Andrew Mwenda | The fall of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been welcomed by many Ugandans with excitement. For many people tired of President Yoweri Museveni’s long rule, Mugabe’s fall gives hope that their nightmare is about to end. That a long serving president who had ruled his country like a colossus can fall from power must be encouraging to many anti Museveni Ugandans and worrisome to Museveni’s supporters.
Yet Mugabe fell not because he ruled for long but because of what I would call “family overreach.” Contrary to the sentiments of many Ugandans, those who have taken power in Zimbabwe – the army and most likely with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa behind it – have not raised Mugabe’s longevity as an issue. Instead the attempts to purge ZANU-PF of its “historicals” precipitated the military intervention.
Thus Mugabe has been sidelined (I am avoiding using overthrown) because his wife was wrecking the foundation on which her husband’s power rested i.e. the old guard of ZANU-PF in both the political and military sphere. Indeed Mugabe has not been overthrown by the army. He had already been overthrown by Mrs Grace Mugabe.
The old man had been reduced to acting merely in the interests of his wife rather than the interests of the political and military structure that was a repository of his power. This is a coup against Grace, not Robert. In sidelining Mugabe, the political and military structure of ZANU-PF has reasserted its power.
Mrs Grace Mugabe has been ambitious, brass, reckless and arrogant. Yet she knew little about the dynamics of power. Like most people, she thought power in Zimbabwe resided in Mugabe. She did not appreciate that Mugabe, like any other leader in the world, cannot hold power singly.
Leaders act as representatives or faces of power. Their personality compliments and reinforces that power but it is never the foundation of it.
Once the structural foundation on which that power rests shifts, the face of that power loses it. Leaders wield power by making a series of bargains with the most powerful social forces in their societies.
An effective leader is not the absolute ruler who decides singly on the destiny of a nation (as western media and academic propaganda on personal rule in non western societies posits) but one who is a good referee to the competitions among powerful interests.
That is the source of Museveni’s or Vladmir Putin’s power, not their personalities. Personality does not create power, it buttresses it.
14 Replies to “Museveni’s Uganda And Mugabe’s Fall”
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Moron ,I done told you already,I’m not one of your silly questionable women who just sit and listen to your shit and dance to your ignorance.
Take that to Chimenti or some such moron .
Oh I have no doubt you remember me..you did Remember me enough to reply ,so damn straight you will remember me
I don’t read your 2 line shit ,how much more if you post a load full of shit?.
Get a life ,and go get re educated to what society is without kissing someone’s arse for a job.
Immature children (you?) just ‘want change’.
The overactive immature minds have no clue or practical plan as what your “change” will or should bring: They just “want change”, just for change sake.
The long reign of Museveni has brought VITAL stability to Uganda, which is the most important quality for any new country.
And the bulk of Ugandans, the wise & mature majority, are more practical.
And to them and for now at least, maintaining their stability IS the priority.
Since you are representing yourself as having offspring, then we can conclude that you are in your dotage, your second childhood.
But the only change you should be concerned about is which of your offspring is likely to change your adult diaper.
If you delude yourself that you can make significant impression, enough that I ‘shall remember you’, the go ahead; make your day! lol
Museveni can go anytime.there is new political studies gleaning all loopholes..It will happen using ‘unprecedented and the unfamiliar methods’ that has never happened elsewhere. So stop comparing zim situation with that of Uganda. Uganda will have a jacket of its size.
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Just in case you get funny ideas ..I don’t think you are CIO ..and if you were I care not ,but I do think you are a moron .
And my signature to you ..is ,your day shall be ,and you shall Remember me.
So they are unthinking Because they want change?
Lol…if you were not sad ,you would be pathetic..but to me you are just plain sad.
You remind me of this guy ,a boy really,I knew.Came from the rurals,had 5 olevels …somehow , through a relative of course,he managed to get a job as a IT technician at the CIO …boy would this fella flash his ID card around telling people he was CIO…and how he would love Mugabe ,one would swear Mugabe was his father .
Suffice to say ,he grew very arrogant,used his id card to get silly women ,he is now sick..aids ,and a shadow of himself.
I still see the boy when I come to Zim ,he greets me ,and all of a sudden he realises he and my son are the same age the arrogance is gone ,it’s just him and the long black of his life…but I remind my son,who is at UCT ,that leave this guy..don’t ignore him ..but your paths are different.
Moral of the story..you are the young sick man..and your time shall come and you will remember me.
Idiot.
This is not a zanu function,were old people and those unlearned just cheer you on..moron .
I agree.
But Museveni is even younger than Ngwena. lol
So those unthinking Ugandans should be able to drive themselves crazy for a few more years, even decades, of Museveni’s leadership. lol
Andrew Mwenda
Another of the misguided and brainwashed, who, instead of learning about
their African roots with respect to governance, they get themselves
further lost with the evil eurocentric mindset.
Mhondoro Mugabe WAS 93 YEARS OLD!
It’s not like Mhondoro Mugabe could have gone on forever?
Now, even Manangwaga is OLDER than Museveni! lol
So all the Ugandan fools who would cheer Mhondoro Mugabe succumbing to Father Time, they are due MANY MORE YEARS will their Musevini! lol
Correction: Mhondoro Mugabe DID NOT ‘fail to manage his succession’!
There is not perfect way to manage a succession when hungry and power-gluttonous usurpers abound!
The path of succession among Zim Patriots is there and well-known: In case the President becomes incapacitated, a VP would temporarily stand in, until the ZANU Delegates elect their next Leader.
As Mhondoro Mugabe began to become more of a ‘Living Symbol’ than of ‘Vital Substance’, the VPs should have been choreographing the role of their Living Symbol, even as they take greater responsibility for the actual day to day running of the country.
Thing is; though they earn their spot as VPs, Ngwena & Mphoko had the personalities of a bag of maize.
This allowed the trouble-making devil, Moyo, to use Mai Mugabe to sow bitter seeds of discontent in ZANU.
Not being close enough to the action, I can only make an educated guess that Moyo was the joker, who did not mind creating turmoil among Zim Patriots.
You missed the big issue here was that Mugabe failed to manage his succession. He was too old. If succession is claer, Mu7 can go for few more years then throw in the towel.
True, Mugabe was just too old to understand what was going on. He lost his power to his wife and the other criminals around him and his wife who underestimated the military power and the connection between Ngwena and the military.
Excellent analysis but longevity was also a factor. Remember a super fit Mugabe would have resisted the bad aspects of the G40 cabal. He could have stopped the “Nicodemus” engagements between her wife and the rest of the cabal.
Remember age has reduced this otherwise strongman to a sleep granddad of politics.