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?
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95 Responses to “Sometimes I wish Mugabe were dead”
His wife could do us all the favor;) The most dangerous enemy is the one who makes coffee in the morning..ok, thats what my mother told me, but my father is still alive and well. eh..cough.
I have been to Zimbabwe, and i doubt you would have left feeling any more benevolent towards ‘Uncle Bob’.
I just hope that South Africa can gain some understanding of the ‘land issue’ as a result, and not be tempted to go the same route, legally or otherwise.
Yes history teaches over and over again, power corrupts so no one should be allowed more than two terms - be they Black, White, Male Female etc.
As to Magabe’s land program being for the benefit of the landless that is simply not true. I was in Zim in 2000 just after the land grabs had started and read through a glossy brochure published by the Dept of Agriculture the year before laying down the next 5 year plans. This official document had not one page, not one paragraph not even one line on farm restitution as Govt policy. But as soon as Magabe lost the referendum (late 1999 or early 2000?)it suddenly became policy.
Everything Magabe has done the past 8 years is logical and rational; he is simply holding onto power by the only way he knows best and being praised by most of Africa’s ruling elite.
As a white Zimbabwean living everywhere but home since the 70s it is refreshing to read such an enlightened black African’s views. If Africa had more people like you I would be one of the first to return. Unfortunately leaders like Mugabe make me look like a racist and you like a savage. Why do the Africans, both white and black, accept such despots and dictators as is the norm rather than the exception today?
Take good care of yourself as such enlightened attitudes usually end up dead in today’s Africa.
Quite the opposite, in this case it makes you a good person. And you are by no means the only one to think and even verbalise these toughts.
The problem comes in with his henchmen who want to remain in a position of power and privilege after his never-ending slumber begins.
You’re not a bad person at all. I shudder to see these examples of fellow african leaders destroying their countries and causing absolute hell for their ppl. and blaming the west just isn’t enuff these days.
I also wish the old goat could trip on his laces and bump his head or something pleasant like that.
“President Robert Mugabe is a human being, even though many of his victims would beg to differ.”
That one sentence sums everything up. People can argue that Hitler, Stallen, Lenin, Sadam and many other people can argue that they were only human, but they did great evels, killing and maiming the people who putted them there, just because their godlike ego said it is ok. Espasually one can see this in Africa. Life is worth nothing here.
No it does not make you a bad person.I don’t think there is anyone out there who does not wish the man were dead.I wish he would just not wake up tomorrow.During the process of these elections I thought things were about to change.I started to have hope yet again and now that hope has just been dashed by Mugabe and his attempt to cling to power.I wasn’t even born when he became President and now I’m turning 26 this year and he’s still the President!!!Sometimes I wish some of my people believed in meeting 12 virgins on the other side and just take him with them!
I’ve thought this for some time but not dared to say it out loud. Having never wished anyone to die in the past, this man passes the threshold. In a sense there is no other way, no-one has been able to persuade him to leave gracefully , he remains a massive thorn in the side of his ravaged people, and long after he does die, the pain will still be felt. Well done for voicing this sentiment.
Khaya for President on April 7th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
No, it doesn’t. Mugabe is an embbaresment to the African people and needs to put down.
However, i hope your not arguing against repossesing the land. I agree with great certainty that the forced removal of the invaders (white farmers) is a noble cause for which South Africans should strive to emulate. However, Mugabe did it for the wrong reasons and therefore Zimbabwe is faced with food shortages. Long live forced removals. Down with Mugabe.
Hey,for me these are just not what we need as a nation, the did everything he did,Im sure because he thought he serving his people not himself.You are not God, Who are you to judge Another person like you.
No you’re not a bad person; you just have a bad thought.
Rather wish that truth prevails & mad Bob is Nixoned. Remember, Richard Nixon was impeached for his role in “Watergate” (the mother of all “gate” scams): trying to ensure his re-election.
Pardoned by Ford, he lived out his remaining years in shame and ignomy. His good work (he got US out of Viet Nam, opened the door to China, etc) was largely overshadowed.
Allan Boesak suffered the same fate. A truly great liberation hero (like Mugabe) his greed undid him (like Mugabe).
To coin a pun, we SAfricans see everything in black & white and forget that there is grey and that, like our spouses and kids, good people can do bad things (and bad people can do good sometimes, too)
I am no friend of Mugabe, but it is not polite/proper/kind to wish for anyone’s death. I don’t like traffic cops, would it be still acceptable if I wish for their demise (this is an obvious exaggeration), the point is where do you draw the line on the wishing of death part. Do I think he (Mugabe) can redeem himself?No. What do I then privately wish for? I wish someone in his camp could stop and say “the people do not want you as a president anymore, please for the sake of the country accept their wishes”, this might not happen as everybody is looking out for number one.
I know a story in which cops picked up two guys who had not gone to a Zanu Pf rally.They marched them to the police station where the cops then said, “These people insulted the president”- a crime that carries a jail sentence. I wonder actually what they would say if they read this article. A person wishing death on the president. Regicide, is that not what they call it?
Reminds me of yet another story…Two brothers were in a taxi. They couldn’t agree on something and one of the brothers said, in teasing tones, “don’t be stubborn like Mugabe!” Unfortunately there was a policeman or police informer… He instructed the driver to detour into a police station where the offending person was arrested…
I honestly do not believe that Mugabe is doing everything by himself. He is just a face of a much bigger organisation. I do believe he had good intentions but his execution was all wrong, no good leader can stand by while his people are suffering.
On the other hand, I have been told on good authority that the Zim in the media is different from the actual Zim. Why are there so many people still voting for him? makes you wonder doesn’t it?
Fourteen paragraphs of nothing but ‘bla, bla, bla’ is all you show for, after having such attention-grabing wish. Do you equate such to good journalistic instincts?
Here is a Mahala advice for your benefit, sir: if you don’t have anything better or worser (for that matter) to wish for, then STOP WISHING. I was hoping to hear reasons of considerable substance as to why a young man such as yourself would wish death upon a distinguished gentleman or otherwise, such as Mr. Mugabe.
Since I cannot prescribe what you should or should not wish for, the least you can do is to have the decency to attach concrete reasons for us not to think of you as a monster, for wishing death on Mr. Mugabe for alleged deficiences of his presidency.
“However, i hope your not arguing against repossesing the land. I agree with great certainty that the forced removal of the invaders (white farmers) is a noble cause for which South Africans should strive to emulate. However, Mugabe did it for the wrong reasons and therefore Zimbabwe is faced with food shortages. Long live forced removals. Down with Mugabe.”
What are the “right” reasons for forced removals, and how does the intention remove the consequence (ie how does the “right” reason for throwing farmers off the land eliminate food shortages)?
I wish Slobadan Milosovic was dead, wait he is, because white people could be bothered to stand up to this doos and he died in the Hague been tried for been a monster… unfortunately if anyone did anything to old Rob they would be racists or coconuts, makes you think doesn’t it… that old race card better than a royal flush in most situations…
You are not bad person but a person who can see the realy truth i think it is a high time for mugabe to go home now and enjoy his old age.He has done alot to Zimbabwe but i also think it is time for people in that country to see someone else being their presedent.
How deep in the sand is your head when you state ‘he thought he was serving his people not himself ‘ The only thing he has served his people is misery hunger,ignorance and death . I suppose you also think the earth is flat .
I dont think Mugabe alone dying would make much of a difference. Have you thought about people like Chivengwa, Shiri and Chihuri? Remember these are the people who would make sure Mugabe does not die and if he really did die, they would make sure a coup happens. In my mind, all the so called War Veterans should just disapper from each for us to start all over again. They brought us freedom yes we know but really should we owe them our freedom?
Pleeeeesssseeeee!!!!
That does not make you a bad person at all my friend. I call you my friend even when we have not met physically. You are my friend because our minds have met here and are in agreement. It is refreshing to meet one of the few South Africans who does not only understand the Zimbabwean crises but empathises with Zimbabweans.
I am a black Zimbabwean who is still in Zimbabwe, fighting in my small way, the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe. Most Zimbabweans who are patriotic and who really understand what Mugabe is doing to our beloved country feel the same way. There are so many times when people have “manufactured” Mugabe’s death and have celebrated by sms.
I am a proud Zimbabwean who benefited a lot from Mugabe’s policies especially on education. I started school in 1981 after independence because during the war, our nearby schools had been closed. I went to one of Robert Mugabe’s “upper-tops” for secondary education and passed University of Cambridge examinations with distinctions. I went to the University of Zimbabwe using a government sholarship. Now, I am working in a government parastatal. Without Mugabe, I may never have had the education I have now. My parents are semi-illiterate and were farm (sugercane) labourers during the evil white regime.
It is therefore a bit odd that I find myself today (as I have felt since 1998) wishing that my benefactor was dead. There are many Zimbabweans in my situation… teachers, doctors, engineers etc. The reason is, we are all worried that this man is and has destroyed all that he has built. The land issue was a smokescreen when he realised that people had rejected him. The fact that we understand that Mugabe used the land issue as a smokescreen does not mean that we do not want our land, NO!
For many of us who served in our own liberation forces, as long ago as the late 1970s we could see through Mugabe and there was no love lost between our cadres and Zanu with its religious Maoist antics. Many forget the allegations that Bob calluded with PW Botha in the bumping off of Josiah Tongagara (Zims Chris Hani). Like you I’m no fan of Bob, but bumping him off wont solve anything.
A few things have emerged this week. Not enough Zimbaweans want to get rid of him nor Zanu. One would have thought that there should have been a landslide. Then it also became clear that amongst the generals and Zanu Party faithful there are many more Bobs (young and old)ready to step into the breach - some with even worse intentions. Add to this a fractured opposition, which under the circumstances are fiddling in the face of disaster, around selfish personality politics.
The future of Zimbabwe is in the hands of the Zimbabweans. All emotions aside (and I share the sentiments that change is necessary and is needed yesterday)Zimbaweans are not making it clear enough to the outside world that they seriously want a new order - and it cant all be blamed on fiddled ballots (a refrain from both sides). Mugabe could drop dead tomorrow and the same situation will prevail. That is the disconcerting thing for me. The seeds of this self-destruction were cooked prior and during the Lancaster House talks. The situatiin in Zim cries out for resolution, which requires a sobre middle ground critical mass in Zanu and MDC to forge a unity government. Presently it is depressing to see that this is still a far-fetched dream. We can but all pray that the madness will not drift rapidly to an even greater disaster. The resolution lays neither in MDC being able to chalk up a fraction more of the vote than Zanu nor it ‘taking out’ Bob. Nor even in a military invasion of Zim to establish regime change as some suggest. Only a sobre unity government, sans sabre rattlers, can do this. No brave critical mass of politicians and civil society have come forth from either side to take this route.
I tend to differ with you Mr Gongxeka, Mr. Mugabe doesnt qualify to be called ‘distinguished’ gentleman, he used to be.He is rather a self-centred and self-aggrandizing grandpa . keep it up khaya
thembani mbadlanyana on April 7th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
MBEKI IS STUPID!!!!
MBEKI IS JUST ACTING AS IF EVERYTHING IS OK IN ZIM, IT PAINS ME TO HEAR MBEKI SAYIN THAT “LETS WAIT AND SEE.. . .” SEE WHAT??? PEOPLE DYING? PEOPLE BEING KILLED? PEOPLE SUFFERING???
MBEKI IS FUELLING THE SITUATION IN ZIM, HE’S THE ONE WHO CAN MEK THINGS BETTA IN ZIM BY DECLARING THAT FOR SURE THINGS ARE BAD IN ZIM.
The reality is that he did the right thing by restoring land back to the original inhabitants. I mean 70% of the country owned by the whites is sinful. HOWEVER his madness and lack of foresight left much to be desired. He should have economically considered the implications before pouncing as vigorously as he did. Luckily we have one clever cookie Minister of Finance - Trevor Mnauel who would not be as senseless as acting in such an illigical manner.
I am proud of Zuma and him just saying that 10 years in office is enough. Zuma is proving more and more sensible by the minute. With regards his alleged transgressions, let our courts decide.
I am white and realise I live in a majority Black country. We all need to adjust to our democratically elected government and let the people decide.
Khaya you are not an evil person- now there is not a few of people who do not wish him to die in his sleep. They want him to face death in the face.they would do it themselves were they not such cowards.
How can a whole nation of able bodied but dying (aids ,hunger) men and women allow an 84 year old geriatric releave himselves on their heads at will while they become dinner for crocodiles trying to cross the limpopo to SA to beg at Park station.How can a people lie, cheat and falsify to get to the UK to become what is jokingly calle BBC (British bum cleaners). Lawyers accountants are known to be bum cleaners in the uk all running away from one man.Such cowardice is unprecidented. Have they any pride? Most Zimbabweans in the diapora look to Mbeki,Brown, Bush and one even suggested Bush send a tree hugging missile and hit one of the barracks or mugabes house. They wont be bothered to deliver themselves.
Why would mbeki who is involved in hand to hand combat with “Mchini wami” Zuma care what happens to a bunch of cowards.
Zimbabweans deserve what they get.On zimbabwean websites to a man Zimbabweans are intoleratnt to different opinions just like Mugabe. Ask Zimbabweans what they would do to homosexuals were they rulers and they will tell you to a man/woman they would string homosexuals by the short and curlies. Its just that Mugabe got to “do unto them as they would do unto others”
Witness the concensus of most zimbabweans I know on the land reform.Most black zimbabweans actually like what happened in the “redistribution” of land . They dont care what happened to the zimbabwean white farmers.The reason why Mugabe gets the rural vote is exactly that. He forcibly took land from white Zimbabweans. Thats why he is taking more land now he knows its a popular move.You will not hear many black zimbabweans moan about that except if its to bring attention to how bad Mugabe is in the western world and to appeal for even more funding.
Why else do you think the MDC is perpertually broke when 3 million of its supporters are in the diaspora earning dollars /rands /pula and pounds.why are these people not contributing to their liberation and have to wait for funds to come from australia/uk usa for MDC.
your wishes are Mugabe’s command…he has not only wished to death his detractors, but has sentenced them to life from 1984 in Matebeleland onwards. Anyway, wishing somebody to die is nothing, legal courts actually sentence people to death and have them killed, LEGALLY!!!
The reason Mbeki neither wants him out nor dead is that he fundamentally agrees with all of his strategies for land reform and the repossession of ‘black’ assets. He even sympathises with the disastrous outcomes he has had to face. You are actually out of order in wishing him dead, to a man the whole AU wants him. They also want him because he is from Zanu-PF and not MDC which is based on a union movement and what they fear the most is not a few of us quibbling whities but a whole bunch of Cosatu political wannabies.
Africa belongs to the Africans - when will you get it!
Who are you trying to please, why is it that we forget so fast, just yesterday we were not allowed to even move from province to province without “their” passes. Look closely, who owns the majority of land? You owns the economy- there same people that had/have the power to turn a great Zimbabwe to its knees in a flash of the eye. If the West and Britain were really concerned about the people of Zim, they would only punish Mugabe personally rather than sanction the whole country. The war in Zimbabwe is about who will run it between Britain and China- not President Mugabe or Tsangarai? Not all of us are blind- we have been through worse than Zimbabwe today as Africans and Mugabe has open a sensitive issue on land, people’s economy.
This edition of “In My Arrogant Opinion” is utter nonsense from an empty vessel that tintinabulates a lot.
I must admit that I’ve never read any of your articles before. But if this is the “quality” that your readers are subjected to, then I’m glad I’m meeting you by default today.
Firstly, the kindergarten stuff that you’ve written does not even qualify as an “arrogant opinion”. In fact, there’s no opinion being put forth. No facts, no opinion. Fiction? Clearly not. Nonsense? Surely!
This is lightweight stuff that warrants no serious response. The paucity of originality in your article is so pronounced that you just wasted acres of space by generating such puerile stuff.
In fact, contributions from some of your readers are even far better than yours and do shed light on what’s happening in Zimbabwe and how best to deal with the current debacle.
If you want to be taken seriously, please, produce well-research, well-orchestrated and well-written articles. Replicating what has been done to death before is quite despicable.
I know I’m not being coherent… The problem is some of us are hungry for substance and when we’re fed with garbage we just can’t take it. In a nutshell, there’s nothing concrete or new in what you’ve written. You’re just regurgitating what has been spewed by your ilk already.
Anyway, as another reader has already said, indeed I, too, dare not prescribe to you what you should or should not write about. But I dare urge you to conduct thorough researches next time before you make any pronouncements.
What a waste of precious space. Some of your readers are clearly more knowledgeable about Zimbabwean politics than you are. Unfortunately, they don’t have the privilege that you have: columns of space to express themselves.
Sir, a “journalist” must read, interrogate and not just take, as gospel truth, what other newspapers and magazines are saying. It’s not surprising that once you’ve read one newspaper you’ve read all of them.
On a serious note, are you aware of the Lancaster House deal? Do you know what Britain promised Zimbabwe as a result thereof? Did Britain honour her promise? Are you aware of an act of Parliament passed by the US to deal with Zimbabwe? I can even send you a copy of this piece of legislation passed by one superpower in order to teach a lightweight country a lesson!!!
I’m not from Zimbabwe but I’ve a lot of friends from Zimbabwe with whom I debate some of the issues that Zimbabwe is going through. It’s incredible that some of them don’t even know their history in the last 30 years!
Your article doesn’t help me argue for or against Mugabe or even help us with ideas on how to reconstruct Zimbabbwe. Emotion would not get you anywhere… Your article is deprived of either facts or opinions. How sad
Let’s Mugabe dies tomorrow, will that change anything? Unless the West re-invests in Zimbabwe, the country will remain in financial dire straits. If Mr Tsvangirai assumes the helm, Britain, US EU & Australia et al would have to invest in Zimbabwe in order to help resuscitate the country. AU, SADC and SA, in particular, would have to play a pivotal role in restoring Zimbabwe to her former glory as a beacon of hope for all of us on the continent. The cardinal sin that Mugabe committed was to think that he was independent from the West. African economies are umbilically tied to those of the former colonial masters. You bite the hand that feeds you at your own risk. That’s what the old man who has been in power for an agonisingly long period did. Anyway, how many of his ilk are milking their economies with impunity and with the blessing of countries like US, Britain, Australia and EU. Never dare ill-treat the white man because he controls the purse strings… Some enlightened debate, please. We allneed to benefit!!!
Your response to my blog was as “kindergarten stuff” as the blog. And your long comment was an even greater waste of space sir or madam.
Allow me to quote you, “This is lightweight stuff that warrants no serious response.” How ironic then that you would bother to warrant it with your response - a rather lengthy one at that too.
the people who are a wishing mugabe to died i dont believed that they lived in this world. i think it is ungodly, unjesus, unhuman, immorality. i call to delete this topic with an immediate effect.
Maybe he was good for 3 years between 1979 and 1982 when he was preaching reconcilliation. However, his systematic attacks on the opposition with the use of the 5th brigade sent up red flags in 1983 that he was no good. There was also the scandal of cars for top ZANU officials, and the way he forced ZAPU to join ZANU in 1987 when he made himself executive president. Of course, Britain and America could not afford to reveal these crimes against humanity, as they banked on Zimbabwe to be the perfect foil for Apartheid South Africa. Showing Mugabe for what he truly was would have given creedence to the National Party’s claims about black rule. Is it any wonder that as soon as the 1994 elections were over, and Mandela took the reigns, Mugabe suddenly found himself out in the cold?
Sir. I have been somewhat exposed to farming and from observations an economical and profitable farm requires considerable mechanization, technical skill, capital input and a large amount of hard work. I have worked in Malawi and from my observations there most “farms” (aside from the large tea, coffee and sugar estates are small (1 hectre plots) on which the “farmers” live and most of the work (backbreaking howing, planting and fertizing) is performed by the womanfolk.
Now why is acquiring a plot of land considered so important to black people. Do you want to go back to subsistance farming, sort of a hankering for the past or do you really want to farm. No one gets rich from farming, the risks are high and many.
Income for the masses is obtained from the economy of the cities world wide. Hence the migration of people from the rural areas to the cities. (In Germany whole rural towns are empty and in our own areas rural Eastern Cape is loosing it’s population to the big cities.
Uplifting the income of the poor will not be found in farming, but will merely entrap them in marginal production of few cattle, sheep and mielies (like I saw in Malawi). Salvation will come from education and the business opportunities of the cities.
Giving into nostalgic whims for short term political gain will not do the receipients of free farms any favours and will merely distort the economy.
To those black people who have studied farming as business, performed a stint as a farm manager, deserves FULL financial support of the government to acquire a farm (not the present R100k or so).
Otherwise we are not helping farmers and will destroy the farming economy
@Mothibi Phosa- a blog is supposed to be a captured thought trend not a scholarly article.what you wrote was a blog on a blog though you quite right- not very coherent.Khaya saw it and called it. If you want to correct him please do so with what you think are the facts.
What Khaya said has been felt by a lot of us for years but never dared to say it.
I am actually interested to know what you think should happen to Mugabe. In your opinion and if you were living under his regime- would he be a hero or zero. now 3 million zimbabweans (those with the get up and go got up and left)have voted he is a zero by leaving his regime.
What say thee?
It always amazes me how much attention a country ,whose pitifull GDP of around 3 billion dollars, seems to get from the world. What is it that drives the Browns, Blairs and Bush’s so scatty about a little backwater place that really doesn’t count at all in the greater scheme of things?
I mean how come they trade with country’s with far worse human rights abuses than Zimbabwe?
Is Zimbabwe to serve as a metaphor for forgiveness where western leaders, specifically from Australia, USA and U.K go and seek to cleanse their sins for atrocities committed in Iraq?
Don’t get me wrong I think that ZANU represents one of the most stunning failures Africa/Europe has ever created. I just don’t get why all the attention from the G5 of this landlocked backwater that frankly produces less GDP than Boksburg.
I do however understand the anxiety that Bob creates in our own country. This is logical as his populace and doomed policies that have brought his country to it knees have found huge support in our own country. Of course those that support his failure would say that it is because of western imposed sanctions, but on researching this it is just not true. His decade’s long budget deficit, his support for the war in the Congo and his rabid racism that led to the farm invasions (people mostly bought these farms after 1980) amongst others is really what created his spectacular failure. Besides sanctions are limited to government loans and ZANU official travel restricitions. As a business you can still trade with who ever you like. Unfortunately there is no foreign exchange as Bob persists on purchasing new fighter jets (to attack I don’t know who)
so you would have to raise forex through some vehicle other than the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe.
The real problem is that Mugabe has created a fascist state that created a new type of royalty made up of members of his own political party. These people have up to three farms (all for free) that don’t produce anything, have access to preferential exchange rates and discounted fuel prices to name but a few.They are above the law as was aptly demonstrated when a ministers wife had a man killed and the case against her was ordered to be dropped.
His time is up and he and his cronies realise that if the MDC comes into power it would really spell the end for the ZANU PF party. Zanu would disintegrate. They ruled by fear, well not for the entire time but certainly the past ten years and as such once the party loses the ability to drive fear and use state institutions to enforce these actions, no one will take them seriously.
Will the MDC be better?
Eight years ago I would have said I doubted it. But today I feel they are a far more mature and wise organization. They still have blabber mouths like Bitti but all in all I believe they would restore democracy, enforce the bill of rights and clean up the constitution.
Given the West’s stance the MDC remains the only party that will be able to attract foreign direct investment/ jobs and therefore be able to ensure a program of reconstruction is undertaken.
Otherwise it will just get worse. If the MDC doesn’t win this election I fear real sanctions by the West will follow and that just spells disaster and a total collapse for the Zimbabwean economy.
The effect of that on the South African economy will be huge. Whilst Britain the USA and Australia are unaffected, we will pay for Mugabe’s failure and therefore I think South Africans have a vested interest in the successful reconstruction of Zimbabwe.
Regime change, reinvestment, rehabilitation, give Zim people hope. If Mugabe wins another term will we, as concerned neighbours and friends, do anything about this? Or will we watch some more?
Despotism and misgovernance seem to be an african disease irrespective of whether the government is black or white. But then Europe had the same disease and only seem to rid itself of it after world war two. Eastern europe still suffered right up until the early nineties.
You really have the history of Zim very wrong! Mugabe, even then, was killing more blacks than Ian Smith was putting in prison.
The “war vets”, who have never been in a war in their lives, are just desperate, unemployed people.
Please use the brains that God gave you! Would any one of you abandon your life in the city, the net and your computer, to go farming as a peasant? Why do you think there are slums around all the CITIES !
I would kill Mugabe myself - if I could get close enough, and IF it would solve the problem. It wont and I can’t.
I think we should do a deal with China. Let them give autonomy to Tibet, get back the Dalai Lama, on the condition he takes Mugabe with him for rehabilitation. Just a monk’s cell for the rest of his life - with all access to books and contemplation. Can’t think of a better punishment!
Robert Mugabe is only one man, and an old one at that.
Removing him personally will not magically rid the country of a deeply entrenched Zanu PF machine, estimated to number about 5000 persons, who have enjoyed presidential patronage and other illegitimate privileges for a generation.
One of the many such privileges of the politically connected has been, for instance, access to foreign currency at the ‘official’ rate, reselling it on the black market for up to 1000 times its purchase price, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process.
Does anyone think these people will just roll over and play dead, or disappear without a fight merely because a rigged ‘election’ was miscalculated?
It is the hawks within Zanu PF who are refusing to accept the outcome of the election.
They stand to lose too much personally, and after 28years, have sense of natural entitlement to the privileges they have enjoyed for so long.
Even if Uncle Bob goes, don’t expect his ‘legacy’ to suddenly evaporate in the mist of some much anticipated new dawn.
We in South Africa should be all too aware of how ‘legacies’ from the past tend to remain long after transition to an ostensibly democratic dispensation has been achieved.
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?
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!!
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.
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…
Ntombizonke Mehlomakulu on April 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
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.
@ 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!
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”.
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!
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.
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)
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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
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Khaya Dlanga* By day he perpetuates the evils of capitalism by making consumers feel insecure (he makes ads). For this he has been rewarded with numerous Loerie awards, Cannes Gold, several Eagle awards and a Black Eagle.
Khaya has an ego-crushing bank balance but an ego-boosting 6.5 million views on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.
Africa's top Digital Citizen Journalist in 2008 for innovative use of the internet, at the Highway Africa conference, the largest gathering of African journalists in the world.
Jeremy Maggs' "The Annual - Advertising, Media & Marketing 2008" listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in Advertising, Media & Marketing.
Winner of Financial Mail's Adfocus New Broom award 2009. He has listed these accolades to make you think more highly of him than you ought to.
* The views expressed in this or any future post are not necessarily his own (unless of course you agree with them).
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His wife could do us all the favor;) The most dangerous enemy is the one who makes coffee in the morning..ok, thats what my mother told me, but my father is still alive and well. eh..cough.
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