Come October when they hold elections, Filipe Nyussi will take over from Guebuza, making him the third president to rule that country after the death of Samora Machel in October 1986. Of course, Guebuza will remain at the helm of the party, but what is important is that he is going, leaving Mugabe still firmly in the driving seat here.
When Mugabe came to power in 1980 Samora was five years into power in war-torn Mozambique. Then came Joachim Chissano, who was replaced by Guebuza, and soon it will be Nyussi.
Similarly, the aged ruler has shaken hands with four South African presidents (Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma), in the space of 20 years. In Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Malawi, several presidents have passed the baton – while Mugabe continues to insist that Zanu (PF) and Zimbabwe would crumble without him.
Just before his 90th birthday bash, Mugabe acknowledged that he was a loner because most of the people he started the struggle with locally and regionally were no longer around. He has ruled for 34 years and seems to be determined to die in office.
What is particularly striking is that Zanu (PF) and Frelimo share a similar history, with both having started off as avowed Marxist-Communist movements and gradually morphed into capitalists – particularly after the fall of the USSR. You would therefore expect that they would share similarities where power dynamics and succession are concerned.
In fact, Zanu (PF) should have emerged as a better and more acceptable model, considering that Zimbabwe richer than Mozambique in many ways and did not have to grapple with a long drawn-out civil unrest (that even now seems to be rearing its ugly head again). It is therefore disturbing that while most other countries in southern Africa have managed succession relatively well, Mugabe still lags behind.
We urge him to take a look around and see how the times have moved on – leaving him behind. It is not our business to determine how Zanu (PF) chooses its leaders, but it is certainly our right as Zimbabweans to remind the president that our nation has many capable leaders who could run the country better than he is doing.
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga
We have a great nation, and you are a great leader no one person can dispute that, but it’s now up to you to be honest with yourself and to the nation, age has challenged us and there is no new energetic life we can be hopeful, about, from you. We love you and we wish you many more years to come, but it is of great concern to the future of this great nation if you fail to realise the need for you to provide wise counsel to the one who takes over from you after your retirement. You are our legendary leader and you would be of great value if you live to advise the next president. It can be argued but time is no longer on your side, my observation is if you naturally depart whilst in power you would have dumped the nation. Your wise counsel is needed whilst you are alive, not from literature. I fear we might have to go back to 1980 were everything was all about the desperation to show case change and to try and prove that we were prepared to run the country and yet we had to go through the painful refining process of failure first and this hour is the make or break. This would put to waste all the painful refining experiences we have gone through. I might be wrong so forgive me fellow countryman, I have a strong feeling about this issue, considering the selfish syndrome I am still witnessing in our leader at present there is no hope for a total emancipation of the African man in Zimbabwe as long as President Mugabe holds on to power. Unless President Mugabe tells himself its time the ZANU PF bunch will never be honest with him. Psychologically I have prepared myself that as per the constitution President Mugabe will retire in 10 years time so I will wait until then. Its time to expand my knowledge and train my mind to be a better leader tomorrow.