More locally, the Vigil recalls that when President Mutharika of Malawi died a couple of years ago, his corpse – resuscitation tubes attached – was flown to South Africa for supposed ‘life-saving treatment’ while his supporters frantically tried to fix the succession.
Are we seeing a similar charade being played out in Harare? The Vigil doesn’t know whether Mugabe is dead or incapacitated. But it’s obvious that he’s finished. The 89-year-old, looking ‘frail and tired’, flew off after Christmas ostensibly on a month-long holiday, but really to consult his doctor in Singapore. His prostate cancer had spread and he had already lived years longer than the doctor predicted.
The Zanu PF source Baba Jukwa then reported that Mugabe had collapsed. The state media said he had cut short his holiday and flown home but that he was ‘as fit as a fiddle’. Some fiddle! A photograph showed him being greeted by Vice-President Mujuru at the airport. But people immediately noticed that the picture was identical to one taken a year ago when Mugabe flew back from a trip to Addis Ababa.
The real scandal is that Zanu PF put a sick old man up for election when he had nothing to offer Zimbabwe. His work is done: he has bankrupted Zimbabwe, turning it from one of the most prosperous countries in Africa to one of the world’s poorest. It’s time now for ‘Heroes’ Acre.
A meeting of the bi-monthly Zimbabwe Action Forum held after the Vigil discussed plans to stage a demonstration in Brussels next month when the EU decides whether to renew the targeted sanctions against Mugabe. It was agreed to run a petition to the EU demanding that there should be no recognition of the illegitimate Mugabe regime. Disappointment was expressed at the failure of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to respond to our request for advice on a legal challenge to the stolen elections.
Post published in: World News