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AN African American associate
resident in Zimbabwe told me that he felt privileged to be living during the
reign of President Robert Mugabe, having all along envied those who had lived
during the time of Kwame Nkrumah.
He said at last he had seen a real African leader who stands up for his people. His sentiments are obviously shared by the thousands of people who gave the President a rousing welcome at Union Buildings in Pretoria as South Africa marked a decade of self-determination. The crowd ululated, applauded, cheered and chanted the President’s name in a vociferous welcome similar only to the one afforded President-elect Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela. The reception was a fitting tribute to a man who stands for the total liberation of not only Zimbabwe, but also the entire developing world. This was a loud slap in the flushed face of the apartheid Press which had peddled all manner of lies concerning the President’s trip — the most spurious being the claim that President Mugabe had to contend with a modest lodge after all the hotels in Pretoria refused to accommodate him! What hogwash! The President had, in fact, turned down three luxury hotels that were availed to him in favour of the serenity of the lodge. Ironically, had he booked into any of the hotels the same duplicitous Press would have had a field day about his alleged profligacy. The racists are always looking for scandal where the President is concerned. This is hardly surprising for the man has spent his life trashing the doctrine of white supremacy on which racism is built. This is a "crime" for which the President will never be forgiven. In their desperation, the apartheid papers went to the extent of trying to mobilise South Africans to ignore the President, but, as has always been the case, the red carpet was rolled out as the people applauded short of blisters for the man the West calls Mugabi. The next day, the apartheid Press choked on its diatribes as it could not help but acknowledge that the President had received a rapturous welcome. This was tantamount to retraction, based not on the force of law, but on the force of veracity as the entire country, and indeed all people who watched the live transmission and subsequent television screening of the event, had seen for themselves the popularity of the man the West wants ostracised. All patriots who attended our 24th Independence commemorations are under no illusions of the extent of the President’s domestic support. Tony Blair’s second-in-command John Prescott, who was present at Union Buildings, had to carry bad news to Number 10 Downing Street: President Mugabe is a revered icon of liberation in Africa. It was pleasing to note that Messrs Fibson (Oops! Gibson) Sibanda and Welshman Ncube were also part of the cheering crowd. Their presence at Union Buildings was both ironic and comical. The irony lay not only in the paradox of agents of imperialism masquerading as celebrants of African independence, but also in the fact that these two men found it taxing to drive to the venues of our Independence commemorations, yet found it worthwhile to fly all the way to South Africa to make the South African decade of independence! This is just an example of the extent of their self denial. Indeed, no offence meant to our brothers down south, the occasion was a celebration of black uhuru, but the independence worthy of celebration for the likes of Ncube is the Zimbabwean one, not only because it is their country of birth, but also because it is more manifest when compared to the South African one which is still at flag level. Ncube and Sibanda were conspicuous by their absence from our Independence festivities, just like all their colleagues in the MDC national executive. At Union Buildings these two were just part of the crowd, and their welcome, if any, obviously did not go beyond the polite handshake. I have often wondered what will be going on in their heads at such events. It is probably an experience akin to that of a heretic in a church when one feels kuti ndirikuparidzwa (the sermon is about me) — an experience worsened by the powerful message of African solidarity in President Mbeki’s inauguration address. President Mugabe’s rousing reception, similar to the one which disoriented poor Tendai Biti at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, obviously made the likes of Prescott, Ncube and Sibanda realise the futility of the crusade against President Mugabe. As for Morgan Tsvangirai, who was obviously glued to his TV set at Number 2 Lyndhurst Lane, Strathaven, Harare, it probably became clearer, if anything is ever clearer to him, that the State House-shaped birthday cake his wife Susan baked for him on his 50th birthday shall be the closest he ever got to State House. As Nathaniel Manheru put it: "It shall remain his best present ever." The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
