Arriving in the wee hours of Friday for a summit that was scheduled to start on Saturday, Mr Mugabe was accompanied by the seemingly reluctant Mai Grace and a retinue of the usual hangers on and bootlickers. Yours truly had already been busy lobbying in favour of the resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis and the shaming of the impostor who lost the 2002 presidential elections but who clings onto power like a bad smell. There was no fanfare, no weeping and wailing youth and women at the airport to receive Africa’s top racist on his arrival in Lisbon.
What was intriguing was the fact that the media gave Mugabe the most powerful news blackout that has ever been accorded a head of state. The media deliberately shunned both Mugabe and his ever so grateful handlers right through the period that the dictator was in Lisbon. Several heads of states were interviewed by both radio and television channels as well as by the print media, but not our very own Dear Leader. They treated him like a leper; it was embarrassing even to me.
The only media bulletins that graced the screens of most international news channels were numerous stories about how Zimbabwe has been turned by Mugabe and his henchmen into ashes. Footage of empty shelves, raw sewage flowing in the streets, vehicles queuing for non-existent fuel, and thousands of people surrounding money-less banks were screened throughout Saturday and Sunday. One such item relates to a primary school teacher who abandoned his job in Zimbabwe and is now doing “piece jobs” in South Africa. Said this Zimbabwean towards the end of his story, “In one day, I earn more than a school teacher earns in one month in Zimbabwe”.
In addition to a few of us who made it to Lisbon to highlight the plight of the people of this country, there were also a good number of Zimbos who travelled from the UK to demonstrate against Mugabe, the dictator who forced them to leave their own country for Blair’s Britain. There were street demonstrations with demonstrators holding aloft very telling placards and banners. The biggest one read: “Mugabe, you are welcome to The Hague”, implying of course, that the dictator would be tried for crimes against humanity.
Some four individuals posed on a platform wearing masks depicting Mugabe, Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator, Bashir of Sudan and at least one other regime leader. The four then took paintbrushes and began to whitewash the billboard behind them in a desperate attempt to cover up their evil acts against their own people. All of these activities were being filmed for a wider audience via television. For its part, the Mugabe regime had spared no effort in preparing its own placards, key rings and magazines that portrayed the dictator as a champion of the African cause. One key ring had the caption, “Mugabe is right”; right about what? A few miserable Zanu (PF) youths and women were demonstrating in support of the dictator. We made good fun of them by blocking their placards and posing for photos in front of Robert’s ugly face. It was great fun, I wish we could do it right here in the motherland.
It is sad that the dictator came back home empty-handed. It was a futile exercise to travel all the way to Lisbon only to be told off by the German lady, Merkl, that the people of Zimbabwe deserve better than what Mugabe and his rotten ZanuPF were subjecting them to. The trip to the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon was certainly a total failure for the dictator. It was like chasing the wind.
Post published in: Opinions