Section:GDN 1N PaGe:36 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 18:32 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Saturday 7 September 2019
(^36) World
Robert Mugabe
1924-2019
View from the streets ‘He left us in
this mess and we are still suff ering’
Nyasha Chingono Harare
Jason Burke
T
here was much
refl ection but little
regret expressed on the
streets of Harare at the
news of the death of the
former Zimbabwean
president Robert Mugabe. He was
a hero of Africa’s independence
struggle but his near four-decade
rule descended into tyranny,
corruption and incompetence. He
died in Singapore on Thursday night.
Nomarn Makoto, 33, a
school teacher from the poor
neighbourhood of Epworth, said he
felt little sympathy for Mugabe, who
was ousted in a military takeover in- “ He has just died like everyone
else. He left us in this mess and we
are still suff ering. The Bible says
your deeds, good or bad, will follow
you. His will surely haunt him on the
other side,” Makoto said.
Netsai Gute, a 68-year-old retired
civil servant whose pension was
wiped out by runaway infl ation
caused by Mugabe’s economic
mismanagement, said the former
leader had become a distant
“god like ” fi gure who believed
himself infallible and indispensable.
“He was heartless ... Everything
that we fought for, he threw in the
mud. May God have mercy on his
soul, because he left Zimbabwe
worse off. My generation does not
have a decent pension because of
him. I can not aff ord a decent burial
because of him. Surely justice must
now take its course, and he will be
punished as he deserves,” Gute said.
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party remains
in power and is blamed by many
in Zimbabwe for the country’s
deep problems. Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who became president
after Mugabe’s fall , expressed his
condolences to the former leader’s
family on Twitter and described his
predecessor as a pan-Africanist who
dedicated his life to his country.
Mnangagwa promised to bring
foreign investment to Zimbabwe
and restore full relations with theinternational community when
he took power. But early hopes of
reform were dashed when violence
followed a contested election. There
have since been several waves of
repression , targeting opposition
and labour activists as well as pro-
democracy campaigners.
With no prospect of a major
international bail out, an already
grave economic crisis is deepening.
Millions face shortages of power,
clean water and aff ordable food.Hospitals are short of medicine. Few
people have steady employment.
Zanu -PF offi cials frequently
blame international sanctions
for the country’s problems, but
most analysts point to systematic
mismanagement and widespread
corruption.
Tendai Biti , a former fi nance
minister and opposition
politician, said it was important
to acknowledge the massive
destruction caused by Mugabeas well as the late leader’s role in
Zimbabwe’s independence struggle.
“A giant has fallen, a man who
was a coalition of controversies,
who failed to transform himself
from a liberation leader to a national
leader,” Biti said. Yet there is still
some fondness for a man seen by
many as a hero for his role in fi ghting
the white supremacist regime in the
former British colony in the 1970s.
Elvis Gwekwerere, 35, a taxi
driver, said he was “in pain ”. He
added: “We are who we are because
of him. Zimbabwe feels like it does
not have a president at the moment
since he left power. The gap that he
left will never be fi lled .”
Massa Munetsi, 25, a University
of Zimbabwe student, said the
country had been better under
Mugabe and his successor had failed
to live up to people’s expectations.
“To be honest, despite his fl aws,
we need to forgive and forget.
Surely we all make mistakes and we
shouldn’t forget that he fought for
this country. During his time things
were not this hard, but now we are
suff ering,” Munetsi said. “ When he
fell from power, people were happy
because they felt a new government
had come, but now we regret the old
days. Forgive us, Uncle Bob .”
Monica Mutsvangwa, the
information minister , said: “Some
of us, we were like his children to
him. We can never write our history
without mentioning him. ”▼ Robert and Grace Mugabe in
November 2017, days before the
coup that led to their downfall
PHOTOGRAPH: JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/GETTY Children
playing in the
street in Harare
yesterday, next
to a defaced
portrait of
Robert Mugabe
PHOTOGRAPH:
TSVANGIRAYI
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