Wind back to about 75 years ago, when Mugabe, as a teenager herding cattle in the vleis of Kutama, would withdraw his beasts from the communal herd whenever he felt offended. Back then, he acquired the propensity to pull out of the community represented by his peers and herd boys.
At Lancaster, during the ceasefire talks, he had the tendency to threaten to walk out whenever he felt his point was not being heeded. At perhaps every negotiation session, he would warn that his Zanla guerilla movement would renew their military onslaught if the likes of Ian Smith did not capitulate to his demands. He only stopped when Josiah Magama Tongogara, the Zanla head, reminded him that war was not like the candle lit dinners they were enjoying at Lancaster as people were dying like flies.
You should know better
He actually pulled Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth close to a decade ago and he has been making threats of withdrawal from the Government of National Unity from day one. The teenage Kutama spirit is relentless, as he is now telling us that if “SADC makes stupid mistakes, we are going to pull out”, but Mugabe should surely know better and do better.
I am not sure if, when he made the threat last week during the launch of Zanu (PF)’s manifesto, he really meant it, but, to all intents and purposes, the Old Man is capable of anything. In any case, there is a certain stubbornness that comes with old age.
I am not sure who Mugabe was referring to when he said “we”. I don’t think he was being representative of all Zimbabweans, not to mention his partners in the caretaker government. If he was talking on behalf of the largely rented mob that thronged Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, then his thinking is fatally flawed.
Zanu (PF) is not ruling the country. Instead, it is a political partner in a transitional set up as we wait for the general election that is hopefully going to usher in a new dispensation. Since his party is not the government or Zimbabwe, it doesn’t make any sense for it to pull out of SADC. The regional bloc is not composed of sectarian political institutions such as Zanu (PF), but whole nations.
Political bluffing
Take away the possibility of a political bluff in Mugabe’s pullout threat, disengaging from SADC is like running away from oneself. It is like a self-conceited man who runs away from his own home thinking that he is settling scores with his family. Sooner or later, he will come back.
Zimbabwe can’t survive without SADC and pulling out is the same as imposing sanctions on ourselves. That is the plain fact. Imagine how much business we do with South Africa alone. What would happen to the economy if we were to pull out? What about the many bilateral agreements we have with SADC member states, without which we can’t survive? How many of our kids are attending school in the region, and how many poor families are managing to subsist, courtesy of regional integration?
Visa queues
I, for one, would not want to be once again queuing for a visa to go to South Africa, that is, if that facility would remain? Then there is power, fuel, basic commodities and ready employment bases that Zimbabweans enjoy by virtue of us being a member of SADC. I wonder if Mugabe ever thought about this when he told the hapless crowd that “we” could pull out of SADC. Getting out of the Commonwealth was a different ball game. That club is largely symbolic, even though I know of friends who had to discontinue their education when Mugabe and his hardcore band made the decisions to selfishly remove us from this union.
Of course, I know where Mugabe’s beef with SADC is located. It is this very institution, together to some extent with the African Union, that forced him into a coalition government with Morgan Tsvangirai. He will never forgive the bloc for refusing to endorse his recalcitrance after the June 2008 presidential run-off and make him share power with a man he believed would never rule Zimbabwe.
He was left with so much egg on his face and his gargantuan ego suffered irreparably. It is SADC that keeps reminding him that he has become obsolete, and I know the Old Man hates being thought of as some kind of relic.
The death knell
The recent Maputo special summit that directed him to go back to the negotiation table, as I pointed out in an earlier installment, sounded the death knell on his claim for political immortality. Mugabe knows that SADC can still deal a fatal blow to his grand plan for a political come back, seeing as it is he is so desperate to win the July 31 race and be recognised as a legitimate statesman.
But whatever disillusions Mugabe is suffering, the plain fact is that SADC is as indispensable to Zimbabwe as oxygen. The sooner he realises this, the better for him and for Zimbabwe. – For feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis