Why People Vote For Mugabe And Zanu (PF)

I watched this interview with interest and then with horror as, during the final minutes, Tsvangirai fell into another trap.

To finish the interview, Makamba said that even though Tsvangirai was vying to succeed President Mugabe, there must be some things that the MDC President admired about Mugabe. Morgan Tsvangirai finished an interview in which he was appealing to the people of Zimbabwe to vote for him to be president of the nation, by extolling his opponent’s virtues. Predictably, state-controlled newspapers had a field day. They simply led with how the opposition leader had praised Mugabe. The qualities that Tsvangirai admitted Mugabe had were those of being articulate and a liberation war veteran.

Anybody who goes into a competition or war is best advised to understand his opponent and why that opponent has his or her admirers. The opponent’s weapons must be neutralised. Whether or not Mugabe has been rigging elections since Edgar Tekere and Margaret Dongo first dared to challenge him, it is an undeniable fact that Mugabe does have supporters. In order to beat Mugabe through the ballot box it is necessary to understand why he is admired by those who do.

Robert Mugabe promotes and personifies the image of the man who dares speak and stand against the forces of oppression. He is the brave African who dared tell Tony Blair to keep your England and I will keep my Zimbabwe. Mugabe is the elder statesman who has stood the test of time and managed to keep a strangle-hold on the reins of power in Zimbabwe for almost 28 years.

Robert Mugabe is the African hero who has returned the land to its rightful owners, the black people of Zimbabwe. The world is blind to the Mugabe who has turned Zimbabweans into paupers. The world does not know the liberator who has turned oppressor. Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) are masters of the conspiracy theory. Whoever opposes them is said to be part of the western world’s machinations for the re-colonialisation of Zimbabwe.

[xhead]Wedded to corruption
Some of Zimbabwe’s war veterans and even citizens fail to separate the person of Mugabe from the war of liberation, its principles and gains. These people are willing to forgive all transgressions for the sake of protecting the sovereignty’ of the state. These people are honestly afraid of betraying the struggle by removing the father of the revolution’ from power.

It is essential to convince these people that the principles of the struggle are not under siege and that these principles can survive Mugabe. It is important to understand that the struggle that made Mugabe a hero, has also claimed him as a victim.

There are also people in Zimbabwe who vote for Zanu (PF) and Mugabe in order to maintain the corruption in Zimbabwe. There are people who are amassing a great deal of wealth through foreign currency and other deals which would not be possible in a Zimbabwe that will have been returned to normalcy, where systems work as they should and regular, honest employment is rewarding.

There are people who are threatened by the idea of President Mugabe losing elections. Some have joined or remained in his inner circle through licking Mugabe’s boots and enjoying the privileges that come with this patronage. There are people who are afraid of losing the farms, the tractors etc they received through being Mugabe’s praise-singers.

These are some of the people who want the Mugabe regime to survive its latest test for purely selfish needs. Will presidential hopefuls reach out to these people and maybe promise them deals similar to those being offered to Mugabe himself to assure him of immunity if he agrees to leave office?