Zim Diaspora

Further fast-forward to 1979 when Tongogara with whom he had difference on policy regarding engagement with Nkomo’s Zapu died. Not much was said about the tragic death possibly leading to the hatred of the Karanga tribe shown by their massive vote for the opposition latter on in 2008.His eccentricity was soon to re-manifest itself in the Lancaster House talks where Nkomo demand land as an exchange for peace. The laggard thought he was pulling the rug from beneath Nkomo’s feet by negotiating that the white keep the land.

Veterans of the liberation struggle who were promised demobilization disbursements and a free and fair land were stunned come independence. The majority of them did not receive the demobilization pays. Those that were ambitious enough to apply for civil service were confronted by a new requirement – 5 O’ Levels. What more, they had to live with the reality till 1997, 17 years on courtesy of the laggard.

In 1995 he adopted the Breton Woods economic reforms. These gave him and his henchmen the opportunity of cashing in on the sale of some parastatals. Because the reforms did not bring about the desired pomp, he later blamed the institutions for misleading him into adopting the reforms. As a leader, he needed to have the vision to foresee that the reforms may not work. But being the laggard that he has always been, he waited for the dreadful results- unemployment, company closures, etc.

Come 1996 he coerced Anglican Archbishop Patrick to wed him to his ex-secretary whom he had snatched from her own hubby Simon Goreraza while his own Sally was still alive. They to date have three toddlers of school-going age whom he still want to bring up with state funds yet claims that people are requesting him not to step down.

You can fool some people sometime yet you cannot fool everyone every time. Things suddenly commenced falling apart for rwavhi in 1997. The war veterans demanded their loot promised in the 1970s. He gave in and paid them with the result that the local currency took a heavy knock as the disbursements had not been budgeted for.

In the coming year he undertook to defend a little known rebel in the DRC further putting strain on the fiscus. Come harvesting time in the DRC, the laggard was upstaged by South Africa. The latter quickly invested in the mining and communications sector with Zimbabwe acting as a pendulum- work done at the end of the day equals zero.

A western-influenced leader, he had no intention whatsoever to take farms, yet with the rise of the MDC in 1999 (just two months after Nkomo’s death), he resorted to land redistribution as his last meal ticket as he had failed dismally to deliver on all the other fronts- human rights, democracy….etc. It was only in 1998 when Chief Svosve of Marondera who had seized a neighboring farm with his subjects in protest to Rwavhi Mugabe’s unfulfilled promises was violent removed by the police.

There you are. That’s your laggard’s balance sheet. Yet one Zanu maniac recently told me that we are now free since we can walk in First Street in Harare, Smith was just bad. We are now ruled by one of us. Sure! Whereas we had become prone to pointing at the tattered dress of our erstwhile imperialists, one wonders why we shall smile when our own paterfamilias elect to walk naked in the street! Mugabe was never heard done by anyone. The man built for himself a throne of bayonets on which he does not want to sit. The man never learnt to be decent, humane and do things on time that’s why the country is tinkering on the brink of death. To make matters worse, he is pulling all stops to ensure that the man who wants to resurrect the country, Morgan Tsvangirai does not succeed.   
 Josephat Jirihanga Mugadzaweta/ZimGuardian