The Zimbabwe Review: Robert Mugabe

Showing posts with label Robert Mugabe. Show all posts

If Mugabe is 'the most British of all British people,' what does that say about Zimbabweanhood?

Sep 11, 2012

by Chido Makunike

All the effort expended into crafting a new constitution is at a certain level about trying to decide what values are important to us a nation in rapid transition in all sorts of ways.

For instance, which laws from the colonial era are still relevant in the new Zimbabwe we are trying to build, and which need to be discarded? Which social practices need to be protected, and which are considered so abhorrent to the society that they need to be expressly sanctioned in the constitution? How do we best balance majority sentiments, values and practices against the protection of the rights of citizens who may have minority, dissenting values?

U.K. Telegraph appoints Mnangagwa as Mugabe's successor

Apr 8, 2012

'Robert Mugabe strikes secret deal to hand Zimbabwe power to Emmerson Mnangagwa' is the kind of headline that is impossible to ignore when it appears on a news alert in your email inbox. Noticing it is from an article in the Mugabe-obsessed, generally Africa-unfriendly British Telegraph immediately reduces the newsworthiness and punch of the sexy-sounding heading. The Telegraph has had a few of what can be considered Mugabe/Zimbabwe scoops, but it has also cooked up many unlikely conspiracies and dubious stories around the person of Mugabe. The British paper makes its bitterness against Mugabe for his treatment of Zimbabwe's British-derived white farmers clear, and its main jump-off point for its Mugabe/Zimbabwe reportage. But even if this latest Mugabe story turns out to be as thin as many of the Telegraph's previous ones, the typically heavily anti-African readers' comments are sure to be revealing of a particular British mindset on the very emotional-for-them subjects of Mugabe and Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Independent in delimma over Mugabe successor

Jan 20, 2012

The Zimbabwe Independent is an important newspaper. It mostly provides a good, deep weekly read. A streak of irreverence in some of its regular columns means it is one of the few papers to occasionally knock haughty politicians off their high horses. But on the twin issues of ZANU-PF ‘factions’ and the Mugabe ‘succession issue,’ the ZimInd has a puzzling penchant for featuring shallow, content-less articles. ‘Mugabe in dilemma over successor’ is the latest of many recent examples of this inexplicable trend.

A critique of Rob Sobhani’s article, ‘Obama’s Zimbabwe moment’

Jan 15, 2012

Another Western observer of ‘the Zimbabwe crisis’ has the solution neatly figured out. Actually, for Rob Sobhani, it is merely a ‘Mugabe crisis’ and resolving it is easy. All that needs to be done is to convince Nobel Peace Prize winner, US president and famed global problem solver, one Barack Obama, to step in and wave his magic wand-problem solved. Sobhani’s astonishing, entertaining article is worth a critique.

Mugabe clings on to power, but his stature among his peers is unquestionably diminished

If who your associates and friends are says a lot about who you are and how you are perceived, President Robert Mugabe’s stature even amongst his African peers is now a mere shadow of what it once was. A man whose presence at an event or meeting used to add considerable prestige to it now has trouble getting invitations, and has few visitors. As talk of a new election heats up, he may well be able to engineer yet another controversial term, but he is clearly now increasingly barely tolerated as a relic from the past. It is a high but unavoidable price to pay for not knowing when to let go.

ZANU-PF’ ‘empowerment, MDC’s ‘more investment’ need not be seen as contradictory

Dec 28, 2011

ZANU-PF and the MDC will start 2012 with a heightened awareness that a crucial election for them and for the country is not far away, whatever the final dates will be. As the parties sell themselves to the voters, it has become clear that their visions of how to bring about an economically prosperous Zimbabwe are starkly different. But are ‘empowerment’ and ‘attracting investment’ best thought of as opposing philosophies, or as two sides of the same coin?

How Mugabe interpreted Gaddafi's fall

Dec 11, 2011

After Mummar Gaddafi’s ignominious end in Libya, attention focused on who in Africa might be next to lose power disgracefully. It was inevitable that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe would be on the short list of long-serving presidents who many speculated, and some hoped, would exit power in similar fashion. That
may have been naïve and simple minded, but it is interesting to know how Mugabe saw the demise of Gaddafi, and whether he saw any lessons for himself in it.

ZANU-PF's 2011 conference is a lost final pre-election opportunity for reinvention

Dec 6, 2011

ZANU-PF is just about to hold a conference in Bulawayo, important for very likely being the last such party meeting before the next presidential and parliamentary elections are held. It is doing so in a political environment where in many ways it is the electoral underdog against the MDC. Yet there are no signs at all that ZANU-PF is willing to deal with some of big issues that could see the party being electorally wiped out by the MDC.

Alec Russel and the Financial Times: turning tables on Rowan Williams’ tea with Robert Mugabe

Oct 21, 2011

President Robert Mugabe’s ability to stir instinctive, deep-seated anger in British hearts and minds is legendary and astonishing. He must be one of the relatively few ‘brutal despots’ who stirs far more deep-seated negative emotion in a foreign country than even in his own. An article about British Church of England archbishop Rowan Williams’ recent visit with Mugabe, featured in the (UK) Financial Times, is an interesting read on this theme, which is frequently examined on this space.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what do those of Rowan Williams and Robert Mugabe together say?

Oct 20, 2011

Church of England boss Rowan Williams was recently in Zimbabwe to encourage the faithful at a time of a difficult split within the local church. A highlight was also his meeting with President Mugabe, to ask him to use his ‘good offices’ to prevent what is seen as state support or sympathy for one of the feuding church factions. How did it go?

Richard Branson, Jonathan Moyo, Gideon Gono and the hare brained scheme to bribe Robert Mugabe out of power

Oct 15, 2011

by Chido Makunike

US diplomatic cables released to the public by Wikileaks show that well-known British businessman Richard Branson was one of many who pre-occupied themselves with how to ease long term Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe out of power. It adds to the increasing evidence of the unusual, astonishing interest in influencing Zimbabwean affairs by the British media, government and private individuals like Branson. What Branson’s clumsy efforts do is simply give more credence to Mugabe’s contention that neo-colonialism and preserving kith and kin interests are the main reasons for the levels of attempted British intervention in Zimbabwe, rather than any concern for ’human rights and democracy.’ Mugabe may be a despot, but on the issue of Zimbabwe, this serves as more confirmation of just how soiled are British hands.

The curious case of Mugabe’s misplaced, unrequited fondness for Britain’s Conservative Party

Oct 14, 2011

President Robert Mugabe has long been stuck on the idea that Britain’s Conservative party is somehow intrinsically better to deal with than the Labour Party. He has expressed this sentiment on a number of occasions over several years. However, the Conservatives at the head of Britain's current coalition government do not seem to hold Mugabe in the high regard he has for them.

In Zimbabwe as in Russia, rule by the Indispensable Man

Oct 4, 2011

Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin is set to get back his previous position of president in 2012, entrenching his long dominance over that country's affairs. An article about the awkward mechanics of this move was striking in how it echoes Zimbabwe's own medieval power politics.

The dangers of characterizing Zambia's election in Zimbabwean political terms

Sep 25, 2011

With the election of Michael Sata as president, Zambia continues to entrench its democratic tradition. It is impossible to ignore the contrast with the slow, reluctant moves towards a free system of elections and routine power transfer in Zimbabwe.

What Mugabe's 2011 UN speech revealed

Sep 20, 2011

President Robert Mugabe, his wife Grace and their entourage are in New York for a UN summit, the second one they have attended in as many months. Mugabe delivered a speech about the fight against non-communicable diseases which was very revealing, though not necessarily in the ways intended.

Even after Wikileaks, Mugabe still completely controls ZANU-PF leadership change process

As more U.S.diplomatic cables are leaked, the main collective response is still astonishment at the degree to which many people close to president Robert Mugabe apparently privately called for him to step down, with some even joining in half-hearted attempts to engineer that result. Lost in that astonishment is the fact that regardless of how widespread the sentiment in favor of leadership renewal in ZANU-PF was/is, the party today is no closer to getting rid of Mugabe than they were at the time most of the cables were written.

ZANU-PF leadership change before the next election: damned if they keep Mugabe, damned if they lose him

Sep 14, 2011

'Leadership renewal ' should be a continuous process in any political party. ZANU-PF in particular should have embarked on the process of 'Mugabe-renewal' ten or more years ago, when it could have been done in an orderly fashion, and without the pressure of an electoral threat from a major competing political grouping. However, having failed to carry out the process when they should have, on the eve of a major election under new rules, ZANU-PF are damned if they keep Mugabe and yet damned differently if he exits the scene now.

What did the new British ambassador to Zimbabwe tell Mugabe to make him giggle like an infatuated schoolboy?

Sep 10, 2011

After years of bad blood and counter accusations of ill intentions, relations between the governments of Zimbabwe and Britain remain poor. There is a new British ambassador in Harare. Does the delighted, ear to ear school-boyish grin of President Robert Mugabe on meeting her for the first time mean things are about to get better between the two governments?

Wikileaks cables show Mugabe outfoxed all his foes

Sep 6, 2011

The latest batch of leaked U.S.diplomatic cables provide additional proof of the continuing dominance of president Robert Mugabe on Zimbabwe's politics in general, and over ZANU-PF in particular.

Mujuru: separating the ZANU-PF factions from the media fictions

Sep 3, 2011

The late Solomon Mujuru was unquestionably a distinguished soldier of Zimbabwe's war of independence. He certainly remained influential in ZANU-PF politics long after he retired as army commander. However, after his recent death the media is struggling to back up its implication, built up over many years, that Mujuru was so super-powerful that his absence will cause a fundamental shift in the country's politics.

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