Mugabe relies on a harem of cheerleaders, in the form of the Zanu (PF) Women’s League, bought and paid for with fertiliser and maize seed.
Until October 2013, Grace Mugabe was silent. Her meet-the-people speeches made absolutely no sense but at least she made an effort. There is no visible matron in Tsvangirai’s camp. If the female voice is intended to be Thokozani Khupe, she has so far been as invisible as Casper The Friendly Ghost. The matriarch is certainly not Elizabeth because each time she makes the news, some scandal is not far behind.
In 2007, when a swollen-faced Tsvangirai emerged from police custody he won the admiration of many Zimbabweans and the world at large, for his bravery in the face of a brutality. Eight years later, the steam appears to have run out from the MDC-T locomotive. Mugabe, a fortnight ago, blew $1 million on his birthday party and all that Tsvangirai’s team could do was call it an ‘obscene jamboree.’
Mugabe went on to announce that he has trebled his salary – from last year’s $4,000 to $12,000 – despite most Zimbabweans living on under $100 a month. The only reaction from MDC-T was to refer to Mugabe as ‘out of touch.’ But Robert Mugabe is very much in touch with the situation on the ground; he knows that there is absolutely no challenge to his position.
Mugabe’s million-dollar Victoria Falls orgy suggests that he is very secure in his position, knowing that there is no meaningful rival to speak of. The President is comparable to the hefty chap who deliberately knocks over a nerdy man’s beer mug and arrogantly asks, ‘so what are you going to do about it?’ Put into vernacular, ‘saka wanga wafunga kuita sei?’
Post published in: Analysis