Mnangagwa a hare-brained individual: Mzembi

0Shares

By Sibanengi Dube

JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwean leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been described as a hare-brained individual, incapable of processing information quickly.

In an interview with the Zimbabwe Observer, in Johannesburg this week, former Zimbabwean foreign minister Walter Mzembi, painted a not-so-complimentary picture of the man who replaced former Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe in a coup in November 2017.

“Mnangagwa cannot engage in a meaningful debate,” he said, “because he is incapable of processing information quickly. However, he will quickly snap up when cornered.”

He said in most Cabinet meetings he attended with him, Mnangagwa would sit in a corner, pretending to be following proceedings and sometimes nodding his head, but would not utter a single word.

He would only speak, according to Mzembi, when Mugabe put him on the spot. “He would then give one word or one sentence answers even when the questions required him to elaborate. That is why now, as president, he is making numerous gaffes each time he doesn’t read from a prepared speech.”

He added that Mnangagwa is more of an enforcer than a strategist, who waits for decisions and action plans to be developed before jumping up to enforce them.

“His greenhorns cabinet composition serves to display his intellectual deficit. None of his cabinet members could question his decisions but can only ask how high they should jump,” said Mzembi.

Mzembi added that people like Mthuli Ncube were taking advantage of his vulnerability to get past him very easily with intellectual models and verbiage which is not relevant to Zimbabwe crisis.

“Mugabe would intellectually stand his ground in any debate on any subject matter. Mnangagwa has demeaned and undermined the authority of Cabinet, Dare guru renyika by assembling lightweights who just bleat in agreement while Rome is burning,” fumed Mzembi .

He added, “A 19th Century Abraham Lincoln knew the power of assembling a team of rivals and how this would make his presidency shine and work for the country contrary to this fearful imperial Presidency, hunenge humambo!”

The exiled former minister views Mnangangwa as an Emperor who uses archaic terms like Mirairo yangu.”

However, Mzembi, who was in Mugabe’s cabinet for eight years, thinks the moniker “crocodile” suits him. “Mnangagwa has no permanent friends. He is always plotting against even those who think they are close to him. He is always waiting, biding his time. At an opportune time, he will stealthily strike.”

“All his associates know that. Right now he is thinking about how he can get rid of (Constantino) Chiwenga,” he said, bursting into a raucous laughter.

A good example of his treachery, Mzembi said, was when Mnangagwa left his supporters high and dry during the Tsholotsho declaration. “Although all his supporters, among them Jonathan Moyo, Stan Mudenge, Patrick Chinamasa and Josaya Hungwe, believed Mnangagwa was going to be at the meeting, he did not turn up, betraying them in the process. They faced the music alone!”

The Tsholotsho declaration was a clandestine meeting by a faction rooting for Mnangagwa, at Dingane School in Tsholotsho in 2004 to plot succession in Zanu PF. The faction wanted Mnangagwa elevated to the vice presidency, ahead of Joice Mujuru, to succeed Simon Muzenda who had died.

Their plot was thwarted when Zanu PF’s Politburo amended its constitution to reserve the post for a woman. They were all suspended or fired by a furious Mugabe for various periods until they were re-instated later.

“Even Mugabe never trusted him,” he said. “What most people don’t know is Mugabe knew quite well that it was just a matter of time before Mnangagwa stabbed him in the back.

He also claimed he regards himself as the most senior liberation war hero in southern Africa and “this explains why he looks at other regional leaders like presidents Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, as his youngsters.”