Has Mugabe Ever Wanted to Retire?

Kholwani NYathi

29 May 2011

analysis

WHEN Zanu PF’s politburo set up a committee to look into the emotive issue of President Robert Mugabe’s successor in 2009, hopes were raised that one of Africa’s longest serving rulers was about to voluntarily give up power.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 and has used every trick in the book to remain in power, including deadly violence.

At the time the committee was set up most Zimbabweans appeared to be resigned to the fact that the 87-year-old strongman would rule until he dropped dead.

But the committee was quietly dissolved a year later with the wily Mugabe reverting to his old song, that there was no vacancy in the presidium.

Despite mounting calls for him to step down because of his advanced age and failing health, the Zanu PF leader has since the 1990s made it clear that he is not ready to give way to fresh blood in the presidency and in his own party.

In an interview with the state media Mugabe said he cannot retire because Zanu PF and Zimbabwe needed him the most now.

He cited the alleged threat by Western imperialists as his motivation to defy nature and continue denying Zimbabweans an opportunity to start rebuilding the country, now condemned to dehumanising poverty by his reckless policies.

Analysts said Mugabe’s recent pronouncements on the succession debate in Zanu PF were nothing new as he has always wanted to be a life president.

“Mugabe has never been genuine about getting a Zanu PF successor, he created factions within the party so that he can use them against each other to remain in power,” said Bekithemba Mpofu, a former united MDC youth leader and renowned academic.

“It has been his intention to remain in power and this he has done masterfully by using factions within his party as pawns.

“No wonder when a faction becomes popular he shifts his allegiance to the other fearing that the endorsement of a successor within the party would ignite questions about his stepping down.”

Other analysts blamed Zanu PF for creating a cult figure whose exit from the scene could only spell doom for the party, which has been rocked by factionalism even at a time when it was at its strongest.

Zanu PF has two factions reportedly led by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and retired army general Solomon Mujuru that are known to be positioning themselves for life after Mugabe.

However, none of the faction leaders seem prepared to challenge Mugabe while he is still alive and this has given the former school teacher the conviction that he is invincible.

Mugabe hero-worshipped in Zanu PF

Mugabe has always been presented as a cult figure to an extent that the late former Harare mayor Tony Gara once called him the Son of God in parliament.

Mines and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu is known to sign his letters to Mugabe as “Your ever obedient son” while senior Zanu PF ministers reportedly always kneel before the man who claims to be a devout Catholic.

Different views to Mugabe’s staying power

Trevor Maisiri, the director of the African Reform Institute said if Mugabe were to step down today Zanu PF would be engulfed by internal strife and re-uniting the two factions might be impossible.

“The party has not handled the issue well for a long time and as time progresses it is getting more complex to handle,” he said.

“What Zanu PF does not seem to realise is that the passage of time is working against the party’s romance with posterity?”

Maisiri said the hero-worshiping by Zanu PF officials cultivated Mugabe’s ambition for a life-presidency.

“There was a time in the past when the party could have intentionally raised up a new leadership without much hassles,” he said.

“However, the party ascended President Mugabe onto a pedestal where he became an institution rather than being a part of the institution of the party.

“He became the centre of the party and everything revolved around his personhood.”

However, UK-based Zimbabwean academic Brilliant Mhlanga believes that Mugabe wants to retire but is being held hostage by selfish individuals seeking to escape prosecution for human rights abuses.

Army generals, most of whom were heavily involved in the Gukurahundi massacres where at least 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, want Mugabe to be a life president.

In the past there have been reports that Mugabe feared that if he left office he would be dragged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

Zimbabwe is not a signatory to the ICC treaty and taking Mugabe to the Hague may prove impossible unless if he is arrested while outside the country.

AllAfrica – All the Time