clearly evident last weekend at Mugabe’s State House opposite the Harare Sports Club, where Zimbabwe hosted South Africa in One Day Internationals and military police harassed cricket fans.
Insiders say he was considerably unsettled by the foiled coup. Although he ordained a media campaign insisting that the coup was a British plot, “it was the president who most needed convincing”, one source said.
Awkward questions are still being asked about the death of three generals immediately after the coup. There are reports that his senior advisers, concerned at the destabilisation of Zimbabwe, had talked to some army leaders about the circumstances in which the military might intervene, and that news of these unwelcome conversations had reached hardline Mugabe supporters.
Grace Mugabe is believed to date the deterioration in her husband’s psychological state from the March 11 event, in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) gave notice of a determined challenge in the presidential election, now only eight months away.
The stress of the approaching elections should not be underestimated. Mugabe’s response has become more and more frenzied. He has threatened the MDC, torn up the law book and launched ever more vicious attacks on foreigners and their businesses. He trusts no one no more.
Post published in: News