Mugabe watched with glee when, after independence, his party began to divide itself along factional lines. He let the factions grow and entrench themselves because he realised that would work to his advantage.
Over the years, he has used classic divide and rule tactics to preserve his hold on power. His trick has been simple: let them fight each other and come to me for favours.
Mugabe himself knows very well that the factions that have emerged within Zanu (PF) do not want him anymore, yet all of them profess their allegiance to him in public because they need his signature in whatever they do. Now he is saying he cannot step down because he fears the intense jockeying for his position will kill the party. There is nothing new in that strategic position, of course, because, in it, he has seen an opportunity to remain in power.
Under normal circumstances, it would not be our business as a media house to be giving prescriptions to political parties on how to run their affairs.
However, it is clear that the Zanu (PF) succession dynamics have a direct bearing on the national situation. If not properly handled, Zimbabwe could easily slide into a crisis whose magnitude this country has not witnessed before.
The factions within Zanu (PF) keep multiplying. What is most worrying is the reported entrance of a military nucleus, apparently prepared to stop at nothing to ensure that it gets the coveted position.
This would involve a number of unpalatable strategies, among them staging a coup and installing military rule, creating a state of emergency and systematic violence against innocent civilians.
We have already seen some of these strategies at play without the overt involvement of a military faction. The obvious result of a militarised campaign for Mugabe’s position would be civil unrest, even worse violations of human rights and, of course, increased isolation by the international community.
The possibility of civil strife should surely convince Mugabe to stop hiding behind a finger and take decisive action so that there is a peaceful transition within his party. If he cannot solve the succession crisis in his party now, why should he be sure that he would do that from behind the grave?
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga
I loose hope and get very depressed when I read statements like thse: –
i).”United States ambassador to Zimbabwe-designate Bruce Wharton says although his country’s policy is not about regime change, the US will not stand by if the rights of Zimbabweans are trampled on…” because since the turn of the millenium, the USA has done just that. Stood by when the rights of young Zimbabweans were indeed trampled on the ground with horrific first-hand reports from former Police member of being asked to drown a Protester who had been beaten to pulp , had his tongue cut out and still groaning, forced into the boot of a car and asked to push it into a lake still groaning.There have, since then, been countless such reports but all that the USA, UK and other Country’s with clout through various avenues was to impose “partial sanctions” and an empty-rhetoric ” laden wordy gimmick known as “The Kimberley Process” which they now even considering lifting ! What a travesty !! Zimbabwe could long have been prevented from becoming a ‘crippled,twilight’ just hyper-inflation was kicking-in but becoming leaden-footed at the thought of “the devil you know is better than the devil you do not know” has prevented the proverbial “West” and its allias and non-Allies in Asia from taking effective action to bring Zimbabwe back to prosperity in ZIMBABWEAN HANDS, not foreign Oligarchs.Helping to train as many Zimbabweans as possible even for the ORDERLY REDISTRIBUTION of Land, and not letting it fall into the hands of greedy, ill-disciplined, untrained mobs
ii).”The AU SOLVES problems the ‘African Way’ and never interferes in the internal affairs of ‘Member States’.” The last time we read that was when AU Chairman President wa Muthinka hugged “..my Friend and Brother” Gbagbo who was frustrating the will of Ivoreans in the spirit of that ethic “solving problems the African way through inactivity ,complicity, connivance or compliance “, which then gives “The West” the excuse to opt out of doing anything and letting GENOCIDE take its course as in Rwanda and Darfur through inactivity and indolence !
The Powers that be should not lift sanctions at this stage not unless they want to condemn Zimbabwe to ‘eternal damnation’ which the Military with covert Diamond wealth resources in North-East Zimbabwe and DRC will visit upon the Country when the ‘Reaper’ steps in !