History, whether ancient or modern, has a classical but grotesque and absurd way of repeating itself.
Consequently, when the retired partners of KPMG who are still awaiting their gratuity and pension were caught in the melee of “not my President day” rally on the doorstep of their hotel:
The Pierre
2 E 61 Street
New York
they were not in the least surprised.
They had encountered a somewhat similar experience when KPMG Africa held its annual conference in Kampala, Uganda while Idi Amin was the President. He somehow learnt about the conference (he probably saw it on television) and immediately “invited” us (actually, it was a presidential summons!) to the Presidential palace. We were terrified. Our spouses were firmly of the view that we should abandon the conference and catch the first available flight out of Kampala. Anyway, the Nigerian High Commissioner in Uganda, Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora assured us that there was nothing to worry about. He was already scheduled to accompany members of the African Bar Association, led by a Nigerian, Chief B.O. Benson S.A.N. to the same venue.
Anyway, there we were in the palace. The lawyers were the first to be invited to meet President Idi Amin Dada, The self-styled “Conqueror of The British Empire”. He was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 metres) tall and dwarfed his entire cabinet who were shaking like jelly. They laughed when he laughed and frowned when he frowned. He ruled with an iron fist and deadly savagery from 1971 to 1979.
When Chief Benson was introduced by Ambassador Fafowora as a very distinguished Nigerian and President of the African Bar Association, Idi Amin interrupted and exploded with fury:
“Stop right there. There is only ONE President in Uganda. Do not provoke me any further or I may be forced to prove the point.”
As I was the Chairman of KPMG Africa, I did not need any further persuasion regarding the merit of making a quick exit with the other members of the KPMG delegation, straight to the hotel to fetch our wives (no time for luggage) followed by a mad dash to the airport. Once we were airborne, the champagne flowed freely. KPMG rose valiantly to the occasion by compensating all the partners and their spouses with an all-expenses paid trip to Kruger Park Safari, in South Africa.
By common agreement, the KPMG partners would rather face lions than be devoured by Idi Amin, the self-confessed cannibal. He was absolutely contemptuous of a vegetarian diet. It had to be meat. Nothing else. According to his biographers he loved to show his visitors the heads of the Archbishop of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali and the Governor of the Central Bank of Uganda, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, (Ambassador Fowora’s next door neighbour and tennis partner) which he kept in his fridge.
As for Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe who has ruled for 35 years, his response to those who have been protesting under the banner of:
“NOT MY PRESIDENT” is as follows:
“They are traitors, saboteurs and ingrates. I shall deal with them and teach them a lesson they will never forget.”
However, the world press took notice and devoted plenty of attention to Zimbabwe.
The grievances of the opposition protesters who marched in Zimbabwe’s capital Friday can be summed up in one word: In the Shona language, zvakwana, in Ndebele, sokwanele, and in English, enough.
“The people’s desperation is very deep,’ said former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, once considered the nation’s strongest opposition figure.
“It must not relent,” he added. “It must continue to express itself, the level of desperation Zimbabweans are facing so that we are able to solve this problem …But I am very glad that Zimbabweans are beginning to say: enough is enough.”
On Friday, that word drove hundreds of people to converge on the wide avenues of central Harare, where some stopped to tear down a street sign bearing the name of the man who is the target of their ire: President Robert Mugabe.
The tragedy that has befallen Zimbabwe is all over the internet.
Reporters from VOA’s Zimbabwe service were on the scene and reported that protesters blocked roads, burned tires and hurled stones at police, ruling party supporters and buildings in central Harare. The chaos led vendors in the commercial district to shutter their shops.
Despite a court order allowing Friday’s opposition-led protest to proceed, police fired water cannon and tear gas in an attempt to stop it.
Reporters also saw police fire weapons into the air and beat protesters.
A lawyer representing the Zimbabwe People First party, led by former Vice President Joyce Mujuru, Gift Nyandoro, said the police ignored a court order.
“Police are refusing to recognize it,” said Gift Nyandoro. “We inquired from them about who’s in charge, they are refusing to reveal their name, neither their identity. It’s a bad day for Zimbabwe.”
It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded in the protest.
Police did not answer VOA’s requests for comment on Friday, but Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister, Ignatius Chombo, said the night before that police “would not watch foreign-funded protesters destroy Zimbabwe.” The government has long accused Western nations of backing an anti-government plot.
The opposition has called on Southern African leaders meeting in Swaziland to look at the situation in Zimbabwe.
Protesters in this march and in previous ones say they’re tired of poverty, tired of repression and crackdowns on dissent, and tired of corruption. Most of all, more and more Zimbabweans are saying they’re tired of the man who got them to this place, the man who has ruled the country for more than 35 years: President Mugabe.
For months now, Zimbabwe has experienced a growing wave of protests.
In April, some 3,000 opposition supporters marched in the capital over the failing economy. Other protests sprang up in other locations – including the virtual universe of social media – and around other topical issues.
So far, the demonstrations have been in urban areas. It remains to be seen whether the dissatisfaction has spread to the countryside which has traditionally been a stronghold of the government.
But Ciara Aucoin, a researcher for the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, says although Friday’s demonstration was unusual for its high degree of opposition collaboration, it may not be enough to change anything.
“It isn’t necessarily a tipping point, because it remains to be seen how the pushback from the government is going to affect the protest movement,” she said. “In one way, if it deters protesters that could be a possible outcome. The other is that if it causes further mobilization – that remains to be seen.”
Instead of looking for the last straw, she said, protesters should be looking for the government’s last penny.
“Because of the budget deficits at the national level, there [are] questions around the ability of the state to maintain the payments to police and to ensure a kind of steady public order maintenance,” she said. “And so, if the protests were to grow, there are questions around the capacity of the state to pay police who protect public order.”
- To be continued next week
Bashorun J.K. Randle, OFR, FCA
