Zimbabwe Quotes
Actually the program had been taped earlier and on the day of broadcast, Biti had been arrested in Zimbabwe for ‘treason’ by the vicious dictator, Robert Mugabe, who had been beaten by the opposition in the election for the presidency but refused to relinquish power and in a stunning example of Biti’s point, the Electoral Commission never “officially” released the results showing that Mugabe had been defeated despite his control of all of the media, goon squads, and prohibition, intimidation and murder against opposition. See {619882}.
Twenty years earlier (see related quote) Mugabe invited the whites to stay in the country promising a non discriminatory government of racial equality. However, when he lost favor and grew unpopular and was about to be voted out of office, he started a race conflict, and destroyed what had been one of the strongest economies of Africa in the process. Mugabe sanctioned the murder of a number of whites as well as Blacks who did not share his racist views.
For a similar sentiment, see Thurgood Marshall.
At the time he was probably sincere as the whites—especially the farmers—had a great deal of know-how and provided a backbone for the economy. However, as he lost popularity, in order to hang on to power, he established a dictatorship and 20 years later pitted the Blacks against the whites destroying the economy and the country in the process. See related quote.
He had won the previous election but the old ruler and dictator, Robert Mugabe, refused to relinquish power. After massive economic boycotts that hurt the nation badly, Tsvangirai and Mugabe agreed to a power sharing model where Tsvangirai would be the prime minister but Mugabe would be president with the military, police, and justice departments reporting directly to the President, so Tsvangirai ended up as no more than a figure head. He and his followers reasoned that at the next election Mugabe would be ousted. But Mugabe with the police and military did not allow Tsvangirai to campaign in the rural areas where Mugabe had most of his voting strength. And then on the day of the election, Mugabe’s henchmen disenfranchised over 1 million voters in the cities where Tsvangirai had his voting strength. So Tsvangirai could not improve in the country side and his vote count in the cities was much less than previously, so Mugabe claimed to have won the election.
Tsvangirai’s party had won the election of 2008, but the Dictator Robert Mugabe refused to relinquish power. Sanctions against Zimbabwe by most of the world pressured Mugabe and Tsvangirai to accept a power sharing arrangement. However, Mugabe once the sanctions were lifted reneged on the agreement. He still controlled the state media which was, according to the 2008 agreement, to be completely non partisan. What this quotation shows is that the dictator maintained his control over the military, the police, and the media and with that really controlled the country.
The vicious dictator, Robert Mugabe, however, refused to leave office and forced a new phony election where opponents were jailed, beaten, and murdered to prevent opposition supporters from campaigning or even voting. See {619882}.
