‘When he joined the reeling Party, he had only a dirty shirt and [a pair of] trousers,” nationalist Rugare Gumbo was quoted in The Herald of February 21, 1980 as saying about the late Robert Mugabe, in which he warned Zimbos about the man in whose hands they were on the cusp of entrusting their future.
“Now he has money — a lot of money. He is wealthy. He built a fortune on the backs and the sweat of people like us. He takes his wife all over Europe and spends thousands.” Well, not unexpected, Gumbo’s warning was never heeded.
But today, Gumbo is vindicated. Last week former First Lady Grace Mugabe was in court.
She was there to testify in a case in which some of her employees allegedly decided to help themselves to the valuables of some 11 shipping containers of the Mugabe household goods that were removed from Zimbabwe House in the aftermath of the 2017 coup that toppled her late husband from power.
You got it right… 11 shipping containers just from Zimbabwe House, that desolate place that the family had long abandoned! Please don’t ask Muckraker how many shipping containers Ian Smith struggled with when his own tenancy had expired!
Someone once told Muck that something that you don’t use in six months is excess to requirement… these containers were loaded in 2018 and the theft was only discovered a few months ago when Grace was searching for something to donate to the African Liberation Museum!
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It means that for a good seven years, the family never needed anything from those containers!
By the time the coup took place, abruptly ending Mugabe’s long tenancy at Zimbabwe House, the family had long been ensconced in the famous Borrowdale Blue Roof mansion. Then there were several other properties, including the one at 40 Quorn Avenue in Mount Pleasant, where Mugabe first stayed when he became prime minister in 1980.
Remember the Zvimba palace where nearly US$1 million lying around in a forgotten suitcase was allegedly stolen by relatives? Then there are more than a dozen farms. At all these properties, there are even more household goods. Not to mention the many firms.
This is just local. There are also those mouth-watering off-shore nests… the fat bank accounts, the properties — including that family town in Malaysia — and all the other global investments.
This should explain why politics remains the business of choice to many Africans… it is damn lucrative so much that many are more than ready to kill either to get in or to remain in there. Should it therefore be surprising that coups are plotted, elections are rigged, constitutions are vandalised and rituals are made just to get and retain political power?
If this doesn’t explain what is currently happening in the Party, then certainly nothing will ever do! Imagine every politician in this country looting in proportion to the size of their power! Should it therefore be surprising that we are what Donald Trump appears to rudely describe us as?
But, after it all, where is Mugabe today? What used to be the man now lies buried in a steel coffin in a reinforced grave on a barren piece of land somewhere in Zvimba while the victims of his looting regret not heeding Gumbo’s warning.
Muck understands that there is a certain hollowness inside human beings, some emptiness that they try to fill in with power (real, imagined or perceived) and all the material things they can lay their hands on… all without success. Many have tried it before. Even Solomon ended up writing about this struggle in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes in the hope of saving future generations from the bitterness of disappointment that one gets at the end of it all. “But as I looked at everything I had worked for hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless — like chasing the wind,” he wrote (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
Well, in normal countries — thankfully we are not yet one — the 11 containers would be part of the many exhibits in a landmark criminal case of plundering a nation with reckless abandon.
‘Governance reforms guaranteed’
Muck wonders why most executioners always cover their faces when they are executing their duties. Is it because there is something in them that reminds them of the necessity to be seen to be very normal people once in a while?
So, everyone wants to be seen to be a nice person even when they are not?
It’s good that the good Lord installed that software inside the human being because it gives humanity some hope. Muck got to think about this when he read with surprise a statement that was attributed to the Owner, of all the people on earth!
“The government and people of Zimbabwe deem it in their fundamental interest and part of their national character to consolidate Constitutionalism, the rule of law, good governance and the protection of constitutionally enshrined rights and freedoms. Governance reforms are therefore guaranteed under the Second Republic.”
This was the assurance that was being given to the country’s creditors and executives of international financial institutions earlier in the week.
Muck knows that he is not alone in being shocked, coming as it does not just when the Constitution is being raped to conceive a term extension, but also when ordinary Zimbos are wondering what crime Jameson Timba & Co, Job Sikhala, Hopewell Chin’ono and many others really committed against the Second Republic. So, just like the hangman, we want to have the best of both worlds?
And we even have the gall of applying for re-admission to the British Commonwealth!
The rogue neighbour
Sometimes it is important that people stop to introspect… just to look at themselves to see if everything is right about them.
Muck thinks as a country, we should also do the same… just pause to look at ourself to see whether what others see about us is the best they can see in us.
Now the whole region is up against us. We are being accused of the post-election violence that has claimed hundreds in Mozambique. Zambians spit whenever our name is mentioned. Batswana are proud that they thwarted our best of efforts. Namibians are fearful that our dirty paws might contaminate their elections. South Africans are now seeing how their brotherhood with us is complicating life back home.
With all this, shouldn’t we stop to introspect and understand why calls are now growing that we not only be dethroned as the Southern African Development Community chair, but even expelled from the regional bloc altogether?
Do all these neighbours just don’t like us for the mere sake of not liking us? Something should be certainly not right with the way we behave.
Denying it is not good enough. We have to do something because it will certainly take more than angry denials to change the rogue neighbour perception that is fast building around us.
Hopefully it won’t be too late!