We've again been informed of recent days that the Zimbabwean Opposition Movement for Democratic Change is set - nothing intervening in the meantime - to present its case before the nation's Supreme Court over the next couple of weeks; thus - potentially - delaying/deferring the official inauguration of Zimbabwe's presumptive President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa by that time. And so - presuming nothing further happens to prevent that - this appeal (or rather court challenge - to the recent elections) with its corroborating evidence will be duly presented and considered during that period. So far, so good.
But who's to think - why should anyone conclude - that this will all go forward in a proper, legal, above-the-board fashion, without hindrance or active resistance from a top-heavy, iron-fisted state? As I suggested in my title, if you really honestly believe that things will happen thus, you're simply deceiving yourself - bigtime - if not being self-deluded to begin with. Seriously folks!
And so, having thus laid my own cards, so to speak, on the table to begin with, I simply ask your further indulgence as we continue in a careful, thoughtful consideration of what's actually really 'up' in present-day Zimbabwe. If you're ready to go beyond shallow media soundbites and superficial analysis, then I invite you to join me once more as we delve again into the state of democracy in Zimbabwe today; I sincerely hope you won't be disappointed.
In this, part five (and my final, part six) of my mini-series upon the recent elections and status of democracy in the one-time nation of Rhodesia, I'll succinctly enumerate and briefly elaborate upon the basic reasons and various evidences for the claim (I'm obviously supporting via these posts) that Zimbabwe is still - indeed arguably perhaps more than ever - in the grip of an iron-fisted state and its self-appointed head. Which state of affairs - for all with eyes to see or ears to hear - looks set to abate no time soon, or in the foreseeable. But first let's look at some of the counter-evidence that's been in the news...
Sure, we all want to believe the best of any situation, especially some of the incredibly fraught geo-political conflicts and dilemmas of our increasingly complex and problematic day and age. And to think the best of any individual is surely in the DNA of every human being created in the image of its Maker...for those 'simple-minded folk' who still hold to such old-fashioned concepts of life, that is. Yes, I'm one of those - I'm simply playing 'devils' advocate' for those unfamiliar with such irony.
And so why shouldn't we just believe Presumptive-President-Elect Mnangagwa when he - let's give him all due credit, it seems a veritable class act (he's presently performing) - in so many, subtle as well as overt ways, seems to be indicating he is a defanged one-time oppressor, whose default position is now as harmless as ye proverbial domesticated cat? Someone who 'really, truly' (as Dick van Dyke, I think, expresses things in the musical Mary Poppins - or is it rather Willy Wonka himself, pontificating upon his latest scrump-diddly-icious chocolate confectionary, in my all-time favourite - Gene Wilder version - kids' movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? - no matter) has changed his ways?
Why indeed not believe him (that is)? It seems a good and pertinent question. Until one stops a mo(ment) or two and considers how we usually respond to someone in his position, someone who once was unabashedly the tool, nay in his case the very instigator, of political violence (and on such a sickening scale that it earned him the nickname 'the Crocodile').
Yes indeed. For the sort of stuff generally sheeted home to the new Zimbabwean President was nothing less than the wholesale massacring of the supporters - plus no doubt innocent family and friends, and merely townspeople of - the one-time Opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo, 'whose' Matabeleland was given the going over in no uncertain terms by the forces of then President-Elect Robert Mugabe; under one Emmerson Mnangagwa, no less.
So yes, normally someone from such a problematic background first has to prove themselves a truly changed individual before we'll just accept their claims - though truth be told, in places like the Hague they're more often - on the *odd chance they ever get to see and try them - sentenced to life imprisonment 'for crimes against humanity' (and then not seen again in public the rest of their days).
But dealing with 'the real world' as we're confronted with it in places such as Zimbabwe, that sort of scenario is a rare thing indeed, and so we need to be content with 'justice' as it is possible in the circumstances. In the meantime, anyhow. And so, yes, we see someone - President Mnangagwa - who's certainly making all the proper 'noises' to at least appear to be doing and trying to do the right thing by everyone concerned/involved (in Zimbabwe), including international observers specially on duty there at present.
'Things' such as declaring that Opposition leader Nelson Chamira "had an important part to play in a [regenerated] future Zimbabwe" (and its democracy); undoubtedly being directly behind the calling off of the riot police upon MDC leader Chamira's immediate post-election result declaration press conference (before things got totally out of hand); blaming Grace Mugabe (et al) rather than the MDC for an - apparent - assassination attempt upon Mnangagwa's life at an election rally awhile ago; and for talking in a mild and conciliatory fashion as he declared the election ballots to be in his favour...among other things...
To be continued (part 6): So What of Such Apparent 'good faith' moves upon the part of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa? Why Not just take him - the new Mnangagwa - at Face Value?
*Because as anyone with any knowledge of late 20th-Century history well knows, dictators and tyrants like Uganda's Idi Amin and Haiti's 'Doc Duvalier' - among many others - have an unsettling habit of whisking themselves away into dark and secluded corners of the globe where they're often able to carry on in lavish luxury undetected and 'unmolested' pretty well to the end of their (threescore-some allotted) days... .
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