Kanengoni was sentenced to seven years in prison for the shooting and maiming of former Gweru mayor Patrick Kombayi in the run-up to the 1990 elections. But he was pardoned by Mugabe. He was also named by the MDC-T as one of the people responsible for the deaths of 14 party activists at Chaona village in Chiweshe in May 2008. The Vigil thinks that the demand for justice is not going to go away however hard the MDC tries to reassure Zanu (PF).
There is simply no way that Zanu (PF) can escape being called to account – if only by a South African-style truth and reconciliation process.
Our reflections on this were prompted by a sycophantic fawning television documentary on the Mugabe family made for the SABC by Dali Tambo, son of South African liberation hero Oliver Tambo.
‘Flowers, silver cutlery and a box of tissues adorn the spotless white tablecloth’ reports the British Guardian newspaper, which was given a preview of the programme. ‘Mum chortles’ as the first family tucks in . . . ‘You’re very loving, you’re kind, you’re generous’, she gushes to the President.
The sanitising of Mugabe drew some critical comments from the readership of the article. Here is one we found particularly illuminating: “My father managed a 5 star hotel in central London in the late 80’s. Mugabe used to stay at the hotel. When his motorcade would leave for Heathrow, it included a dozen trucks from the likes of Harrods, and after check out, a handler from the High Commission would come to the hotel with a suitcase of cash and pay for anything missing from the inventory of the rooms they used in exchange for not pressing charges of theft or going to the press.
Everything from TVs to cutlery to chairs would be missing and loaded on to their trucks.”
Post published in: News