Energy Mutodi | Former president Robert Mugabe’s utterances in a recent interview that he gave to the SABC insinuating that he was illegally removed from office have a potential to spark unrests.
While giving an interview to journalists at his house yesterday, Mugabe said that the government in Zimbabwe was illegal and he offered himself to in involved in talks that could solve what he called an “illegality.”
Mugabe expressed disappointment with his former deputy President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the interview, saying, “I never thought that he whom I had nurtured and brought into government and whose life I had worked so hard in prison to save as he was threatened with hanging, could be one day the man to turn against me……”
The former President went on to describe the events of November 15-24 as a coup detat although he penned his resignation letter on November 21, amid an impeachment process that he feared could force him out of power without benefits.
It is important for the government to realize that the interviews being given to the media by the former president who is being linked to a newly established opposition party National Patriotic Front (NPF), are meant to promote the opposition party against ZANU PF.
Mugabe who portrayed himself as a victim of circumstances in his interview would like to gain sympathy from the electorate before launching an offensive against the ruling party and the government.
The veteran politician will therefore not only rely on dialogue to engineer his way back to political stardom, but will also employ divide and rule tactics that could leave officials in both government and the military divided.
Already, his demand to be paid his pension and termination benefits in cash is telling.
Cash resources can be used to fund terrorist activities and are untraceable.
Mugabe is a veteran in guerrilla warfare and may still have links in the military, police and the CIO.
Mugabe was booted out of power by the military after trying to impose his wife Grace Mugabe as his successor.
He also protected his corrupt ministers among them Jonathan Moyo from arrest as long as they showered him with praises and worked to ensure he remained in power.
An arrogant dictator and unmistakable tyrant whose human rights record is pathetic, Mugabe ignored a warning that he would face a military coup if he failed to choose his successor wisely; leading to his overthrow on 15 November last year.
In order to avert any disturbances emanating from the former president and his G40 officials some of whom are in exile, there is need for the government to ensure that all entry and exit points on the country’s borders are secured with trusted loyalists while the entry of foreign nationals into the country under the guise of “investors” must be closely monitored ahead, during and after the impending harmonized elections.
ZANU PF must also ensure that its Members of Parliament to be approved in this election have no links with the G40 in order to avert mass resignations and a possible impeachment of the President in the aftermath of the harmonized elections.

(Energy Mutodi is a member of ZANU PF).