Does that make me a bad person? I know that one does not say these things in polite company. Even in less-than-polite company, I suppose. But I do wish he would die of old age and not wake up in the morning. I think it would be better for him and for Zimbabwe.
I know that these things should not be said; they should not be thought of, even. But I can’t deny that I have thought these unthinkable thoughts. Do they make me a bad person?
President Robert Mugabe swore to serve and protect his people — and to protect the Constitution of Zimbabwe. What we have witnessed, though, is a man only interested in serving himself, protecting himself and bullying those who are weaker, those with nothing. Instead of serving them, he sows fear into their lives; instead of protecting them, he continues to abuse them.
The days of Robert Mugabe the hero are long gone and may never be salvaged. He made sure of that. We said goodbye to Robert Mugabe the liberator, the hero, and hello to the villain almost a decade ago.
It is a pity, for when he is buried the words of Shakespeare will be echoed by many: “I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” When he dies, people will file past his coffin, not to mourn him but to make sure that he really is dead. He has managed to erase his good works with a series of carefully orchestrated unfortunate events. His legacy may be beyond repair.
Maybe he does not understand why his people are rejecting him, why they are turning away from the one who delivered them from their enemy. He cannot accept that his people are turning their backs on the man who gave them the best education in Africa. Perhaps he thinks that they are an ungrateful bunch that deserves to be punished. It’s possible that he believes that they should show a bit more appreciation for his struggles for them. He is like a jealous boyfriend who won’t accept that his girlfriend wants to leave him.
Maybe he thinks that because he suffered in prison, the people of Zimbabwe somehow owe him a god-like status. He served them all these years and now they want to thank him by ejecting him? I’m sure that’s pretty hard to accept, especially for an egomaniac.
If he had died in office 10 years ago, he would have been a great African hero. Had he resigned from the presidency 10 years ago, like Nelson Mandela did, he would have been a great man. If he had not seized farms the way he did, he would have been a legend. If. Unfortunately we don’t deal in “ifs”; we deal in what is. And “what is” is the disaster he has managed to turn himself into: a sorry, desperate figure that wants to take an entire country to the grave.
How can a man spit in the face of greatness the way he has? His place in the history books was assured. Now it will be there for all the wrong reasons. Is it possible for him to redeem himself? Is it possible that he is behaving this way because he believes that redemption is beyond reach anyway?
The only way he can save himself from this self-afflicted descent into the annals of bad eggs of history is if he does something unexpected. For example, if he were to resign and apologise for the pain and suffering he has caused, that would be a start.
As a black South African, it was easy for me to understand why Mugabe wanted to force the land-restitution issue. His tactics, though, destroyed any good intentions he may have had, if he had any in the first place. I am not unaware of the possibility that he used land as a means for staying in power.
Many South Africans realise that we too have a land problem that needs to be resolved before some populist leader takes it up as an issue in order to attain power. A skilled populist can use the land issue to his advantage because he will know that for the poor it is a big deal. Mugabe knew this very well.
I am not from Zimbabwe; I do not live there. In fact, I have never even been there. And so I wonder if I have the right to share my thoughts on what’s going on there. What gives me the right to wish that he dies in his sleep of old age if I am not of that country? I have friends who have told me terrible stories about the situation in Zimbabwe. Besides, the last time I checked, friends are supposed to care for what their friends care for.
The stories I hear from the people who live there cause me to have these thoughts. I wish I didn’t have them. President Robert Mugabe is a human being, even though many of his victims would beg to differ. I wish I could write a blog that would hide these thoughts. Do they make me a bad person?
KD, do not be so sensitive.MP have a right to what he says, and I think he is right. What you ommit from your piece is that where are those fools who gave this despot (bob) a standing ovation on Mbeki’s second inaugaration. Quiet diplomacy? No KD, they are busy swallowing their stupidity for making that old fool an African hero. The same will happen here in South Africa and the evil west will have to come to rescue,again. Most non white Zimbabweans, like the ever growing racist elite in South Africa like to see things through their colour-coded selective glasses only, and does’nt realise that for all to prosper, everybody must be able to compete on equal footing. This is the only way our economy will grow in real terms. We are entering an economical phase which were artificially created by overheating our economy. Lots of people will lose their freedom-gained cars and houses. Will Mbeki be blamed? No, never, its sin to voice your opinion against a “freedom-fighter” it does not matter how stupid or arrogant he is. Case in point, see the comment of “tave” made and his argument on how he feels towards mad-bob,’he gave me an education and I will be loyal forever,bla,bla,bla” Shame, does this poor man not realise that it was his right to be educated? Africa stays the champion of the blind follower, collapsing economys,racism, crime, poverty, forever nfigting and war, nepotism, neglect, ect. Africa needs God to change it, nothing else will do.
You can which whatever!! in a perfect world we all (some) wish that Uncle Bob could just leave politics now. He’s political and power drunk, in such a way that he doesnt see anyone calling Zim “My country” the way he does. More than 40% of people echo with him, Whats the use of filling pity for poor Zims? They should just be left to think & support themselves.We jst cannot be fooled.
The only arrogant thing about your ‘opinion’ Mr. Dlanga is your criticism on Mothibi Phosa’s comment. Unfortunately, when it boils down to the ‘making sense’ stakes, it certainly fares better than yours. Maybe your purpose is to be just arrogant, irrespective of opinion or lack of it thereof.
Food for thought: if Mr. Brown and Mr. Bush were to be opposed to the abolishment of ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ policy in our (SA) land redistribution program, and consequently pull out the much needed foreign investment in SA, WOULD YOU WISH CAPITAL DEMISE FOR Mr. ZUMA, for what is an ANC stance? Or would your arrogannt and devilish wish be targeted to those Africans, whom for centuries had been deprived of their natural right to the land of their forefathers?
You’re right for wishing he was dead, the man is a hazard to humankind, I too wish he was dead, but I’m not ashamed or conflicted about it.
String him up!
What I find so farcical is that there was no shortage of “volunteers” to conduct a “Liberation” Struggle against the “evil” Rhodesian Government that so cruelly oppressed the people with land, jobs, health care, schooling, food etc.etc. A liberation struggle that basically amounted to murdering unarmed innocent civilians in their rural homes and killing and mutilating their livestock. An armed “Struggle” that saw the brave liberation “heroes” running like rats when they encountered the Rhodesian security forces – I know, I was there.
Now the people in Zimbabwe cannot get rid of Mugabe? one ruthless dictator with a small inefficient army that hasn’t seen “action” since murdering innocent unarmed civilians in the early 80′s in Matabeleland.
All that tells me is that the so-called “Liberation” struggle in Zimbabwe was nothing more than a heavily Chinese sponsored annexation of the region using clowns like Mugabe as a “Leader” and unwitting Zimbabwean blacks as cannon fodder to play on the sympathies of the West.
Now the ZANU-PF beneficiaries are bleating that they will rather eat the soil than give up their land. Amazing logic this – take over a perfectly viable farm that is not only producing enough local food but export crops as well, reduce it to barren desert and then starve and die on it at age 35 so that it can be colonised again.
There can be doubting the Chinese agenda in Southern Africa starting with Mugabe and the so-called “liberaton” struggle was nothing more than a terrorist war against the people of Zimbabwe using the same tactics to place him in power that Mugabe still uses to stay in power to give the illusion that Zimbabwe was a sovreign nation when it was nothing less than a Chinese foothold in Southern Africa.
Finally what good did Mugabe ever do? He was a terrorist then and he is still a terrorist now. He’s just run out of white people to blame.
Cynic, i think you an idiot who can never repent.
This is exactly the very same attitude(intransigence) that has brought us to where we are today; failure to acknoweledge others as human beings.
If you are talking about war, i was there too, I saw helicopters brought down by bazooka rockets from our “comrades” in Rhodesia then.We were proud of them then even though now they have turned into the infammous war veterans. What i also witnessed first hand were bombs dropped onto houses with innocent civilians in them by the infamous “sledge” fighter of the Rhodesian army. I know so because my niece whom i had talked to that afternoon back in 1979 is lying in mass grave in Zimbabwe as we speak.It still hurts so dont even go there.She is one of many.
Anyone in the face of enemy firepower might run for dear life(like rats you say). So your argument is neither here nor there. Enough of your clap trap, at least even if we hate Mugabe’s guts, he gave us our humanity back. Dont you dare denigrate the liberation struggle because you lose the point completely, it was more than hardware but spirit! Its the spirit that finally defeated Ian Smith.You are just a rather presumptous prick. Has anyone told you of “concentration camps” called “keeps” that we black Africans were hoarded and kept in my Ian Smith? Since you were there you must know. Lets move forward and build a better Zimbabwe without people like yourself thumping their noses at us giving a snorty holier than thou attitude. Bottom-line, after these elections, Zimbabwe will never be the same again, and that’s what we want.
Just a reminder that evil knows no boundaries, respects no religion, is indifferent to race, ethnicity, social class, etc; the Mugabes of this world are pretty tame compared to the genocidal disasters of our world. The disasters continue unabated in the present neglect, starvation, and poverty afflicting billions, all under the benevolence of many a world leader. Mugabe is a monster, an angel too, as was Smith and many of the colonial (white) overlords, in Zimbabwe, South Africa and elsewhere. Clearly our hearts sink whenever our fellow-humans suffer from their kind. But we may find succor in Arendt’s famous adage, ‘the banality of evil’. each and everyone of us, priest, villain, lord and serf, Jew and gentile, Christian or Muslim, African or European, is capable of acting in evil ways- with sufficient persuasion and justification. We can all be bought under the right circumstances. That is the reason we keep asking ‘how could we’? when the Rwandas, Darfurs, Iraqis, Palestines, Hiroshimas, slavery, colonialism, etc., smoulder and take significant tolls on fellow humans. Ultimately, we convince ourselves that we can do no evil- only others are capable of evil. Sadly, the carnage continues, and the Mugabes of this world are part of a long process of infamy and debauchery; they will not be the last!!
@Faraway
Good comment.
The U.S. is arguably the most prosperous nation on earth, shipping food aid to starving millions all over the world. Yet less than one percent of the U.S. population owns any farmland or is involved in farming activities. This percentage has been dropping steadily for the past 100 years or more.
As to the welfare and prosperity of a nation, it simply does not matter what proportion of the people own the farmland, or who owns the farmland, even less the race of the people who own the farmland, or whether such ownership represents the ‘demographics’ or not.
What is important for the welfare of the individuals within a nation is that the agricultural sector functions productively and prodigiously.
For this to happen requires management and capital to successfully mobilize energy resources on a very large scale, rather than millions of farmers each working a small plot.
@ Isaac
I don’t take exception with your piece other than to say that many of us don’t want to ‘repent’ as you put it. We don’t think we have done anything wrong. we have been sold out by those that have put political correctness over practicality and reason.
People like me believe in doing what is best for the people, and sometimes that also means understanding that the people don’t know what is best for them.
Ian Smith had the full support of (many / most/) of the tribal leaders, and offered that they have a veto over all decisions taken in parliament. He advocated that they were more reflective of the opinion of the people, through the traditional African decsion making processes, as opposed buying the rubbish that terrorists such as Mugabe serve uo, at the behest of the do gooders.
To be honest, what would have been better, a combination of Smith and the Tribal chiefs, or Mugabe, who has destroyed the country?
If Smith had been black, who would have been better, Smith or Mugabe?
If it takes one man to injure the whole country then Mugabe was the only man representing his Nation “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Merely Mugabe’s objectives were to transform his country and lets see how many organizations have actually tried todefy him? Remember he was hailed by Africans as a hero of the fight for independence and a highly educated leader. Why would it take decade to overthrow this man if his been seen as a malice to siciety of Zim? Was he so much of a dectator that the entire society was so timid by his protocols? Come on South Afrcans! As much as we rejoice over his defeate the Zimbabweans were his caretakers. Now that Morgan Richard Tsvangirai have managed to oppose him we slander Mugabe.
All we wish for is reformation of Zimbabwe and i’m 100% behind Morgan and thus have nothing against the old man (Mugabe) remember when Morgan was assualted by the Police in March 2007, did the Nation find Mugabe as the perpetrator? No they still thought he was serving his country in a proper way and still Morgan had few followers who believed in his charter which proves that in the eyes of Zimbabweans Mugabe was a true; Noble President…Big ups for Morgan…his done a massive jon!!!Aluta…
The world, and specifically Africa, needs more black journalists like Khaya Dlanga to express their views in the media of all countries. If white journalists expressed the same views, it would be dismissed by all leaders as “another white racist attack”.
Hopefully our “leaders” like Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and their cronies in parliament will read this article and take it to heart. Hopefully South Africa will then not become a second Zimbabwe. As matters stand right now, we are well on our way to suffer that same doom.
Thanks for a great blog.
What a privilege to receive a special response from a blogger!
Anyway, to engage in the marketplace of ideas, one should have a thick skin. There are no sacred cows, and we must be humble enough to accept that nobody (you and I included) knows it all.
With reference to your last comment, I (Mr Phosa) refer you to the paragraph that kicks off with “On a serious note” until the end of my submission. I’m sure other readers will appreciate your opinion in relation to this section of my “kindergarten stuff”.
Thanks are due to Luzuko Gongxeka for adding another dimension to the debate.
Haiwa Tigere writes, “What Khaya said has been felt by a lot of us for years but never dared to say it.”
Who is “a lot of us”? I assume (subject to correction) you include Zimbabweans on both sides of the political spectrum, MDC and Zanu-PF and the independents! How “ironic” that some of them would then go on to vote for Mr Mugabe? Are they “docile” as Fred Khumalo “suggested” in his column?
Haiwa, if Mr Mugabe has lost the elections, he must exit the stage and let other players strut their stuff on the stage. Hero or zero? Responding in monosyllables is very dangerous. Suffice to echo the sages: “There’s some ‘good’ in the worst of us and some ‘bad’ in the best of us.”
What is necessay during debates like this is some little bit of context, especially from the person who initiates the debate.
By the way, did we just wake up one day to find a monster called Mugabe? Did we (Zimbabweans and the rest of humanity) create him? Even the best of us can become monsters over a period of time. A word of caution to all of us, there will not be any “messiah” in Zimbabwe or anywhere else in the world. Let’s not create any demi-gods lest we get disappointed. Mr Tzvangirai, if he takes over the reigns, would still be faced with land, poverty and other issues that currently bedevil Zimbabwe. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. It’s very easy for us to criticise. The forces at play are so huge that for African leaders it’s not easy being at the helm. You’re indebted to so many people, in particular, the west.
Zimbabweans, South Africans, SADCs, Africans and the rest of humanity should join forces and help reconstruct Zimbabwe lest history judges us terribly.
As a Parthian shot, I want to say that pointing fingers and clamouring for Mugabe to be taken to the gallows would not help us. After all, he’s one of us: humanity.
You’re a woosh! How can you wish for him to die in his sleep? I wish he endures the same fate as Marie Antoinette did on 16 October 1793 or Nicolae Ceausescu on 25 December 1989. And I sincerely wish it is a family deal with Grace included. I’m sure this evil witch influenced him severely while she was spending Zim’s GDP on her shopping trips.
Isaac Nyambiya, Cynic & Ntombizonke Mehlomakulu, you all have points from your own perspectives.
However, it matters not whether your/our perspectives are valid or not, it matters only that our country/region and all of its citizens are prosperous and safe.
As an African I have learned that race (skin colour) is of no relevance for the future of Southern Africa. Our brothers whose ancestors arrived here in boats, our brothers who walked here and our brothers who were born on this soil and hold citizenship in SA or Zim are Our Brothers.
Mugabes attack on Farmers who have been living on farms for many generations is wrong. The distribution of land to all, as per the (South African) Freedom Charter is important, but not important enough to starve the children for.
Mugabe has proven that he is a racist and although he had a part in ending the rule of Smith and his supporters, he has not done anything to better the lives of the average Zimbabwean. In fact, life in Zimbabwe is, from the perspective of life and death, much worse. Whats the point of being liberated and then being shackled by hunger?
We in South Africa have to learn to forget the crazy idea that we can use a human organ to clasify people (Skin is an organ!). I am still shocked that we are required by law to segregate everything in South Africa based on the colour of a persons skin!
Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous! I refuse to have anyone acknowledge my race as I am an Africa and if I dont set this example, we are forever going to drag the effects of our past with us.
i whish the same happened to the late PW Botha long time ago.
@ Isaac,
What is a bazooka rocket and what is a “sledge” fighter? Never heard of a “Sledge” fighter and the terminology “bazooka rocket” actually exposes a lack of knowledge of weapons you’re trying to create the illusion you’re acquainted with. So while your opinion of me as an idiot is only just your opinion, the fact that you are an even bigger idiot is prominently exposed by your reference to devices that appear to exist in your imagination only.
Furthermore, some of the aircraft that the terrorists are documented to have “brought down” were 2 civilian airliners shot down with soviet supplied SAM 7 missiles after which the unarmed innocent survivors were butchered by the “brave” struggle “heroes” – Damn! – gunning down unarmed civilians with automatic assault rifles must surely go down in history as some of the finest, most incredibly courageous military exploits in modern warfare. Pretty much the same as murdering and raping rural villagers and slaughtering their cattle before locking them in their huts and burning them to death, something that Mugabe’s terrorists did as a matter of course and which he perpetuated in Matabeleland.
Admittedly there were other, military aircraft shot down in the war, more by luck than design I would say, but these incidents are documented in a variety of wartime records and publications. It still doesn’t detract from the fact that it was a terrorist war that for the most part was waged by murdering cowards against unarmed civilians.
Liberation struggle – my hairy arse, it was nothing but a terrorist war, the same as Gukurahundi was a terrorist war and the same as what Mugabe is doing now was is a terrorist war using terrorist tactics – once a terrorist, always a terrorist and each time the black people in Zimbabwe suffer.
As for being unrepentant – I, like so many others stayed on in Zim to contribute to making a nation of Zimbabwe, under Mugabe – until he started his most genius of economy building exercises and look where the country is now. At least I fought to prevent Rhodesia becoming what Zimbabwe is today – the so called “War veterans” fought for what?
After being routed in Rhodesia, Zambia, and Mocambique by the Rhodesian anti-terrorist forces what did Mugabe give his comrades besides a monument at Warren Hills? Twenty years after the war ended he decided, in the face of dwindling popularity to all of a sudden confiscate white land to give to blacks who didn’t know what to do with it. Anyway – I’m not going to rehash what is common knowledge. What I do however find disturbing is that people like you actually believe your own lies. First off, Rhodesians never bombed civilian houses – that is crap or the entire war effort would have revolved around the relatively simple matter of bombing civilian homes and villages instead of engaging terrorists all over the country as well as in neighbouring states.
Furthermore, How did mugabe give you your humanity? Nobody has humanity under mugabe unless you would have us believe that no employment, no food and shelter for your family, no education, no health care, no money and no fuel is an admirable level of humanity, in which case I would say that you are unhinged and certainly not even equivalent of the rather stellar comparative presumptious prick. By the way, there is nothing presumptious about what I have written, the evidence and the history is there for the whole world to see and I challenge you to give us evidence to the contrary, starting with how prosperous Zimbabwe is. So actually, it is you who is a presumptious little mtondo isn’t it?
And the “Keeps” – they were actually designated as “Protected Villages” and were established to isolate rural civilians from terrorist insurgents who would murder and rape them in the night in order to “Indoctrinate” them. These protected villages were defended against terrorists by a specially formed unit of the Rhodesian SF called “Guard Force” of whom some died protecting the villagers against terrorist attack. Concentration camps are where people die of deprivation and abuse on a massive scale – where in the history of Rhodesia under Smith is there one documented case of civilians in “Keeps” dying at all of anythinf except terrorist gunfire, let alone deprivation and abuse by Rhodesian SF – you are a pathetic liar as well as an idiot and a presumptious little mtondo.
I won’t put into a public forum what I think or feel for the so-called “Liberation” struggle except to say that for all the world to see, the only real beneficiaries of this farce have been Mugabe and his cronies which include a crowd of pointless teenaged thugs.
Before I close, let me remind you in your so very obvious and blinkered stupidity that Zimbabwe is being re-colonised – wipe your eyes out and see, because when you finally do catch a wake up you will be learning how to say “Baas” in Chinese if they let you live long enough.
Finally your logic is one dimensional, delusional, myopic and actually quite entertaining in it’s pure stupidity – Comrade – What was your “chimurenga” name – “Comrade Ngodoi” or “Comrade Gary Ngwena” I believe it must have been Comrade “Wapenga”
Don’t forget – Pamberi ne Mugabe, Pasi ne Smith, Pamberi ne Jongwe, VIVA!!! VIVA!! PAMBERI !!!
Twat !!
I can’t quite bend my head around some of the comments below, that have praised the ‘forced removals’, but ‘down with Mugabe’. Though its probably a fair position for any black-black who sees their status in society through the colonial veil.
To all those bleeding heart optimists who do not think ‘removals’ will play out in SA. Get your head around what black-black people really want from their politicians in respect to white ownership of productive agricultural land. The tide is rising!
to M. Phosa ( does Mathews translate to Mothibi?!?! ha haa!)
anyway, even Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Mobutu, etc were “after all: one of us”…. but wont u wish they were never born?!
Can anyone Please explain the following parliamentary voting results:
Total votes: ……..2 421 973
Zanu-PF : ……..1 110 649
MDC (Tsvangirai):….1 036 696
MDC ( Mutumbara):…. 206 739
Other :….. 67 889
Seats:
MDC (Tsvangirai):….. 99
Zanu-PF :….. 97
MDC (Mutambara):….. 10
Jonathan Moyo :….. 1
Why after so many years of misery does Zanu-PF
still remain the single biggest party?
Mothibi – Mugabe is not human. Have you ever seen a man of his supposed age looking so good? He doesn’t look older than 50 – and that my friend is the work of pure evil… He feeds on the blood of innocents!
Let’s talk straight here – I’d be happy to stick the knife in ‘Robber’ Mugabe’s back myself. Why fuss about with any more ‘diplomacy’ when there are children dying of hunger? If you are not against the tyrant you are standing with him, right Mbeki? A war has been raging in that country for some time anyway. Do everyone a favour and march the fat, useless SA army in there and remove him from power. As head of the security council is it not your DUTY to take proper action now? I wonder if there is someone who dresses Mbeki in the mornings and tells him which suit to wear because clearly the man has a problem making decisions… I mean how many time must this crazy old man slap him in the face? It has really become embarrassing!
The scary thing is I doubt killing of the old Mampara is going to make much difference another Zanu PF clone will simply rise in his place. Who’s that chap who played fiddle while Zim’s economy burnt – Simba M? He is still Zanu isn’t he? The fat cat elite will very quickly find a new ‘leader’ at the trough. Did the assasination of Verwoerd stop apartheid? No. The people of Zim may need to rise up and make the country ungovernable. But you can’t run a revolution on an empty stomach. I would donate money for them to buy food and guns. Enough is enough now! War would mean bloodshed but I’d rather go out fighting than starve slowly and watch my children die of dysentry.
I hope for all our sakes that Mr Zuma has more backbone and won’t deny the existence of poverty, of crime, of a human rights debacle in Zim, of HIV/Aids, of a power crisis… Have I left anything out? If he will actually listen to those around him and take action I can forgive him a bit of creative accounting, really I can!
Mbeki’s stubborn pride and his desire to ‘stick it to’ the old colonial powers have severely clouded his judgement here. Why should ancient ‘struggle’ credentials continue to keep Mugabe in power? Clearly he has done nothing but feed off his people since independence.
NO! NO!
Mugabe must NOT die….He must live so that he can be held accountable…in the International Court In the Hague Where he belongs……AND which HE and his assistants are very afraid of.
They dont want to go there!
When you have no job and depend on the government for food like the majority of the rural Zimbabweans, merely surviving (ie voting for the person who promises to give you food) takes precedence over any moral or ethical choice.
Mugabe is basically using food as ransom. Zanu PF jingles on the radio (the primary form of communication) were literally non-stop “If you want food, vote Zanu PF”.
Hear hear cynic
He must die, I don’t even know why there’s even an argument over this!Khaya he may have seemed like a hero but he never was one,it may be hardly spoken of or remembered but whilst educating some he killed many NDEBELE people.He must die!
@ charity
i dont think you are4 normal person, how can u wish someone to die. Mugabe is a hero
@ Vonani,No Comment
As a true african you have the right to feel the way you feel.Your brothers enermy is your enermy. And Mugabe is a disgrace to Africa as whole. After a good start he turn to hook and crook to stay in power. Hope we never witness another Kenya style. Africa is a rich content but we are poor because of our greedy governments teaming up with foreign countries.
@ Vonani
For you he may be a hero, but for most he is a villain.
If he was white and did what he has done for the people of Zimbabwe would he be a hero or a racist oppressor? (when you have answered that you will know that you are a racist idiot)
@ Vonani
You are willing to excuse that he has tormented, abused, robbed and failed millions of black Zimbabweans, just because he screwed 4000 whites!
@ amused reader
i dont want to call you out of order but you must understand that Cde Mugabe was doing well, the reason why he failed is necessary beacuase of baboons british and americans. Mugabe deserve another chance to rule the country. and mugabe is the fighter of freedom not tsvhangarraai.
Please correct me if i have crossed the bridge, Mr Robert Mugabe is a very cruel monster, infect i will say he carrires a false picture of being a hero to others. You know again i think he is correct to behave this way in order for the outside world to understand him because if goes quietly then we will not know how bad he is.
@ Vonani
Wake up from your dream man! I must understand, that is a bit rich, given the circumstances! I am not going to call you the baboon, bit if you think the cap fits!
People like you are the reason that Africa is such a f*ck up! (Calm down amused reader, be rational, explain it slowly, the man is clearly an idiot).
So here, step by step:
1. Mugabe deserves another chance? Why would that be then? Is 28 years not enough? A third of the population has left because life is unbearable, you have the world highest inflation rate, Zimbabwe cant feed itself and relies on aid from the (baboons)British and Americans, life expectancy has fallen from the highest in Africa to the lowest, the economy is in tatters. What else are you hoping he will achieve?
2. Mugabe is the freedom fighter, not Tsvangerai. Oh well, that settles it then. No matter that the ‘liberation struggle’ ended 28 years ago. I would humbly suggest that what Zimbabwe needs is a leader who can drag it out of the mess of Mugabe’s making, not some machine gun wielding terrorist. (take not Mr Zuma)
Let me tell you a story about the baboon British. In WWII Britain faced unsurmountable odds fighting against Nazi Germany, and before the Americans joined the war, one of the world greatest leaders, Winston Churchill lead the British people, ultimately, and with much help to an amazing victory, and guess what, at the next election he was voted out. Not because he wasn’t a brilliant war time leader, he was a hero to the people, they just realised that you need different qualities in wartime leaders and peacetime leaders, just as boxers have different qualities from chefs.
3. Are you really so stupid that you believe that the mess that is Zimbabwe is of Britain and America’s making. Even if this were true, and it most certainly isn’t, what kind of leader is Mugabe if he can’t manage his country because Tony Blair was calling him names and keeping his pocket money?
We all know what screwed up Zimbabwe. Apart from the cronyism and corruption, which would have eventually done for the country, Mugabe took the largest single industry in the country, stole the assets of the highly skilled and extremely productive owners, many of whom had bought there land under his rule, and with his approval, having paid property tax to him, and handed them over to a bunch of crooks/baboons?/war vets, who knew bugger all about farming and guess what, no food, no jobs, no wages, no economy.
@ amused reader
i think you should go an consult the pshychologist so that you can understand that mugabe hew did well and only baboons from briotain was trying to disturb him.
@ vonani
You say “i think……”
Do you honestly?
@ amused reader
yes i am honest.
Vonani this is probably getting very very boring for everyone else. I haven’t yet decided if you really are this stupid, or are just trying to wind me up by pretending to be. For your sake i hope it is the latter, but i fear the former.
Your English isn’t that great (but i am sure it is not your first language so there is no shame in that). When i say do you honestly?, i was asking the question do you think? not are you honest? I ask the question because your comments don’t actually show much thought at all.
Having visited your personal website i have some idea of the problem.
You are a snotty nosed 20 year old that has grown up in a country that has never know Aparthied in your lifetime (you were 6 in 94). You have been afforded every advantage because you are black and now are studying for a BA. You clearly didn’t get on the course a result of intelligent comment, so as as a tax payer i feel somewhat defrauded that my money can’t produce anything better than you. It does not bode well for our ‘skills shortage’ and i wouldn’t let you within 100m of any business i own.
You have no idea what it must be like to live in Zimbabwe and have almost certainly never been there, but because of you political affiliations, and that fact that you think Mugabe has got one over on us white folk, you would like him to stay a little longer. You off course have food, housing, and education, so cant relate to what the Zimbabwean people are actually going through.
As part of your studies, maybe you should be made to go and live there for 3 months, then we can talk again.
amused reader
I you watched Carte Blanche on MNET sunday night
you will understand why people like vonani Chauke react like they do.
The commies were masters in misinformation and
found eager students in Africa.
@ Cool Down
Indeed.
I did see the programme, i also spent 3 weeks in Zim last year. have you read Ian Smith’s book. It should be compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand how Africa got in this mess.
As usual, the idiot reporter who made the first film couldn’t work out that it was idiots like himself who were fundamental in bringing Mugabe to power, and those that he had been so quick to judge had been right all along.
Of all the quotes he could have used for Smith he used a sound bite, out of context to paint the man as a racist and an idiot, he was, IMHO, neither.
to amused reader you are talking nonsese now. this is not similar with the topic. are you here to check who is intelectual or not. i think you are suffering from debate direction or debate starvation.
@ Vonani
Lets recap.
You said: Mugabe is a Hero (april 9th, 12:48)
I say : To you maybe, but to most he is a Villan.
(April 10th, 13:47)
You Say: Mugabe deserves another chance, it is not his fault but the baboon British and Americans, & Tsvangarai cant be in charge because he was never a freedom fighter
I say : (A lengthy reasoned argument about why your comments don’t make sense) April 10th 14:25
You say: I need to see a psychologist, and that Mugabe has done well and that it is the Baboons from Britain that disturb him (April 11, 20:14)
(This really isn’t the sort of reasoned argument i would expect from a BA student at university, but rather a 9 or 10 year old. You offer no rebuttal of my points, no supporting argument for yours, and offer insults and refer to the British (of whom by the way I am one) as Baboons). If i called you a Baboon it would be racist would it not?
I Say: Do you honestly think?
You say : Yes I am honest (which doesn’t answer my question, which in any case was an attempt to get you to justify your arguments, rather than just to proffer insults.)
I say: (I explain what i meant in case you don’t understand, suggest that your debating style is not what i would expect from a BA student, ask a few questions, and probably, to be fair, offer a few insults, which you probably deserve, but maybe TL isn’t the place for them)
You say: (what exactly did you say? It didn’t make any sense in English, maybe you can post it in your own language and someone else can translate?)
Can you answer me:
1. Have you ever been to Zimbabwe?
2. Why you think Mugabe is a hero?
3. Why you think he should be given another chance?
If you want to post on a column such as this you are expected to offer at least some substantiation for your point of view?
Yes Mugabe is nothing but an imperfect human being,like the rest of us. I take my hat off to him for the little good he has done for the people of Zimbabwe(i.e esp the scholarships he has given and the many thousands he has given to each scholar studying in S.A, psss…idont know how Morgan missed out). i think it is time for him to step down however Zanu PF should win the election. MDC winning would mean that Zimbambwe will be Micro-managed by the Brits.
i feel that Zimbambwean living in South Africa have turned their backs on their own country and most i’ve met are ungrateful unpatriotic lot, but are quick to put the blame on our South african government for not helping.I think South Africans are ready to help, but How can we help, if Zimbabweans do not want to help themselves. Go HOme and Serve your Country!!!!!!
As for him dying…Well i wish otherwise, i wish he’d live and see the fruit of his investments return Home and being Patriotic and serving their Country
@amused reader
yes i am staying there. Mugabe is a hero coz he is a freedom fighter.
You Mugabe sympathisers know very well that if this old fart were white, youd find a voice and perfect oppurtunity to play your racism / colonialism card …
get the hell out of here with this hero worship garbage ..
is Zimbabwe a world class 1st world country …?
uuuh no..!
I rest my case …I think thoughts of his impending trip to hell when he crosses over should be encouraged and openly discussed
people who think that mugabe must die for Zim to come right show little or no understanding of what is going on north of our border.
so you think, and want us to think Bob woke up and decide to be a nsty piece of work.how stupid ypu must be and want us to be. you have allowed yourselves to be brainwashed by the west and want us to follow suit. believe what you want and let see find our own truths, there are always two sides to any circurmstance and for you guys to want us to see Mugabe as a baddie is just plain asuming. if there were not any white person;d interest involved than you wouldn’t give two hoots about Zim, it owuld be just another thing perculiar to Africa.
To us, Africans who do not deny our land and blood, Mugabe’s dignity remains in tact. If this is such an evil man…and evil men we have seen in our live, why do Zimbabweans keep voting for him, ohh I know what you say to that he rigged the elections, now really. That country is Zimbabwe and belongs to Zimbabweans,not Europe and America…and if Mbeki told bush to butt out out of Zim , I believe he left it too late. you go on about how, if he did, Mbeki should not have done that , you are so used to taking crap from these superiorist pigs from US and Russia, one would think Mbeki insulted God looking at the reaction. That is what is engrained in your minds, blacks can’t thnk.. the whites must do that for us…pleasse
Moafrika
You can’t be living in SA! You would know that the most outraged are the blacks about what is happening to their fellow blacks.