Mugabe: Former Colonial Liberation War fighters’ last bastion of hope

As health problems mount on the octogenarian Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and revolutionary events in North Africa and The Middle East pan out, panic and pandemonium grips his faithful coterie of brainwashed former freedom and pseudo freedom fighters.

The morale of the former Liberation war fighters and their assimilated youth militia that is the spine of Zanu PF by virtue of their hegemony on the Zanu PF and by extension National power is to say the least, ravaged.

Saviour Kasukuwere and Joseph Made impose belated sanctions on Zimbabwe

Gushungo Holdings proprietor and President Mugabe's second wife Grace enlisted cousin in Law and Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere to drive Nestle Zimbabwe into closing shop over the company's refusal to buy milk from a farm she expropriated without paying a single cent to previous owners resulting in the company hitting back by closing shop and living 200 employees jobless. Thanks to Kasukuwere and Made we now know who is sanctioning our country-Zanu PF and its President's wife

At a delicate time when most well meaning Zimbabwean political leaders are spending sleepless nights trying to find avenues to revive the country’s battered economy and their efforts are showing positive turnaround signs dim-witted Zanu PF ministers Joseph Made (Agriculture) and Saviour Kasukuwere (Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment) have chosen to swim against the tide and impose sanctions on the very country they claim is burdened by illegal sanctions imposed by the US and its EU allies.
Saviour Kasukuwere and Joseph Made accompanied by senior Police officers, Chief Superintendent Chrispen Makedenge and ...
Detective Inspector Henry Sostein Dowa and Affirmative Action Group vice President paid the Swiss owned Zimbabwe food processing company Nestlé following failed attempted forced delivery of a tanker full of milk from Gushungo Holdings by six employees of the company owned by President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace.

According to the state owned Herald newspaper that many now consider a Zanu PF mouthpiece rather than the Public Media enterprise it was established to be, Kasukuwere accused the West of using Nestlé “to impose further sanctions on the country.”

While indeed Gushungo Holdings is an indigenously owned company seeing as it belongs to the First family that alone does not entitle it to secure contracts with any entity doing business in the country at gunpoint.

Like any other company Gushungo Holdings must attract customers for its products through ethical and competitive marketing of its products without using political and national law enforcement agents and Ministers to coerce sales.

Minister Kasukuwere must know the difference between Gushungo Holdings and the country he serves in government well enough to avoid embarrassing himself, if at all he knows of the existence of the word, by making such foolish public statements.

There are numerous Zimbabwe establishments in dire need of milk such as Dairibord, Government Hospitals, Schools and other food manufactures too numerous to list here that it is curious why Gushungo Holdings appears determined to force Nestle to buy its product if not to push a political agenda that has lost favour with most Zimbabweans.

Be that as it may it would appear that its employees having failed to convince a potential customer to buy the Gushungo Holdings milk delivery they abused the office of the President by roping in Ministers and Police Officers to compel Nestlé to buy the President’s milk.

The justification for this high handed action appears to have stemmed from the fact that Nestlé had previously bought Gushungo holdings milk until October 2009 when it suspended dealings with the company following a public outcry and threatened customer boycott of its products after it was accused of dealing directly with a Zimbabwean company owned by people specified in EU sanctions for Human Rights abuses in the country.

To a certain degree then it appears minister Kasukuwere’s reasoning has logic that the company was complying with a sanctions regime that the country is attempting to smash at any cost.

But on further examination it becomes apparent that the reasoning is flawed and imposes more severe sanctions on the country than would be the case if it was left to operate without associating with Gushungo Holdings.

As a consequence of the political marketing strategy employed by Gushungo Holdings in its dealings with Nestlé, the Swiss owned company has closed shop and with that act the country has lost no less than 200 direct jobs in the company but will now have to import the products the company used to manufacture locally.
Downstream jobs in suppliers and customers of Nestlé Zimbabwe have not even been taken into account and it is safe to estimate than 100 000 jobs will be affected by this transaction alone.

When Nestlé refused to buy Gushungo Holdings milk no more than 1000 direct and indirect jobs were threatened.

Next time Zanu PF complaints that it is the MDC that caused the imposition of sanctions on the country they need to be reminded of the consequences of their ill conceived retributive actions against companies they believe are pushing a political agenda that is against their political agenda like Nestlé.

By forcing the premature closure of the Swiss based country in Zimbabwe at a time there is concerted regional and internal efforts to get the Swiss Government to rethink its participation in the sanctions regime against the country the ministers have not done the efforts any favours.

The Swiss government will simply hit back hard by imposing more stringent restrictions against the country bearing in mind that the country is a giant in world supplies of telecommunications and electronics equipment which the country desperately needs for its economic turnaround efforts to succeed.

But then the reputation of those that participated in the Nestlé closure is there for all to see.

Saviour Kasukuwere is a cousin to President Mugabe who made his fortune as a CIO operative in Mutare and is the proud owner of Comoil a company that racked in billions from fuel shortages in Mugabe and Zanu PF misruled Zimbabwe.

He was alleged to have led the disruptions of the all stakeholders constitution making process at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in July where he ended up embroiled in the Chinotimba/mahlangu mobile phone theft fiasco.

Joseph Made is the Minister of Agriculture who is reputed for accusing monkeys for fertilizer shortages and making flawed grain intake estimates from helicopter flights over Zimbabwe’s vast agricultural regions.

Of late he has been exposed as the minister of Agriculture who spends most of his time on Gushungo Holdings farms and Dr Gideon Gono’s poultry farm in Norton.
Chief Superintendent Chrispen Makedenge and Detective Inspector Henry Sostein Dowa are from the notorious ZRP Law and order section that has close links with the CIO and are the AG’s foot soldiers in persecuting MDC and Civic Society activists. They were there when Jestina Mukoko was abducted and we now know what the legal position is about their law enforcement methods.

As for Farai Mutamangira of the AAG it is important to know that this group is not regulated and much as it has noble intentions its methods are known to have been overboard and in many instances corruption tainted.

These are the people who Zanu PF must bring to book and whip into line if it entertains any lifting of travel restrictions and sanctions it says are suffocating the country and the party’s leadership.

It will be asking too much for the Swiss to open their doors for free entry by Zanu PF adherents symbolised by Kasukuwere and Made when the same people are closing down its investments in their country because they do not wish to deal with political leadership owned enterprises in Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe: A year’s experience 28 times over.

Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe; So many years experience doing the same unworkable things
Pity he is now 86 years old and not left with many more years to practice the new governance skills he is learning from the Inclusive Government.

Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Matibili Mugabe has rather fortuitously found himself engulfed by torrential winds of change.

Thrown in the eye of the storm of change by an ill conceived Military strategy to shield the Zimbabwe military commanders from crimes they committed against humanity in 28 years of a Zanu PF hegemony most of us would want to forget quickly, President Mugabe is...
strategically perched at a vantage point to learn.

Unfortunately his advanced age means the learning opportunity will be of minimal value to the Nation whose impoverishment he has scripted and solely presided over for an uninterrupted 3 decades.

Mugabe was forced to concede significant chunks of the draconian powers he had carved for himself over 28 years as Head of State to former Trade Unionist and current MDC President now Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Right Honourable Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.

And within a week of that momentous event in our history the underpinning management and leadership styles of Mr Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai are beginning to manifest in results that are interesting to note.

Mugabe acquired the Presidency of the country after leading a protracted and formidable armed resistance to undemocratic Colonial rule by British settlers.

The struggle he led had numerous casualties that must have formed his uncompromising command management style that he was to practice over 28 years in sole charge of the country.

Before leading the struggle Mugabe had not managed anything of note.

He was raised by a single parent in a Church environment. Like all boys of his age he grew up herding cattle and fighting the battles attendant in that hazardous occupation of cattle herdsman.

After that he trained as a School Teacher and had little if any management challenges from children in a country where corporal punishment was and still is encouraged as a disciplinary measure.

He was plucked from the comfort of a white collar classroom job to the jungle of politics of resistance where he fully exploited his mastery and proficiency in oral and written English to land crucial positions in the leadership of the Liberation from Colonial rule struggle.

Tsvangirai to him most if not all of the powers clipped from Mugabe devolved grew up in a two parent family and also went through the ritual of herding cattle and its calamities.

African fatherly care and grooming that is so apparently remiss in Mugabe’s adulthood has evident lasting formulations on Tsvangirai’s adulthood that make him behave and relate to people in a manner diametrically opposite to how Mugabe projects himself.

Where Mugabe chose the macho style to achieve political ends to mitigate colonial misrule and economic hardships of colonial rule by joining a hazardous Liberation struggle Tsvangirai was tempted but on second thought decided otherwise.

He sought menial employment to mitigate the same hardships and caution his immediate family from economic exposure at a time when Mugabe chose to sacrifice economic comfort from a teaching salary for the non remunerated liberation struggle leadership job.

Said otherwise Tsvangirai’s upbringing informed him to choose family survival strategies ahead of National survival strategies he had no idea about at the same time the more mature Mugabe opted for a National strategy that exposed his core family to immense risks for future benefit of the nation but perhaps more importantly his core family unit.

Formal employment imposed certain demands that formulated Tsvangirai’s response to adversity at the same time the War experience formulated Mugabe’s response to challenges in his way.

Where Mugabe chooses force and compulsion to get his way Tsvangirai combines negotiation with passive resistance to achieve the same end.

On forceful acquisition of the end result Mugabe then uses the power to push his way through the residual resistance to his self imposition in powerful positions.

Tsvangirai on the other hand continues to charm and negotiate his way to power consolidation.

There a price to pay in each strategy and this is what Zimbabweans are experiencing from the coalition government initiative in the country.

Mugabe has learned one means of gaining power and exercising it. After forcing his way into power in 1980 he has used feigned “reconciliation overtures” to deposed foes to disarm them and them prevail upon them.

Where reconciliation failed to win what he intended to gain he has resorted to using unbridled force to prevail.

That is why in his experience every power retention initiative is classified as an operation. The use of the word operation to define management strategies is a manifestation of Mugabe’s entrenched management by cohesion philosophy that were vindicated by the triumph of the Liberation struggle over Colonialism.

To him and his party using the word operation to define a management project gives it machismo.

It creates conditions for unconditional complicates from the connotations of the implied military force behind the operation if anyone stands in the way of accomplishment of the goals of the operation.

For three decades cohesive management has kept Mugabe in unchallenged control of the country.

So it seemed but what was happening was that for the entire 28 year period of his cohesive hegemony Mugabe was able to use force to suppress open dissent to his misrule.

Beneath that a swell of discontent was building up under fragmented informal political leadership.

Early informal leaders of the resistance to Zanu PF and Mugabe cohesion succumbed to repression because a critical mass of opponents had not been mobilised to counteract the organised Zanu PF repression machinery.

The false sense of tranquillity was to implode when the more organised workers discontent was marshalled into organised political discontent by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in clandestine consultations with informal Civic political leaders.

A protracted struggle was on the cards to wrestle political power from Mugabe and Zanu PF.

The initial phase of that struggle has culminated in a coalition government in which Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the key men.

It’s kind of a back to school government for President Mugabe and continued further education government for Prime Minister Tsvangirai.

Who learns the most and has the capacity to convert the lessons into political mileage will one day in the near future form a democratically elected government for the country.

Zimbabweans are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to pass that verdict in the next democratic elections to be staged no later than 2013- a lengthy wait but nonetheless worthwhile if it will give them the chance to once again assert themselves as the sovereign.

Some positive advantages have already started accruing to the PM at the expense of the President.

The arrest of Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy (Pachedu) Bennett has escalated negative public sentiment against the octogenarian President as it has stroked the fumes of the burning fire of illegal abductions and detentions of MDC and Civic Society activists.

In legal parlance the Head of State is the human manifestation of the state who can be legally and physically punished for state crimes of whatever nature.

Publicly Mugabe has said Bennett’s arrest and detention is a legal matter that the country’s courts must resolve but inwardly he does not believe a single word in that public posturing.

He knows as the nation does that he is the Court of last resort and is gambling that pardoning a convicted Roy Bennett will endear him with the people who have deserted him and his party.

Cynical political brinkmanship of this nature has no place in politically volatile Zimbabwe. He is stroking political anger against his party and his loathed rubberstamped imposition as the President.

When eventually Mr Bennett and the abused political detainees are set free which is never in doubt, he will discover that he will not be the darling of the nation but rather the villain.

Meanwhile the Prime minister has taken some bollocking for the continued state repression under his watch.

What is evident though is that the people are watching in disgust that their PM is being abused by an entrenched system of human rights violation and calmly and collectively dealing with the challenge and when the positive result manifests he will get the plaudits for achieving their peaceful liberation.

The virulent State media has suddenly become as tame as a duck. Gone are the inflammatory commentaries from the coterie of Zanu PF propagandists and unsubstantiated libellous articles it used to routinely publish.

The subjects of libel are now its headline newsmakers and they are finding it most challenging to ignore them when everything positive happening now is from their portfolios and everything negative is from the Zanu PF portfolios of Cabinet posts.

But while that positive development is welcome it is no reason for the hardworking MDC Ministers to sit on their laurels.

The neutralisation of the rabid press is nowhere near the benefit and euphoria and confidence the release of abused political activists will generate in the people.

Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana must be quacking in their pants if they know what is in store for them from the coalition government.

Their services are no longer required and if they will not be allowed the luxury of opting to resign as they will be terminated shortly.

This is regardless of the fact that the Junta is rooting for their retention. There are too many in the Inclusive government uncomfortable with these two Mugabe and not Zanu PF blue-eyed boys and it’s no longer a secret that JOMIC will unanimously recommend their being relieved of national responsibility at Functional Head level.

Zimbabweans are eagerly waiting to meet, greet and embrace them on their disgraceful way down as they did on the duo’s ascendancy to key positions in government.

A word of advice- there are a few they have trashed on their way up waiting with a few unpleasant mouthfuls that they would do well to turn a blind ear to.

Another significant indicator that the PM is in the ascendancy is the agreement by the Teachers Unions to urge their members to return to work after a year long collective job action where the arrogant junta regime refused to give them a hearing that they have now been granted within two days of the new dispensation in the country.

Hopefully Mugabe and Zanu PF have gained some insight into the power of consultative management over cohesive management from that development.

Most importantly the MDC which could not host any election rallies and celebration rallies before obtaining High Court orders in the past are now posed to hold not one but 12 celebration rallies for the party’s 10th anniversary.

All they did was inform the Police of the intended dates and the venues and the celebratory mood has engulfed the impoverished nation once again.

Not that the grassroots will get any reprieve from the economic hardships they are currently fighting to overcome from the celebrations but the confidence the rallies instil is a telling sign of the fate awaiting those who have denied them freedom of political assembly in the past.

Other than the home Affairs Co-Ministering experiment and the Bennett /Made Ministerial pairing in the Ministry of Agriculture President Mugabe must watch carefully the developments in the Media, Information and Publicity Ministry where Jameson Zvidzai Timba will understudy Webster Shamhu, Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development where Evelyn Pfugamai Masaiti will understudy Dr Olivia Muchena, Public Works where Aguy Georgias will deputise Theresa Makone Labour and Social Welfare where Tracy Mutinhiri will deputise Paurina Mpariwa and Justice where Patrick Chinamasa will have Jessie Fungai Majome to content with.

There are important lessons he will learn from who emerges most effective in those ministries where not just management styles are in contrast but also gender sensitivity, strategic thinking, decorum and progressive thinking will be put to test.

These are crucial human rights safeguarding ministries that must never be allowed to bogg down over useless political posturing which is likely to arise in the political leadership.

While not as important in its ranking as an indicator of change Professor Jonathan Moyo’s comments on Cabinet appointments from all parties to the coalition government are themselves an indication of where the political wind is blowing and an admission by a disgruntled Zanu PF reject worthy serious consideration.

He may be very wrong on the Finance ministry but he is closer to home in other observations.

President Mugabe must now move with times and abandon the belief that he is experienced because his experience is nothing more than 1 year’s experience repeated over 28 times with similar failed outcomes.

That is not the kind of experience a president can take pride in.