Grovelling in Zimbabwe takes a different form from the NuLab sycophantism that Brits are used to although a Blair babe may wish to take up the option:
Making a belated birthday message to Mugabe, Senator Chief Musarurwa from Mashonaland East told fellow senators that Mugabe should be allowed to be a life President….The President was anointed to be a leader of this country and we wish that he should grow old to the extent that his back is rubbed with cow dung and until the followers know that his duty is to take care of this country, until there are no such things as corruption and until there is peace and equal distribution of land in this country.
Mugabe follows the strategies of his communist role models, eating the nation from the inside out, wasting away civil society until the power of the party is revealed behind the barrel of the gun, and all opposition is exhausted. In countries where such strategies are undertaken, all political forms are gradually hollowed out by a creeping militarisation as the crisis spirals. The problem is that the pirate state has to ensure that the army gets the majority of the spoils. The war veterans may have been bought off after their chairman, Jabulandi Sibanda, was expelled from ZANU-PF for the heretical thought that benefits should accrue to all Zimbabweans:
Max Mkandla, president of The Zimbabwe LiberatorsVoice which represents peaceful war veterans who believe all Zimbabweans deserve benefits, told us the government is trying to persuade war vets in the association not to walk away from ZANU-PF and follow their chairman Jabulani Sibanda who was expelled from the ruling party last week. Mkandla said the majority of war vets have thrown their support behind Sibanda and the new ‘salaries’ are a bribe to keep them close so their activities can be monitored. Mkandla added that ZANU-PF has lost the support of its own members and is attempting to buy loyalty from the police, military, nurses and now the war veterans.
The armed forces are taking control of state and parastatal institutions as Mugabe’s regime attempts to stave off hunger and maintain its core functions:
The use of the army to take control of the countryside has been mirrored by the appointment of military commanders to top positions in the civilian institutions, in an effort to strengthen 82-year-old Mugabe’s grip on the country.
Generals, some still on active duty, others retired, now control the reserve bank, the grain marketing board, the electoral commission, the state railway, energy ministry, parks authority and other key institutions formerly run by civilians.
Jonathan Moyo, a former minister of information who quit the Mugabe government and is now Zimbabwe’s only independent MP, said: “This is an admission that things have fallen apart and that governance can no longer continue in civilian mode.”
Perhaps the generals will tire of wiping Mugabe’s behind with cow dung and will feel that they can run Zimbabwe better themselves.
Annointing with cow dung actually sounds more like the kinda new-age thing that Carole Caplin would do for Cherie Blair…
“Yeah, Cherie, it’s a traditional animistic African remedy for wiping out opposition and enabling the leader’s wife to carry on ligging”
Excellent idea Nick. Maybe she could be convinced to combine it with cicatrization!
“This is an admission that things have fallen apart and that governance can no longer continue in civilian mode.”
Moyo was the fuckwit who was at the helm of the media oppression at the end of the 90s and early in this decade. And now this vile authoritarian is lecturing the government that he played such a prominent role in? I bet you he does not even see the fucking irony.
Lord help the poor Zimbabweans who have not managed to escape.
Hmmmm, didn’t Zibabwe used to be called Rhodesia and was run by a guy named Ian Smith?
Seems back then they exported food to the rest of Africa. Then the natives wanted their country back. The problem was, the hapless western media passed on the Bishop Abel Muzuwara (too religious?) and the other socialist guy and annoited Mugabe as the saviour (he was a *real* commie thug, accept no imitations). Now the country starves as Mugabe slouches toward his long awaited expiration, but the mess will all be blamed on the colonialism in the end.
Some times one’s crimes can be so great that you can literally get away with murder.
Rural or urban, Comrade Bob does not care.
He hits the farmers (black as well as white).
And his destruction of homes and enterprises in the towns is now so great it can be shown on satellite photographs.