It’s my party and I’ll swear if I want to
Not many would have imagined that Mugabe would actually swear during his swearing in.
But then it has become customary fare that public events such as the inauguration always present a “too-good-to-be-true” opportunity to take jabs at anyone who does not find the old man’s politics likeable.
Yet it’s more than that: the inauguration, understandably boycotted by opponents who feel they were cheated, while appealing “So help me God,” was always going to be spliced with brickbats aimed at those Western countries who have condemned Zanu PF’s victory as a sham.
“As for the odd western nations which denounce our elections, we dismiss them as the vile ones whose moral turpitude we must mourn,” Mugabe charged, finding his element right there.
Even the Herald editorial, borrowing Biblical allegory with the headline “Desert is behind us, Canaan beckons,” could not resist that thread and commented: “We are fortunate in having the rest of the progressive world outside the evil Anglo-Saxon alliance of the US, Britain and its dominions Australia and Canada on our side.”
It’s the kind of stuff that gives you a hint of where we are going in our relations with the West, and we can expect more of that excoriation, yet of interest also is that even for ordinary Zimbabweans who feel cheated are invariably lumped with the West, and we already know how the MDC has been dealt with by the State media whom the MMPZ has accused of peddling hate speech.
But then, like a petulant child, the man could swear and get away with it, after all it was his party and no one could spoil it for him!
We know the exhortation that leadership comes with responsibility, and the next few months shall be watched closely as to where exactly we are going as a nation, and as the “new” president swore without any hint of irony: “The peasant who cast his vote on July 31 created my victory. I am at his service. I am his emissary and servant.”
Words are powerful constructs and we shall all be held to them.