The Last Act of Defiance

For almost three decades, Robert Mugabe has held sway over the nation of Zimbabwe with an iron fist, if not an unswerving mindset that he is the man in charge & anyone who dares to object to how he is ruling Zimbabwe is asking for trouble. But now one senses the tide is starting to turn, not because of the democratic opposition, not because the nations next door are seething with rage over Mugabe's tyrannical antics. No, the tide is beginning to turn because his own cronies are feeling that it's their time to shine, that Mugabe's bright star of terror & oppressive tactics is beginning to fade.

In fact, his gang of spooks (aka the senior VIPs of the ruling ZANU-PF party) saw to it last December that either it was their way or the highway, when they put their feet down & refused to accept a proposal which could postpone elections slated for next year until 2010. That's typical Mugabe mullarkey in a nutshell: I'll rule for Zimbabwe for a couple more years then I'll decide to resign in 2010. But this time around, his strategy backfired on him.

Basically, what Mugabe was really saying that he would run for President again in 2008 & therefore stay in power until 2014 - by which he'll be 90 years old if he's lucky to be alive that long. Yet taking a look at the nation's imploding economy, its population moving abroad to start anew- several more years of Mugabe running the show is rather untenable as well as plain inconceivable. Naturally enough, seeing Mugabe's gobbledygook as impossible, the higher-ups in ZANU-PF itself are beginning to rebel, among other factions who'd rather see Mugabe give up his presidency.

Mugabe, throughout his long three decades of misrule, doesn't know how to let go, the Old Dinosaur that he is. But like Mobutu before him (an equally inept dude in his own right when it came to running a nation properly), his time is running out; this could soon spell the beginning of the end of Mugabe's power over Zimbabwe once & for all.

And soon he will have to let go of the reins which he has held on to so stubbornly for 27 years running. Then the next question will be: "Who will be the man to set things right?" It's anyone's guess; either way, Mugabe will have to step down from his autocratic post either by force or peacefully.