As parents we have a natural instinct to protect our
children from danger. Anything that threatens the lives of our children makes
this instinct kick in. We immediately go into the protect mode; lash out at the
threat.
It is in this light that we should understand Grace Mugabe’s reaction
to the alleged plot to bomb her family’s business and the ‘plot to kill Chatunga’.
She reacted like any parent would. I must hasten to say that threatening to
kill anyone is wrong and must never be condoned.
However, there is something that is manifestly clear in the
statements by the First Lady. It is only when her children are threatened that
she cares. As a public figure, who is the wife of the President of the
Republic, one would expect her compassion to extend beyond her own family. One
does not expect her to care less about her family but to care about all
families. When she spoke passionately about the plot to kill her children, it
struck most people that this kind of passion has never been seen when the
children of her compatriots were faced with such threats.
Her husband has threatened to kill other people’s children
for daring to oppose him. He has unleashed shadowy state organs on the people
of Zimbabwe; visiting untold horrors on those who dared to stand in his way.
Conservative estimates say that about 20000 Zimbabweans were killed in
Matabeleland and Midlands for ‘supporting’ dissidents. The victims of this
horrible crime against humanity were someone else’s children, someone’s husband
or wife, someone else’s parent. The only difference is that they were not
Robert Mugabe’s children. They were killed because they were perceived to be
enemies of her husband. I understand that this was before the First Lady’s
marriage to Robert Mugabe but I am yet to hear Grace Mugabe show compassion for
the mothers who lost their children, children who lost their parents or for
children who were killed as a direct result of her husband’s policies. Instead
we have seen her appear to be working closely with the Gukurahundi denier, VP
Mphoko. You can draw your own conclusions.
In the years since the 1999 launch of the MDC Party
thousands of Zimbabweans have been killed, maimed and displaced for supporting
a political party other than Robert Mugabe’s ZPF. The killings were political;
motivated by political differences. Those killed, those left for dead and those
who were left permanently disabled were targeted for their politics. The
violence visited upon Zimbabweans by ZPF members in 2008 with the implicit and
explicit blessing of her husband was truly terrible. If we are to believe the alleged
attempt to bomb Mugabe’s Dairy business and the alleged plot to kill Chatunga
Mugabe then the motivation appears to be political differences. Those charged
with attempting to bomb the Mugabe business are said to belong to an obscure
Zimbabwean political party. We are told, by The Chronicle, that those plotting
to kill Chatunga include the military and a faction of the ZPF party. This
would make the plot politically motivated and driven by political differences. It
is, therefore, telling that Grace Mugabe’s instinct to protect has only kicked
in to protect her biological children. This clearly suggests that children
whose name is not Mugabe do not matter. The children whose name is not Mugabe
can be killed for political reasons because their lives matter less than Grace’s.
Otherwise how can we explain the fact that Grace and Robert Mugabe have not
been moved by the politically motivated disappearance of Patrick Nabanyana,
Paul Chizuze and others? How else would you explain the silence and, at times,
callous reaction of the Mugabes to the death of hundreds of MDC activists such as Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika? How can we explain the Mugabes’ lack of
compassion for the Dzamara family? We can only conclude that Grace Mugabe only
cares about her own children (Russell, Bona, Robert Jnr and Chatunga). She only
cares about the threat to those of her own blood.
A few weeks ago Zimbabweans watched as bulldozers demolished
homes built near the main International Airport in Harare. This followed
complaints by Robert Mugabe that the homes were an eyesore. The President’s
minions removed the eyesore by making families and children homeless. There
were obviously some legal and planning issues with this settlement but one must
not forget that these people were sold the land by ZPF land barons. Like Grace
Mugabe, these parents’ natural instinct to protect drove them to build homes
for their families; safe places for their children. But unlike Grace’s these
were children whose name was not Mugabe hence they didn’t deserve the mother-hen
protection we now see her giving to her children.
It is this that makes it hard to for us empathise with Grace
Mugabe’s natural instinct to protect her children; the fact that she is happy
for her family to perpetuate their stay in power through the killing and
maiming of other people’s children. To her, the children whose name is not
Mugabe are fair game! The children whose name is not Mugabe also matter. When
they are threatened we should all seek to protect them. They, like Chatunga,
should not be killed because of political differences. As long as the Mugabes
indirectly and directly promote violence against those who oppose them in their
own party and in the opposition I cannot find it in my heart to feel sorry for
Grace Mugabe. As long as Robert and Grace Mugabe continue to show contempt for
the children of others, the lives of their political opponents and the children
whose name is not Mugabe it is difficult to feel compassion for them in the
face of threats to their children’s lives. This may explain the callousness
that you see in the comments on social media. All children’s lives should
matter not just those of children whose name is Mugabe.
As a parent, I completely understand Grace Mugabe’s reaction
to these threats but, as a Zimbabwean, I find it nauseating that this side of
her has only come to the fore because someone has threatened her flesh and
blood.
© Gabriel
Gidi
