Mugabe is not a sweet old man. Let nobody mistake his suit and tie for a gentleman. On his watch 20,000 civilians died very cruel deaths in a decade of indescribable terror. There are mass graves in Matebeleland in which bullet-riddled skulls are piled on top of each other. In the violent land seizures of 2000, many farm workers and farmers lost their lives.
In 2008, when Zimbabwe finally said ‘ENOUGH’, Zanu (PF) militias maimed, raped, threatened and killed civilians, adding 200 more corpses to Mugabe’s long catalogue of human rights offences.
When you grew up without a father, because Mugabe’s army burned him alive, or if, at some point in your life, you have been unable to sit because your president’s militia dribbled hot, molten plastic onto your bare buttocks, you are entitled to laugh when the cause of your sorrow is photographed on his knees.