Why should Mugabe Quit?

By LCM Kenya.


President Mugabe has been at the helm of Zimbabwe for the last 29 years. He has seen his country grow from a small economy to the richest agricultural-based economy in sub-Saharan Africa by late 1990s. Mr Mugabe is a highly learned and regarded individual who valued freedom in its fundamental sense. His eloquence and clarity of vision is unrivalled amongst his peers. His desire and dedicated strife for freedom, fairness and justice for all has never been clouded by political power or the draconian double standards of the west imposed the third world. He spent years fighting a minority British-backed government of a dictator named Ian Smith and lived to tell the tale. He had been in and out of prison but never wavered in the quest of freedom for the Zimbabwean people. To crown it all, Mr Mugabe was significantly instrumental in the struggle for independence of the other sub-Saharan countries and more so the apartheid regime ruling South Africa. All the freedom struggles in Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa had an input from the veteran liberation hero. This was a clear indication of his thirst for liberation of all Africans within and without the Zimbabwean borders. The anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela had weapons training in Zimbabwe having been smuggled from his native South Africa with the help of Mugabe and other comrades in struggle in Zimbabwe. Mugabe joined his fellow comrades in Mozambique in 1975, after being released from jail, and fought the colonial government in Zimbabwe from there.

Eventually, Mugabe led his people to a hard fought independence from the British in 1980 and formed the first truly African Zimbabwean republic replacing a phoney one led by Bishop Muzarawe in coalition with Ian Smith. Mugabe won the independence vote by 64%. He had agreed to leave 20 seats in the Zimbabwe parliament to allow for representation of the white people still resident in Zimbabwe. In the independence charter (Lancaster House agreement) with the repressive colonial masters, an elaborate land policy was to be implemented. This policy involved the redistribution of illegally acquired land from the British settlers to the indigenous communities, who owned that land in the first place. Mugabe accepted a "willing buyer, willing seller" plan as part of the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, among other concessions to the white minority. As part of this agreement, land redistribution was blocked for a period of 10 years.This process was to be funded by the British government and its details are contained in the charter signed in 1979 by among others Prime Minister Mugabe and the colonial secretary of the British government.

When Zimbabwe gained independence, 46.5% of the country's arable land was owned by around 6,000 commercial white farmers. Virtually all of Zimbabwean fertile land was inhabited by white supremacists who, coldly and cowardly relegated the majority black Zimbabwean people to native, infertile and swampy low areas where they hardly fed themselves or their families. They then crudely recruited these natives to work in their illegally owned land with or without pay. These so called white farms had the principle responsibility of feeding the established agricultural industries of their counterparts back in Britain or in the neighbouring South Africa (where they had settled much longer) with raw materials. In other words, Zimbabwe provides free rich agricultural land for farming, free labour and zero responsibility to the state and its inhabitants while the final harvested products are shipped to hungry industries back in Europe. Such was the unfathomable cruelty of the colonial master.

It was therefore no wonder that after Mugabe and other Zimbabwean patriots had gained independence on behalf of their people, it was going to be difficult for the colonial mindset to just let go of these freebies at his disposal from what they referred to as the Dark Continent. His end of the deal to basically pay these white land grabbers for land that was never theirs was a total flop. So the white farmers held unto this land and continued their activities only that this time, they pretended to show more concern to the black majority of workers. The British government then unleashed its soft power to the largely uneducated Zimbabweans with scholarships and foreign direct investments to conceal the real fundamental issues that led to the struggle for independence in the first place. In fact a World Bank report alludes, to this day, that Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in sub-Saharan Africa. A couple of UK and American universities were so cynically impressed by Mr Mugabe that they awarded him several honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of his work and talent. They were literally bribing the establishment to cloud its judgement on the real issues affecting Zimbabweans. But this could not wish away the real concerns of the Zimbabwean people.

After fifteen years of self governance, the ghost of the land problem was still rearing its head. In 1997, the new British Labor government led by Tony Blair unilaterally stopped funding the "willing buyer, willing seller" land reform program on the basis that the initial £44 million allocated under the Thatcher government was used to purchase land for members of the ruling elite rather than landless peasants. Furthermore, Britain's ruling Labor Party felt no obligation to continue paying white farmers compensation, or in Minister Claire Short's words, "I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonized not colonizers". This statement underscored the real reason behind the discontinuation of funding of the land reform process in Zimbabwe. The claim of land purchased not reaching its intended recipients was just a public relations gimmick aimed at winning the British public support against continued funding. Furthermore, at the time, the British economy was in bad shape and cutting costs relating to ‘unnecessary’ projects was their panacea to healing their economy.

Some western media commentators, such as Matthew Sweet in The Independent paper of UK, held Cecil Rhodes ultimately responsible:

... It was Cecil Rhodes who originated the racist 'land grabs' to which Zimbabwe's current miseries can ultimately be traced. It was Rhodes who in 1887 told the House of Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa that 'the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system on despotism in our relations with the barbarians of Southern Africa'. According to Sweet, "In less oratorical moments, he put it even more bluntly: ‘’I prefer land to niggers.’’

At last the media was undergoing a revelation, a random awakening which, to any sane human being, is impractical and a classical case of grotesque selective amnesia. They knew in their hearts and minds all along that their fellow citizens were illegally occupying land that belonged to peasants drowning in penury only this time they are black, and only president Mugabe stood in the way. But, after closely scrutinizing the shift in British policy towards Zimbabwe, it was clear that the new labor administration had a discordant relationship with the white farmers of Zimbabwe (mainly conservatives). This new and abrupt media campaign was now throwing a spanner in the works in an effort to bury the conservative and politically powerful mindset of the wealthy beneficiaries of the colonial system food chain.

The previous British government had tried to brush aside the Zimbabwe land problem after the 10 year grace period had elapsed as long as their commercial interests were intact. They literally prayed for a drastic but natural change of circumstances to warrant their continued plundering of Zimbabwean natural resources without any shred of shame on their faces indelibly stained by ignominious acts of greed, corruption and intransigent belligerence. Their narcissism was clear to the whole world but as usual, no one, not human rights organisations, UN, USA, Commonwealth, international criminal court could raise a finger at this blatant and gross violation of sovereignty of republic of Zimbabwe and the right of its citizens to own property.

After all these years there was no government will from the British to solve the land issue. It was in the year 2000 when President Mugabe read the riot act and decided to forcefully repossess the white farms under contention. He is quoted as saying ‘The land is ours. It's not European and we have taken it, we have given it to the rightful people... Those of white extraction who happen to be in the country and are farming are welcome to do so, but they must do so on the basis of equality. He first tried this process through a referendum on several constitutional amendments touching on land, political power and granting immunity to government and military officials especially after the infamous crashing of ZAPU dissidents led by Joshua Nkomo in 1983 in Matabeleland. About 20,000 people are claimed to have died. The referendum had a poor turnout of about 20% and the government lost by 55%. However the entire campaign was personalised and the white farmers backed by media friendly to them mobilised illiterate workers to defeat it. Mugabe though had a new means to clip their wings. The Zimbabwean parliament pushed through a constitutional amendment to reclaim land from the white settlers and redistribute it to the majority black farmers. Almost immediately, war veterans from the independence struggle matched into these white farms and outside the laid down rule of law seized them. The war veterans were led by Chenjerai Hunzvi. Many white farmers were expelled from these lands and had to run away to ‘exile’ in South Africa or back to Britain. The redistribution policy by the Zimbabwe government was extremely controversial with critics arguing that the repossessed land never reached the targeted recipients – peasants and squatters. The fact though remains that the land was reverted to Zimbabweans who own it to this day. When the UK once condemned Mugabe's alleged authoritarian policies and racist attitudes as being comparable to those of German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Mugabe responded with controversial remark, mocking the UK's claims by saying about himself and his policies that "This Hitler had only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources...If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold.’’

After the forceful eviction of these land grabbers, fortunes for Mugabe in the international arena nosedived. The British government led a diplomatic affront on both the personality and leadership capabilities of President Mugabe. They used their relatively mighty diplomatic war chest to pin him down by rallying their sidekicks to impose trade and travel sanctions against Mugabe and his government. Their irritability and obvious discontent was evident in every public arena that pitted outspoken British diplomats and leaders against an eloquent and pragmatic Mugabe in a spirited fight for credibility in measures taken on each front to solve the problem at hand. This was not enough though to bring down a revered African leader of Mugabe’s calibre. They needed a plan B but weren’t sure of the best way to implement it.

First, they had to tap the Zimbabwean Diaspora, who, desperate for scholarships and citizenships was ready to run any errands for their former colonial master. This measure was to be applied in all their sidekick countries. Through this they had a reference point to begin their ‘alternative voice’ for Zimbabwe from. This can explain the huge population of Zimbabweans resident in the UK and Europe today. They then had to find for a suitable opposition candidate to sponsor so that they could try to oust Mugabe at the upcoming elections of the year 2002. An uncouth and little learned trade unionist named Morgan Tsvangirai was hungry enough for political power to sell his ancestry to the highest bidder. Morgan had run against Mugabe in 1997 all in vain. The colonial master had long before perfected the divide and rule policy in Africa. All he had to do now was to bring it into play in Zimbabwe and await the results in a number of years.

President Mugabe wasn’t ready to sit back and relax as his distracters blemished his reputation. He was ready to fight and win the war against the colonialist at all costs. He had handled them before and knew what they were capable of. He knew that he was a good orator and was constantly in touch with his people. All he had to do is point them in the direction of the enemy and they would maul him to political extinction. Morgan was one such enemy, a stooge of the British, a vagabond who had unapologetically sold his patriotism to the greatest threat to the republic of Zimbabwe as it were. Mugabe succeeded in the elections of the year 2002 and floored Morgan in a great show of confidence of Zimbabweans in him. Morgan was all over the western media claiming irregularities in the general election. Mugabe had forthwith barred western election observers from poking their noses in the Zimbabwe election. With such a precedent set, Mugabe had handed the British a new battle front from which they could wage a relentless war on the platform of non-conformance with democratic tenets. They told everybody who cared to listen that the election was not free and fair. When such allegations are constantly aired left, right and centre by the rich western media serving the interests of its masters, then they are bound to be convoluted. The white man was scorned by the embarrassment caused by Morgan’s defeat and became more restless. He had used the media, the UN, human rights organisations, compromised Diaspora and paid an opposition candidate to fight Mugabe unsuccessfully. He was getting beleaguered and disoriented but his pride had prejudiced his moral convictions and so often than not, his judgements were premature. He continued his onslaught on Mugabe in Westminster as well as press conferences, media talk shows and western sponsored international conferences to inflict as much damage as possible on Mugabe. They continued with a systematic effort to isolate him from the rest of the world by first suspending Zimbabwe from the commonwealth, where the imperialist Britain has a huge influence and lobbied their EU counterparts to impose travel bans in all member countries. After the suspension from commonwealth, President Mugabe is quoted as saying, ‘’If I was asked to make a choice between the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and membership to the commonwealth, then I would sacrifice the membership to the commonwealth and maintain the sovereignty of Zimbabwe.’’

At the same time, technical deficiencies and capital unavailability hindered continued mechanised farming in the repossessed white farms. The government’s ability to provide subsidised farm inputs to the new owners was being limited by acute foreign exchange shortfalls due to trade sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe thanks to the British and their cronies. The Zimbabwean economy began to falter as teething cash flow problems began to set in. Food and oil prices began to rise exponentially, compounded by the uneasy relationship between Zimbabwe and its business partners. Inflation became erratic, steadily weakening the Zimbabwean dollar day after day. The financial sector was beginning its downfall and the worst was yet to come.