My take on Mugabe's interview with CNN's Amanpour

Like any Zimbabwean, l was naturally looking forward to the CNN's Christiane Amanpour interview with my President Robert Mugabe. Regrettably but not surprisingly, l was disappointed. Sometimes l didn’t know whether to cry or even laugh. Mugabe constantly lied through his teeth and Amanpour lacked tact and fact at times.
In reference to the evil Operation Murambatsvina of 2005, Amanpour mistakenly asked Mugabe to explain why 'those farm workers were driven out of the farms’! She clearly had not done her homework properly because Murambatsvina was not about the farm workers. It was about the urban poor whose dwellings were destroyed by a desperate, irresponsible and callous government that feared that the more poor people remain in towns; the most likely ZANU PF would lose in towns during the elections. So the idea was to reduce the town population and drive the poor to the rural areas where ZANUPF 'rules’. Rigging has been very easy in the rural areas.Infact the Amanpour’s questioning itself sometimes left a lot to be desired.Amanpour was often irritated and frustrated by Mugabe’s transgience and l suspect she thought the Zimbabwean issues were so obvious that she didn’t even need to work too hard on the facts. It showed in the interview because she omitted pertinent questions bedeviling Zimbabwe and failed to follow up on some of Mugabe’s rumblings. Rather she fell into the Mugabe trap of giving him the platform to look like he is a martyr of western imperialism. That message still resonates in some countries and she didn’t need to ask questions that would make him hide behind imperialism. He is most eloquent when he is talking about western hypocrisy partly because he will be right and also because he is simply a great speaker on a good day.

Unfortunately, Amanpour sometimes seemed obsessed with 'white farmers' circumstances and never seemed to ask intelligent and probing questions on the situation of the black folk. One could argue that she confirms the fears of many that Zimbabwe has been an international concern less because of the malaise of the black Zimbabwean but because of the recent plight of the white Zimbabweans who have been brutally murdered. The question is whether there would been equal vehemence against the Zimbabwean crisis if the white folks had not been affected? Infact Amanpour praised the 1980s period as if that was some golden era. For goodness sake that was the era of Gukurahundi, the darkest period in the young ‘democracy’ when over 20000 Ndebeles were murdered in cold blood by the North Korean trained 5th brigade soldiers. That was the period when Mugabe was getting the red carpet the world over, receiving honorary doctorates from Universities from the East to the West.

It is amazing how that interview showed that Amanpour was probably asking what Americans wanted to hear? Why the silence on the opposition officials who have not been sworn in when they don’t have cases to answer in courts? It’s a question that Mugabe simply could not answer coherently the way he waffled embarrassingly when asked about Roy Bennett’s issue. It was hilarious to witness the Big Man of Africa crumble like a deck of cards! In my years in Zimbabwe l had never witnessed Mugabe look so clueless, stupified and clearly raffled. That was both a high and low point for Amanpour.From a tactics and political point of view, she could have asked about the other officials, permanent secretaries,governors,ambassodors who have not been sworn in as opposed to only pressing Roy Bennett’s issue which Mugabe defended. It gives the impression that the West seems interested only in the affairs of white Zimbabweans. While l feel sorry for the many white Zimbabweans who actually bought land yet it was taken away from them,Amapour should have outsmarted him by emphasizing the unfairness he is doing on his ‘own people’

However, Amapour was far from the loser that night. However, l felt she could have done more research, control her body language more because her contempt for Mugabe was apparent and ordinarily you don’t want to do that with a Head of state. Pointing at a head of State with her glasses was a small thing that revealed more. It’s highly disrespectful in the African culture.
Amapour still managed to ruffle Mugabe. Indeed he has not had such probing questions in years. He had become accustomed to Reuben Barwe who simply has been bootlicking throughout the crisis. It is said that bootlickers run the risk of being kicked in the mouth!
It was Mugabe who lost and lost emphatically in that interview. It was his first interview in several years since he instituted a blockade of independent media on Zimbabwe. He was at least supposed to sound his usual best. He generally has smart arguments and he easily outsmarts a lot of journalists but yesterday he was strangely subdued, tired and clueless. I was surprised by the stuttering. Sometimes l even felt sorry for him! He thoroughly flip-flopped that he lost the minute credibility that he might have had with some strange people.
Zimbabwe almost collapsed under his watch and the GNU is grinding to a halt under his watch as well. He denies that people are being harassed. He denied that the economy is in dire shape. He simply denies responsibility. At his age and health state you would think that he is more remorseful but pride reigns supreme in him. His fall is now as certain as the rising of the sun and its setting. I can sense a new Zimbabwe!