37 years on, it’s time Mugabe left the limelight to face reality
WITH the events that unfolded in Harare last week, it appears that Robert Mugabe’s rule of 37 years and 215 days and counting is coming to an end.
There seems to be no other logical conclusion to the stalemate between the military and Mugabe – this is apparent to everyone except Mugabe himself.
What was the thought process behind Mugabe’s refusal to step down? Maybe he was hoping to surpass the record held by non-royal African leader, Cameroon’s Paul Biya? Biya has been prime minister and president for 42 years and 142 days and counting.
Mugabe has a better chance of catching Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who stands at 38 years and 108 days and counting.
He might even have had his eye on Castro’s world record for a non-royal leader at an impressive 52 years and 62 days.
But alas, Mugabe’s prolonged tenure is surely at its final stages now. By any stretch of the imagination, 37 years is a long time.
The world has changed in many ways in the last 37 years.
In 1980, the world was free from globalisation, climate change, twitter and terrorism.
So allow me to set out some of the changes that have taken place in the last 37 years since Mugabe came to power.
My apologies if this sounds like a terrible version of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.
Here it goes. In 1980 the Soviet Union still existed and the Berlin Wall would stand for another nine years. Justin Bieber was not born yet and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in the third grade (allow me a second to imagine a world without Bieber fever).
Apartheid was in force and Nelson Mandela was languishing in prison – and would continue to do so for another 10 years.
The compact disc only became available in 1982 and the first iPod arrived in 2001 – by then Mugabe had been at the helm for 21 years.
In 1980, the idea of the internet did not exist and only came into being in 1990, when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.
In 1980, Elon Musk was 9 years old. Prozac became available in 1987, seven years after Mugabe’s ascension to power; and one can’t help but wonder if Uncle Bob could have benefited from it. The first space shuttle launch was the Columbia on April 12, 1981.
When the Apple Macintosh launched in 1984, Mugabe had been in power for four years. This would also be the year DNA fingerprinting was discovered.
The nicotine patch only hit stores in 1992.
Kim Kardashian wasn’t born when Mugabe was sworn in on March 4 1980; so too Gisele Bundchen and Channing Tatum. Bob Marley was still alive (allow me a second to imagine a world with Bob Marley).
A lot has changed since 1980. The people of Zimbabwe have endured Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical rule and cult of personality for almost four decades.
In the words of Robert Nesta Marley (who played at Zimbabwe’s Independence celebrations): “We the generation, trod through great tribulation”.
So it is time for Uncle Bob to exit stage left. With Grace. Vince van der Walt Nova Constantia