Daily Dispatch

Zimbabweans on the brink

WHILE many may, under normal circumstances, eschew a military coup in any country, the one in Zimbabwe has, so far, been carried out in a way that has done a great deal to raise real hope for that country’s future.

Many have correctly sounded ringing warnings about Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, who is alleged to be behind the “coup”.

He is a man with deep and abiding links to Mugabe and his role in keeping the despot in power has been well documented.

It says much that things had become so dire in Zimbabwe that any change – even that being ushered in by Mnangagwa – is regarded as being for the better.

But regardless of who was behind it, so far, the bloodless coup has been conducted with at least a vestige of constitutionality.

To date, no one has been hung, drawn or quartered in any street or market square, as appealing an option as that must be to a citizenry long brutalised by a man who has remained in power by any means necessary.

Instead of simply throwing Mugabe out and replacing him with a leader of the army’s choice, the army seems to have deliberately created space for positive change.

Zanu-PF convened a quorate meeting to legally reinstate those Mugabe evicted from the party while simultaneously ejecting those who have long propped him up or who were his allies in seeking to illegitimately replace him with his wife Grace.

Mugabe was not evicted from the party. Perhaps out of respect for his advanced years and for the contribution he made to the liberation of Zimbabwe many years ago, the party chose only to recall him as party president and resolved he should resign as president – failing which parliamentary impeachment proceedings would be instituted.

Offered the option of a graceful exit, the megalomaniacal Mugabe insists on clinging to power like an ageing rock limpet.

Instead of his resignation, the cantankerous 93-year-old informed the party, which had earlier in the day sacked him as its leader, that he would oversee its December congress.

Now, after 37 years of tyrannical rule, he will likely face the humiliation of being the first and only president of that country to ever be impeached.

Ironically, his insistence that nothing should change – least of all his premiership of the country – smacks resoundingly of the attitude of a hated predecessor: the late and unlamented Ian Smith, who sought to avoid majority rule by declaring independence from Britain.

A decade ago, celebrated foreign correspondent and commentator for The Independent, Rupert Cornwell, wrote of Mugabe: “Mugabe the revolutionary turned into a brutal, lunatic totalitarian, who exacted a terrible price from a country which at independence seemed to have everything: international goodwill, a decent social infrastructure, and relatively advanced industry and agriculture.”

In just one week, Zimbabwe has once again become a country with great potential. It now requires a strong civil society and citizenry to realise it.