By Josiah Mucharowana| It is a political axiom that dictators the world over leave power spectacularly regardless of their perceived invincibility.
There was Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, husband to the infamous late Imelda Marcos who had a fetish for expensive shoes. Her shoe collection amounted to 500 pairs, an outlandish figure for someone with two feet amid a grinding sea of poverty.

Marcos himself presided over a regime with ghastly tales of brazen human rights abuses, economic failure and monumental corruption for twenty years.

At the turn of his autocratic rule, he had to be airlifted from the presidential palace in Manila to Honolulu, Hawaii where he died in exile on 28 September 1989 of heart and lung complications. The wife and children returned again to participate in Phillipino politics.

Romania had it’s own ruthless version in Nicolae Ceausescu. He  was killed by firing squad on Christmas Day, 1989, following a popular uprising. His cadaver was tied on a helicopter dangling like low hanging fruit as it flew across the cities for all to see before he was thrown into the sea.

There is never a marked grave for him, the fear  was his followers would have promoted him to martyrdom.

Then came deep-throated Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.  Famous for his colorful dressing at one point wearing  twenty seven metres of cloth in a single dress. He also loved  tents in a big way even pitching them wherever he went including France. He famously met George W Bush in the desert tent in Tripoli. 

Across Africa, Gaddaffi was famously flamboyant and his entourage drew eyes for grand entrances at African Union summits, coming in well after proceedings have started with a coterie of female bodyguards that also passed as concubines. The Amazons took turns to please his fantasies nocturnally without a whimper- it was part of duty. 

His death came as a shock to the world when NATO forces closed in on him surrounding the Capital Tripoli. He had to run for safety to his rural birthplace with a trusted colleague who carried a bookcase of his favorite reads while he carried his much -loved gold pistol by the hip. 

Reportedly, Gaddafi’s last days were spent in derelict and abandoned buildings dodging NATO bombs and bullets. Libya was ablaze while it’s first citizen scavenged for food in the woods. When his end came on October 10 ,2011, his capture and subsequent death at the hands of common Lybian people send shock-waves across the world. Tied and pulled at the back of a Land-cruiser vehicle around the streets of Lybia almost naked, Gadaffi was a reminder political power is ephemeral. The once tough soldier heart-rendingly begged for mercy for people to save his life to no avail. Dust, stones ,sticks and brute punches rained on him like a tonne of bricks. The sight of his displayed corpse lying in state at a city mosque was grotesque as was his decades- long, iron fisted rule of the oil rich country.

Nonetheless equally famous was the late Robert Mugabe, feared, revered, loved and despised in equal measure. He passed on 6 September 2019, Glen eagles Hospital ,Singapore. His death became a taking point right until burial taking days with twists and counter plots between government and the Mugabe family over who had the final say on his final burial place. At one point he was relegated to his famous, multi-million US dollar mansion in Borrowdale. His cadaver in a family house for long, it was an African first against traditions.

Finally buried in Zvimba, his rural home, his grave was encrusted in reinforced concrete for fear his body parts would be dug up for ritual purposes.

San Abacha was a dyed- in-the wool dictator. He was widely reviled for a regime marred with gross human rights abuses and is even disdained for killing Ken Saro Wiwa, a poet , writer and Nobel Peace nominee. Wiwa’s remains and eight others were never located forcing his UK based son to stage a funeral where he buried copies of his books and writings in a coffin.The move shone a spotlight on the heartlessness of the regime and when his end came on 8 June 1998, Abacha is said to have died of a heart attack airborne from Mauritius in the company of two prostitutes. As an ageing dictator, he overdosed on Viagra to make good his performance. He was buried the same day as per Muslim tradition. Officially, he was poisoned by soldiers in the inner circle opposed to his rule. In toto, it proved he was mortal after decades of ruthlessly crushing dessent and making people disappear.

Mobutu Sese Seko, the self styled ‘ King of Zaire’, died on the 7th September 1997 . He succumbed to cancer and remains buried in a cemetery in Rabat, Morocco. For over three decades he had ruled The Congo with an iron fist and had amassed millions in fortune. His wife took his twin sister as his concubine but when he passed on, his funeral wake was sombre and solemn, unfitting his larger-than- life political stature. 

Colourfully, Sadam Hussein will go down I history as a dictator who was buried with his head dislocated from the entire corpse after being executed by hanging on 30th December 2006, Saddam and his sons , Uday and Qusay had infuriated western countries so much so that when American army tanks rolled into Bhaghdad, he took a stash of American dollars with him to an underground tunnel  complete with tinned foodstuffs only a stone ‘s throw away from an American military roadblock. Upon his capture, he had an overgrown beard and was living like a homeless low-life once again a reminder that dictators have never won against the will of the people forever.

In equal measure Uganda had Idi ‘Dada’ Amin who only ruled for eight years killing over half a million citizens in extrajudicial purges.

Thenceforth,he was touted as the most ruthless dictator if all time earning himself the title of ‘ Butcher if Uganda’. Talkative and largely built, he was a man who brooked no dissent. When the end came, he fled to Libya then the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh where he passed on. 

These and many more including North Korean leader Kim Jong lI , who was responsible for the arrest and torture of thousands of people including starvation,  left the political stage unceremoniously leaving citizens bewildered.

Nevertheless, Zimbabwe I currently in the merciless hands of one dictator. The world has seen the successive rise to dictatorial power by Emmerson ‘ Dambudzo’ Mnangagwa.

Within a year in office after taking the reins of power forcibly in a military coup from Robert Mugabe, he has ran down an already broken economy forcing millions to track back into the diaspora en-masse. The political deadlock between Zanu PF, his party and the opposition voices has wooed away potential investors into the country despite spirited attempts to market the country as ‘open for business’. Poorly paid civil servants work half-hearted and the majority of citizens look thin like  children fed begrudgingly by a cruel foster mother. 

Food is scarce and highly priced making it a Herculean task to afford a decent meal. 

The transport sector, the wheels that move any economy globally has since started grinding to a standstill at a tortoise pace owing to unavailable fuel charged at exorbitantly exploitative prices.

And yet visual optics from a political jamboree held at Sherwood farm in recent days when the President allowed an invasion of his privacy by members of POLAD, a grouping of political actors seeking to dialogue on issues affecting the country, show the president feeding fish with perceived political nemesis. Mnangagwa has shown dictatorial tendencies in many ways than one. Twice Zimbabwean soldiers unleashed hot lead on unarmed and unsuspecting civilians wishing to express and register displeasure on the way they are governed. 

Mnangagwa, as first citizen can only stand akimbo in amazement instead of taking the bull by the horns in fixing the economy.  He had surrounded himself with a cesspool of political sycophants who can never challenge his authority even when the need arises. 

The Presidential Advisory Board has become an ‘old boys club’ where underhand business dealings milk state coffers against national progress.

The Tagwirei family hold monopoly over fuel coming into the country in dribs and drabs making a lot of coins from the poor in the process. But in Africa when an old man messes his compound, children should not be told he is blessing the homestead. Mnangagwa lack advisors who shoot from the hip and have themselves become ‘ criminals’ around the Presidency they purported to dislodge under Mugabe. The world has always judged a man by the work of his hands and Mnangagwa should battle tooth and nail to shrug off the tag of a dictator lest his end sooner or later will be high drama and spectacular like those before him.

A real leader should strive to leave behind a legacy of progress, dedication to national duty and immense love for people’ s welfare.

Josiah Mucharowana is a Zimbabwean trained journalist living in Pretoria.. Feedback: email [email protected] cell; 084 587 4121