I have said many times, that for Mugabe to have succeeded as a world leader, he needed to change nothing once he had power in Zimbabwe.

He had the Europeans and the American politicians eating out of his hand. They couldn’t wait to stand by him and assist in his pursuit of liberating the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean people.

But within a few years of Zimbabwean independence, it became apparent that much of the camaraderie that he had exhibited en route to the top job in Zimbabwe was just a façade - a false front put up by the Mugabe regime to gain favour, finance and all the trappings of power.

Suddenly the whites in Zimbabwe were no longer welcome – a necessary evil in his eyes - and with the advent of the land grab, the white farmers have all been accused of working a ‘Rhodesian plot’ to foment ‘regime change’ - or some such rubbish.

He has even gone so far as to say that the white commercial farmers are not Zimbabweans!

He regularly makes allegations that the Western world wants to ‘re-colonise’ Zimbabwe.

Let me ask this question by way of rebuttal: Who would want to take over a country that has been destroyed completely by the man who allegedly ‘liberated’ it?

Mugabe talks of colonisation with a distinct air of hatred - and yet he opens parliament with a posse of policemen on horseback, all dressed up in colonial era British South Africa Police uniforms!

And arrives in a vintage motor car, last used by Lord Soames in 1980!

If that isn’t ‘colonial’, then what is?

Mugabe is a capitalist, despite his Marxist leanings. He lives in a mansion in Harare with all the trapping one might expect from someone who loves such opulence. His wife, Amazing (Dis)Grace, is not amused with not being able to shop in London or Paris, where she used to fill up an aircraft with her purchases - all gaudy rubbish that she uses to adorn their home.

A couple of years ago Mugabe had the House of Parliament redone - with a throne for him and his wife, and leopards heads mounted on the wall… an expense that the country could ill afford.

Yes, he may have “Africanised” the House, but his mind remains firmly ensconsed in all of the wealth of a colonial leader.

And Mugabe hates the Rhodesians. He has said so, although Rhodesia no longer exists and is just a place in time.

But we have to understand that when Mugabe says “Rhodesians”, he really means the white Zimbabwean. And there are many of them who were born this side of Zimbabwean independence, and so they are really Zimbabweans.

But because they are white, he vilifies them, oppresses them and hates them - with every fibre of his being.

When the power-sharing agreement was signed last year, there was a clause that provided that there would be no ‘hate speech’… but Mugabe and his people all make public statements with venomous regularity. Mugabe’s spokesman, George Chiramba, is one of the ring leaders in this endeavour, swiftly followed by the likes of Justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, and ex-independent MP, Jonathan Moyo, who recently returned to the ZANU PF flock.

And Mugabe continues with the belief that he is the elder statesman of Africa, the liberator of Zimbabwe. Perhaps he needs to compare what he inherited from the ‘bloody whites‘ (his words) to what he has reduced the country to, and finally admit that he has not done the cause any good whatsoever.

Mugabe is an anti-colonial racist who has used the colonial and racist traits to his best advantage - living by the things he publicly vilifies.

Mugabe is an enigma - an anathema.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man