VICTORIA FALLS starts returning to normal today after the hoopla associated with President Robert Mugabe’s 91st birthday that attracted thousands of people to the resort town.
Opinion with Chipo Masara
Mugabe, who ate cake while his country is burning, must be busy taking stock of who, among the numerous bootlickers who made him feel like a 30-year-old yesterday, outshone the rest in praising him.
Remember, it’s through bootlicking that one gets rewarded with positions in Zanu PF. Think about Shuvai Mahofa, the new minister of Masvingo Provincial Affairs.
We all thought she was crazy when she danced until she fainted before First Lady Grace Mugabe. Now at 74, she has re-joined the gravy train and will traverse the length and breath of Masvingo as the new godmother.
But after the dust raised by the $1 million jamboree has settled, what is unmistakable is that President Mugabe now lacks the energy to drive this nation forward.
As much as there are multitudes of people that literally worship him like some demigod, at 91 Mugabe is now a very old man indeed and cannot be entrusted with leadership of this great nation.
Common sense dictates that by the time anyone gets to that old age — something only a few get to experience in this day and age — they would want nothing more than to just take a rest and retire from all earthly toil.
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Being a nonagenarian, one would expect that President Mugabe would by now feel he has achieved all he set out to and retire in pursuit of a more relaxed lifestyle characterised by a sense of self-worth!
But alas, at 91, President Mugabe is clinging on to power! He is not leaving anytime soon, and wants to remain in power until donkeys grow horns.
While Mugabe is known to have been a highly energetic man, mostly due to the healthy lifestyle choices he has made in his lifetime — choosing not to drink alcohol or smoke and taking his exercise routines seriously — age has finally caught up with him, naturally.
In the African society they say when someone gets advanced in age, they begin to act like a child. They become senile and frail and by the time they get to 90, medical experts assert most would be suffering from dementia (mental deterioration of organic or functional origin).
When I heard of how Mugabe, to everyone’s surprise, shouted an anti-Zanu PF slogan at the party’s congress held last December, I was convinced he was losing it.
When I heard that our dear President had taken a tumble and landed on his hands and knees at the airport (although others suggest he broke the fall), I blamed the mishap on his old age. Someone should have been holding his hand, or given him a walking stick — something anyone would need at that age.
But, hate him or love him, President Mugabe has left his mark in the world and it will be a very long time before the world stops making mention of his name. That legacy (if you can call it that) can never be taken away from him!
But then Mr President, all things — good or bad — must in due course come to an end. That is the natural order of things.
In order for any country to progress, it needs leadership that has new and progressive ideas necessary to solve challenges.
Leaders who can only refer to the liberation struggle when talking about modern day problems belong to the past. A good leader needs to stay literally awake and keep abreast of the goings on in a country, which can only be achieved by new and progressive leaders. Unfortunately, those are qualities that are now way out of reach for President Mugabe at 91.
Instead, he now seems to be always requiring his wife Grace to not only lead the way for him, but to constantly keep him in check.
Zimbabwe is a country that is currently in doldrums, on the brink of collapse, and is in desperate need of revival, which is something that requires a strong and decisive leader and that leader cannot be our current president!
