REPORTS that President Robert Mugabe’s nephew and Public Service minister Patrick Zhuwao has publicly berated Zimbabweans as “dumb” for expressing anger against the 93-year-old former Zanu PF leader— whose patronage he has been a beneficiary — are tragic, unfortunate and only serve to reduce the citizens’ self-esteem.
Clearly, Zhuwao is singing for his supper, and he knows that Mugabe’s continued stranglehold on power will ensure a continuous flow of ill-gotten wealth for him and his other acolytes, while the rest of the citizens continue to wallow in abject poverty.
We do not think that Zhuwao understands the magnitude of the problem Mugabe has created for the majority of Zimbabweans simply because he is the biggest beneficiary of his uncle’s patronage system.
In fact, the hallmark of Mugabe’s 37-year rule has been endemic corruption, misgovernance and stripping of State enterprises for the benefit of his inner family and the Zanu PF elites.
No doubt Zhuwao is crying foul because now the feeding trough and the Zanu PF gravy train have been terminated. It is quite shocking that the dreadlocked politician even believes Zimbabweans are being used by someone given the hardships afflicting the people of this country.
What is clear here is that Zhuwao, just like his uncle’s sons Chatunga Bellarmine and Robert (Junior), lacks an appreciation of what the country’s population has been forced to go through by Mugabe’s misguided and oppressive rule. Not that anything has changed, but Zimbabweans have decided to bring pressure to bear.
Zhuwao, no doubt, seems to be operating with the delusion that Zimbabweans, for long abused by Mugabe’s cryptic political system, have no capacity to think on their own unless they are being “used”. We believe Zhuwao needs to be aware that the reasons why Zimbabweans, most of them apolitical, had never come out before as they did last Saturday was because Mugabe always used brute force to silence them.
Whatever Zhuwao’s stroppy thoughts against new Zanu PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, some Zimbabweans believe the latter could be a better devil than Mugabe himself and his clique. In any case, Mnangagwa is Zimbabwean and is entitled like everybody else to participate in the governance of this country. The notion by Zhuwao that Mugabe is entitled to superintend over Zimbabwe and nobody else is sickening, nauseating and disgusting, if not worse.
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Whether Zhuwao likes it or not, the law of biology will not elude Mugabe, and painfully so for Zhuwao, his uncle’s legacy will one day be obliterated from the annals of our history, and clearly that is a prospect the majority of the population relishes.
What Zhuwao must actually be aware of is that if Zimbabweans have been “dumb” for all this long, then they have just woken up to smell the coffee. Understandably, Zhuwao will struggle to face the prospect of a Zimbabwe without Mugabe at the helm his parasitic survival.
He may pontificate all he wants. We feel for him because he knows coming back to Zimbabwe to continue enjoying his ill-gotten wealth is not going to be easy given that he is also on the “wanted list” of those that have been pilfering national resources at the expense of the majority.
What is happening within the Zanu PF elites is a stark reminder to all politicians to aspire for political office only to serve the people and not amass wealth at their expense.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, Cde Patrick Zhuwao! Please stand guided accordingly.
