Avoid dynastic tendencies

THE recent long-anticipated fall of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and the resurrection of people’s activism – encouraged by the generals who brought an end to the Mugabe family dictating the terms for Zimbabweans – refers. We ought to genuinely appreciate and understand the lesson that political power can never be permanently glued to one family.

Of course, the liberation struggle contribution made by the elder, comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, in the heyday of the second Chimurenga (war of liberation) against the brutal Ian Smith government and the colonial forces shall remain remarkable, not for only Zimbabwe’s independence but for its contribution to the African renaissance and the total liberation of our continent.

Nonetheless, fast forward to the more recent history of this once revered former leader, and it is regrettable how obsession with political office actually led to his demise. All is now history.

The lesson leaders especially, must learn is not to undermine the masses and patriots of their countries. It is crystal clear that the moment when Mugabe began to allow politics to mix with his own marital relations in the mid-1990s was a turn for the worst. He certainly became captured by Grace Mugabe’s drive to plunder and rule what was once Africa’s breadbasket, reducing it to a poor country.

Of course, the issue of how the British in the Lancaster House agreement betrayed Mugabe is a debate for another day. For now what is clear is that we must never allow any tendencies of leaders would have confidence in no one but their spouse for succession.

The power of the people at grassroots level must always be well oiled revolutionarily to. avert turning a national agenda into a family and marital arrangement. — Zibele Xuba, Nngcobo

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