgan Tsvangirai from the race – although Mugabe is determined that the election will proceed – and that the people will vote for him in their droves.

Given that this is a one man race, and the madness of Robert Mugabe is becoming more and more apparent each day, whilst he alone can ‘win’ the election, the actual carrying out of the event is rather a waste of time.

And although Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the election, Mugabe insists on continuing with his ‘campaigning’ – if you can call giving busses and farming equipment to the masses, ‘campaigning’.

His speech at the latest rally was laced with hatred, anger and the hugely rebellious nature that we have seen so often in this man, possessed of his own self-importance.

Public opinion, be it domestic or international, of Robert Gabriel Mugabe is being tested to the absolute nth degree. He agrees with no one, and ruffles the feathers of all that might conceivably cross his path, and challenges the free world to prove him wrong. When the free world does exactly that, prove him wrong, he throws all manner of accusations about regime change and a Western plot to dethrone him at his protractors.

It becomes clear, as the date for the ‘election’ draws near, that Mugabe is beginning to throw caution to the wind as he is determined to win the race (now one-manned) come hell or high water.

To the extreme where he has threatened to take the country to war to maintain his vaunted position. And who would he be going to war against? His own people!

We look back at the rather recent history in Africa, and we can throw three names up without much thought. Charles Taylor, Idi Amin and Haile Mengistu Miriam (who is living in exile – in Zimbabwe!), and we realise that dictatorships are part of the African creed.

And we look to history to show us how these beasts fell from power, and we see that force is the answer.

Is force to be considered in Zimbabwe? How fitting that we might consider using the same tactic to remove a man who achieved his position by those very same tactics.

But, because the world has watched, sometimes in amazement, at Mugabe’s antics, we have to realise that force is not necessarily the answer as he has spent in excess of the past quarter of a century shoring up his defences and allying himself to brigands and rebels, in anticipation of this very thought.

Mugabe-ism is a determinate period in Africa’s bloody history. The day will come when he will fall off his mortal coil, and then we will see the winds of change blow over Zimbabwe.

The country does not need re-colonising, nor does it need invading. All it begs for is a leader that holds the opinions of the public near and dear to the aims and aspirations of the government. A leader that does not put himself first in the queue when it comes to the basic requirements.

A leader of people, of tried and tested morals, not old, weak and past ideals.

Mugabe’s immediate future lies in the public opinion in Zimbabwe, at present at an all time low.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man