THIS is the time of year when sychophancy plays its distasteful role in heaping praise upon our venerable leader. Public officials, party leaders, government departments and paraststals compete with each other to see who can deliver the most lickspittle paean of praise to the president on his birthday.
This year’s winning entry in the Herald’s line-up of slavish adulation came from their own columnist, Kurai Masenyama wo recalled the triumphant arrival of the Mugabes at the funeral in Orlando of Walter Sisulu.
The entire stadium erupted when Zimbabwe’s first couple arrived, we are told. South Africans literally forgot about Madiba, Zuma and Mbeki with the Mugabe magic sweeping across the packed stadium.
What makes Mugabe so distinctive as a leader, Masenyama asked himself? And what makes his name resonate with Africans across the continent and with black people around the world?
The answer, he claims, lies in the fact that Mugabe is “the de facto empowerment leader of black people and has for decades been at the forefront of the fight against racism, imperialism, neocolonialism, global financial apartheid and generally the oppression of the developing world by the West”.
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It is a pity his own people don’t see him in such generous terms. “Since his emergence on Zimbabwe’s political terrain, which he has largely dominated for 40 years, President Mugabe has been a true revolutionary, consistent and articulate cadre of the liberation movement.”
So how do we explain his rejection by the electorate in 2008? Wasn’t it precisely because he had over-stayed his welcome, Mubarak-style, and lost the confidence of the nation?
African-Americans have deserted him in droves. Black South Africans would be unlikely to repeat their Orlando welcome today.
Muckraker met Sisulu in 1994. He was a genuine veteran of the struggle and at the same time a thoroughly principled and decent individual. And if it were true that the Orlando crowd “literally forgot about Madiba” to salute Mugabe, he would have been mortified.
Watching the event on TV that evening it is true that the Mugabes got a rousing welcome. But so did all the other heads of state attending! And the house did not “literally break down,” as Masenyama laughably suggests.
Mugabe had initiated presidential scholarships, Masenyama tells us. And who paid for those scholarships. Was it not you and I?
As for the significance of that rousing welcome, it was fascinating to watch Col Muammar Gaddafi being greeted by his fan club in Tripoli on Sunday night. Here was another revolutionary hero who had passed his sell-by date, and who claimed to be the authentic voice of Africa. Now his subjects are dispensing with that claim.
It was great to watch the crowds massing against their erstwhile ruler in Tripoli, Gaddafi’s headquarters. Tens of thousands of them. And now Iran is rising to the call of freedom.
Zanu PF’s friends are going down like tenpins one by one. And there are no tears here!
Meanwhile Tafataona Mahoso continues to regurgitate the tired old tale about thousands of whites flooding back into the country in 2008 because they thought the MDC had won.
Indeed, most people thought they had won! So did the South Africans and our other neighbours. Which is why we have a government of national unity.
But Mahoso, who remains on the board of the Media Commission, is using that platform to reconstruct the events of 2008. The free press should insist that he attends to his bureaucratic functions and stops telling whoppers.
Why is he still there?
Two crazy statements recently demonstrate what a dysfunctional society we have. Major-General Paradzayi Zimondi was quoted as saying the food served in prisons matched that served in society as a whole.
“I find it disheartening,” he said, “that detractors always want to paint a bad picture about our prisons without looking at the bigger picture.” At the height of our economic woes some media reported that the government had neglected prisoners, Zimondi said. (Actually it was a High Court judge.)
“They did not mention that the situation in prison is also changing for the better,” he said. “If the country survived on vegetables prisoners will also eat vegetables. He denied that prisons were over-crowded.”
Meanwhile, ZMDC chair Godwills Masimirembwa has hit out at Tendai Biti for not selling diamonds.
“It seems Biti is not interested in us selling our diamonds,” Masimirembwa said.
“His statements are political. He is trying to get an excuse for not paying civil servants. He should instead audit his own actions. He wants an insurrection so that we have another Egypt or Tunisia in Zimbabwe.”
Is this the same Masimirembwa who was responsible for emptying supermarket shelves? Whose economically illiterate policies on prices drove the country to the cliff’s edge?
Perhaps he should shut up for a while before we wave goodbye to the ZMDC.
Muckraker is intrigued by the logic of the EU in lifting sanctions on the wives of some of the most reactionary officials in the country.
They are not a threat to democracy, we are told. That’s good to know. And they will tell us when they are, we suppose! Meanwhile, ZUJ has “slammed” the EU’s continued sanctions against state journalists who deny the existence of torture in Zimbabwe and portray the country’s woes as the product of “illegal” EU and US measures.
Next, ZUJ will tell us why it is OK for journalists to accept land as a reward for their partisan devotion
Our political “analysts” were conspicuous by their silence in their usual quest to “explain” to us the events unfolding in North Africa. The likes of Chris Mutsvangwa and Goodson Nguni who, at the height of protests in Egypt that led to the toppling of Hosni Mubarak, had attributed these developments to Mubarak’s” pursuing Western interests for the past 30 years at the expense of the Arab world”.
Mutsvangwa, ZBC reported, said the events in Egypt should come as a wakeup call to US pawns across the globe.
It seems they have been left tongue-tied this time around in trying to comprehend events in Libya where Muammar Gaddafi’s 42 year rule is hanging by a thread. The Mutsvangwas and Ngunis surely cannot accuse Gaddafi of also pandering to the dictates of the West. The puppet tag cannot stick on Gaddafi since he was a thorn in their backside for so many years.
Naturally as events in North Africa take a familiar twist, the “analysts” take the convenient quiet route lest they get on the wrong side of political correctness. In fact there are many similarities between Tripoli and the regime in Harare. Both regimes have used brute force over the years to suppress any form of dissent and both use the banner of African solidarity and anti-West rhetoric as a ruse to gloss over their abuses.
Both view their respective countries as personal fiefdoms where they hope to rule for eternity despite the protestations of the majority.
Mutsvangwa had also reminded ZTV viewers that the people can only rise against a party that is against the wishes of the people. It seems, however, that Zanu PF has realised it is indeed a party that is against the wishes of the people judging by their swift arraignment of Munyaradzi Gwisai and 45 other social and human rights activists for playing video footage of the Egypt uprising allegedly “to inspire and motivate people to demonstrate against the government”.
According to their lawyer, Marufu Mandevere, they were just exchanging views on the situation in North Africa. It seems that it is no longer permissable anymore with police spokesperson James Sabau saying police would “not allow any plots to take Zimbabwe the Egypt way” and would clamp down mercilessly on plotters of any sort.
As was expected the state media boldly stated that “Nation celebrates President Mugabe’s 87th birthday” with congratulatory messages coming from a “cross-section” of people.
“We wish our president many more years,” said one. “This is mostly because he has been a true Pan-Africanist, an exemplary statesman, whose leadership qualities can never be questionable.
“We commend the president for spearheading the economic empowerment drive and because of his dedication to see Zimbabweans become masters of their own destiny, we say long live President Mugabe,” said another.
“As Zimbabweans, we boast of the highest literacy rate on the continent because of President Mugabe’s dedication to educating the nation. He, himself is so educated, his desire is to pass the legacy of education to all Zimbabweans,” said one University of Zimbabwe student.
Perhaps he can read this: “Time to go!”
Muckraker’s favourite greeting came from Zinwa where water supplies were switched off to mark the president’s birthday (with a little help from the City of Harare).
What amused Muckraker was the fact that this “cross-section” of people interviewed by ZTV all seemed to reside at Zanu PF headquarters. They were all interviewed at different locations in the building. Muckraker wonders whether interviewing the real cross section of Zimbabweans would elicit less favourable responses and hence the safer route: Zanu PF activists posing as ordinary people.
But no matter how hard ZTV managed to work up a patriotic froth around the president, it will be those crowds in Libya that remain etched in the memory on February 21.
Zanu PF can no longer pretend that all is well when history lessons are available on every TV screen across the nation. That is the reality ZTV is so keen to escape.
Al-Jazeera vs ZTV. Take your pick. Who do you believe?
