MNANGAGWA - JUST ANOTHER THUG & TYRANT..

Back in November 2017, the world celebrated as the tyrant, Robert Mugabe, was removed from the Presidency of Zimbabwe and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa. It seems that the world was a little premature in its sense of relief.

Mugabe had presided over the total collapse of Zimbabwean economy as well as a reign of terror aimed at white residents and anyone who did not agree with him. Somehow, he survived in office for almost 30 years but, by the latter part of 2017 his time was up. He was ousted in a military coup and his erstwhile ally, Mnangagwa, took over; sadly, it seems that things have got no better under the new President and may even have become worse.

News reports from Zimbabwe now refer to riots and general chaos. There are apparently shortages of food, medicine, fuel and even money; inflation is again rampant. The internet has been shut down, reopened and shut down again in an attempt to prevent opponents of the regime from communicating, the armed forces have instituted a brutal assault on protesters and people have died on the streets. In the midst of this mayhem, President Mnangagwa has absented himself by touring Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan before heading off to the regular junket for the rich and powerful in Davos, Switzerland. He has indicated that he has no interest in returning home before he has finished his taking full advantage of his status as a 'world leader'.

It's clear that far from being any sort of saviour, Mnangagwa is simply yet another of the horde of ghastly, power hungry, corrupt, thieving and murderous thugs who have risen, scum-like, to the top of the cesspit that passes for politics across much of Africa. From Egypt and Libya in the north, via the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire) and the Central African Republic to Uganda, Zimbabwe and even South Africa today, Africa has been riven with tribal conflicts for decades, centuries and probably millennia. Dictators and tyrants have come and gone by the bus load, often departing with vast amounts of loot while their people have been brutalized and starved. The response of the western world has been, for the most part, to sit back and do nothing other than pour huge amounts of money into schemes ostensibly supposed to provide relief for those in need but, in effect, which have merely served to enrich the monsters.

How can it be that Mnangagwa is welcome at Davos ?

FOR MUGABE, READ MNANGAGWA

One of the most appalling tyrants of modern times, Robert Mugabe, may have gone but little else seems to have changed in Zimbabwe.

'Free and democratic' elections have been held but have been accompanied by the same scenes of violence as before. Days of rioting, opponents hustled away by police, claims and counter-claims about vote rigging; it's all as if Mugabe had never left the scene.

Whatever the truth, it's clear that many Zimbabweans believe that there has been foul play and that the voting, and its results, have been subject to manipulation. In such circumstances mistrust will endure and the state will continue to subdue all opposition in any way that it can. If that means police brutality, manufactured charges, false imprisonment or even murder, so be it.

Emmerson  Mnangagwa has said that his victory in the Presidential election paves the way for a new beginning for his beleaguered country but isn't this the same old tosh that was spouted by Mugabe, over and over again ? As a former associate of Mugabe's, is not Mnangawa just another old man who fancied grabbing the limelight, and the power, before it was too late ? 

Zimbabwe, as Southern Rhodesia, may not have been perfect but it was surely a lot better than the appalling cess pit of corruption, violence and murder that it has become. 

MUGABE GOES : WILL MNANGAGWA BE ANY DIFFERENT ?

So, Mugabe has gone.

After much pushing and shoving, Robert Mugabe, a man who should be in prison for his assorted acts of brutality, fraud, theft and much more, has resigned as President of Zimbabwe. Having terrorised his country for 37 years, he's left it in a parlous state that will no doubt have the aid agencies coming round with the begging bowl, while Mugabe himself clears off with his stolen billions. If it wasn't true, you couldn't make it up.

Mugabe's replacement as head of state will be his erstwhile deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa who was vice-President until Mugabe sacked him a few weeks ago. Given that Mnangagwa is one of Mugabe's oldest associates one has to wonder whether there will be much real change; the dominant force will still be the ZANU-PF political party and there must be a fear that all that's happened is a transfer of power from one thieving tyrant to another.

The next weeks, months and years will show us just how much the country-wide celebrations of recent days were justified.

OUSTING MUGABE WILL CHANGE NOTHING.

No one can be quite sure what's going on in Zimbabwe but if it results in the removal of Robert Mugabe from power, it can't be bad.

Once upon a time, Southern Rhodesia was a prosperous nation. Run by the descendants of the original white European settlers, it wasn't perfect but it was far from the mess it has since become. From the time of its independence in 1980 and the transfer of power from the government of Ian Smith to the tyranny and dictatorship of Mugabe, it has descended into utter chaos. In common with so many African countries, independence really meant the passing of power to tribal leaders whose ambitions were self-serving. Tribal animosity lead to murder and mayhem, with the winners then systematically enriching themselves at the expense of the common people.

In the newly named Zimbabwe, Mugabe won the struggle against Joshua Nkomo and established such a control that he has remained in power for 37 years; Prime Minister initially, then President once his opponents had been eliminated. Under his watch, white farmers have been driven from their lands, some being murdered while the government looked away. Inflation has reached levels never seen before anywhere in the world and the people have lived in abject poverty. Anyone who has spoken out against Mugabe has found themselves in deep trouble; the common people have lived in fear, terrorised by Mugabe's thugs.

Mugabe has undoubtedly robbed his nation of billions of pounds that will never be recovered. He has reduced his country to a state of such poverty and chaos that his going can only be a good thing, so long as whoever replaces him is not from his own circle of monstrous allies. Even then, it is unlikely that much will improve as tribal conflicts and loyalties plus self enrichment will continue to be at the forefront of any new regime.

When Harold MacMillan's "Winds of Change" swept through Africa from the late 1950s to 1980, little thought was given to what that really meant. Stable western style government was replaced with home grown administrations in countries riven by tribal and religious conflict. Tyrannical dictatorships arose everywhere, civil wars broke out, economies collapsed and the common people suffered. Despite this, the western world largely sat on its hands and did nothing to try to help a situation which it had created, other than to pour billions of pounds, dollars, franks and marks into the continent, to little effect. Much of the money was stolen by the brutal regimes which had taken control and, year after year, the same round of famine and disease occurred.

That this still continues is almost unbelievable. We are still annually asked for donations to help starving children in some part of Africa, these days most often in places such as Ethiopia, Somalia or Sudan, but with the same basic lack of success. The conflicts in these countries, and others, originates entirely from a misguided attempt by the Western World to hand power to local people, when the local people were simply not able to exercise it democratically. While they may have access to Sky television and the internet, play with mobile 'phones and X-Boxes, far too many of these people are basically medieval in social development.

Worst of all, South Africa is now heading rapidly down the same path as its corrupt leadership repeats everything that the likes of Mugabe have done before. Apartheid may not have been right but at least South Africa was a prosperous nation under the leadership of successive white governments. As with Southern Rhodesia, government by Europeans has been replaced with government by tribal leaders and the result is increasingly one of corruption and tribal in-fighting. Current President, Jacob Zuma, has faced so many charges of illegal activities that it is astonishing that he remains in office, but that's the way it is in Africa today. High officials exercise their tyrannical rule with an iron grip, and make money while the nations fall apart.

If anything proves how useless and toothless the United Nations is, it's the state of the continent of Africa. Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Jean-Bedal Bokassa, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Robert Mugabe and many, many others have destroyed their countries while enriching themselves, and the UN has stood by, powerless to intervene.

Will we never learn ?