While watching the thousand men and women march last year in Harare my attention for a moment went to the faces that were not part of the long walk to the stadium where President Mugabe was going to address his followers who want him to become life President.

All I saw in the faces of the people watching  ‘…..were faces waiting for the future……’

I got my hands on a CD with President Mugabe’s greatest speeches since the days he became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. I added my collection to these and some interviews he did with different reporters and what I just got to realize is what motivated this pen.

In his first TEN years as leader of Zimbabwe his speeches were IN THE FUTURE and were for the future of Zimbabwe and gave HOPE. In the last TEN years to now his speeches were  IN THE PAST and were for present Zimbabwe and gave FEAR.

Take just these two, ‘………we have loaned Zimbabwe from the future generations of this country and we should see to it that they inherit a better Zimbabwe from us…..’

Take this one, ‘…….we fought for this country and we will not allow anyone to interfere with how we want to govern ourselves……’ 

There is a twenty year difference between these two statements. These tell us that President Mugabe has since changed locations. He now lives in the PAST and is obsessed by the PAST. He uses the PAST to justify his actions in creating the PRESENT. From his great speeches of recent times, one can tell that he does not care about the FUTURE of Zimbabwe any more, but cares about the PAST that makes him feel that it is his responsibility alone to defend the sovereignty of this land. He has placed himself and his focus so much in the PAST that when one walks the streets and villages of Zimbabwe one can feel the thick air of the population that is written,…..’waiting for the FUTURE with HOPE. This group of people standing at this street corner at Karikangombe says it all.

Waiting for the Future

Why do the elders of politics and the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe follow the president into the PAST? It is them and only them who can help him realize that he is now living in the PAST and that he is using it to build the PRESENT rather that live in the PRESENT and use it to build the FUTURE.

After listening to the President’s last speech at the UN last year I was so frustrated by his emphasis of the PAST that I had to tell him and I wrote him a letter. You can read it on this link. Its not my first letter to him. He does not respond and at times he sends me CIO Officers to clarify some lines. That does not worry me as long as I communicate my thoughts to him.

Zimbabwe has a very painful PAST in different ways to different people and it is for this reason that our statesmen and politicians should never ever go back and live in the past. All they should do is learn from the past and use the present to build a better future not for their nation but for the whole world.

Life President? What a shame! Not to President Mugabe but to other elder statesmen and politicians of this Nation who are always hanging around him. Is Zanu PF President Mugabe? I bag to differ. It is precisely for this reason that I wrote a strong letter to the PF Zapu leadership in unity with Zanu PF led by the great statesmen J. Msika. You can read the letter in this link.  I strongly feel that it is the PF ZAPU part of the ruling party that should guide President Mugabe and they should create an environment within the party that can bring about a solution in the Zimbabwean crisis. The masses are suffering and for how long can this GO ON. Are they saying that this suffering should GO ON until President Mugabe dies? Who knows when?

Zimbabwe cannot afford a President Mugabe for another day as long as he lives in the PAST in 2008. His recent economic record and speeches speak for themselves. Its time elders in politics of this country should guide the President to his retirement so that he can stay in the PAST and write his experiences of the PAST for our FUTURE generations with ought any busy schedules of government interrupting him so that they can learn from HIM and use his experiences of the PAST to understand the PRESENT so that they can use it to build a better FUTURE.

Zimbabweans from all walks of life and political divide have to come together in 2008 and help the President retire. He has given to Zimbabwe what he can! What more do we need him to do?

Read my letter to Hon Speaker J.L. Nkomo

Read my letter to Zapu-PF Comrades now in Zanu-PF

Cont Mhlanga
Bulawayo
Saturday, January 12, 2008