HARARE: Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is known as a snappy dresser — a man who swapped the fatigues of a guerrilla commander for the business suits of civilian office with a sharp eye for political fashion. Military uniforms with braids and epaulets have never been Mugabe’s style. Political analysts say, however, that the 81-year-old leader is increasingly using Zimbabwe’s military to bolster his hold on power, mobilizing army allies to ensure his ruling ZANU-PF emerges victorious in March 31 parliamentary elections.
“For Mugabe the strategy is very simple: he is hiring men he really trusts, and telling everyone else that the army and other security forces are with him,” one political analyst said. Mugabe honed his political skills in the 1960s both as a backroom strategist in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and as an articulate public speaker, and has long matched political savvy with a healthy respect for military muscle.
Unlike many African countries, however, Zimbabwe’s army remained largely in the shadows following independence from Britain in 1980 — a public image analysts say belied its role in keeping Mugabe’s government afloat.
That low-key approach started to change in 2000 as Mugabe faced a rising challenge from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and the military is increasingly coming to the fore in this election as Mugabe deploys army officers, war veterans and youth brigades in a campaign which he says will “bury” the opposition.
In the last six months, the veteran Zimbabwean leader has brought more senior serving or retired military officers into his party ranks to help shape a political strategy against the MDC, which he describes as a puppet of Western powers.
Mugabe has also appointed dozens of former army officers to key positions in the civil service, including the secret Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), the prison service, the police force, and the judiciary.
Other senior army and security commanders have taken positions in Zimbabwe’s “independent” elections commission, in parliament, the cabinet and ZANU-PF’s powerful politburo and central committee bodies.
MILITARY MUSCLE: “He is not simply flexing his military muscles but sending a message to the world that he is a formidable force,” said the analyst, who declined to be identified. Brian Raftopoulos, a Zimbabwean political commentator and Mugabe critic based in neighbouring South Africa, says Mugabe and ZANU-PF have become a de facto military regime.
“It’s a polished style, but very stifling all the same. His is a classic combination of brain and brawn power, a real cocktail,” Raftopoulos said. Mugabe learned how to look after the military in the 1970s while leading Zimbabwe’s independence war from neighbouring Mozambique. Since 1980 defence has been one of the top three departments in terms of receiving the government’s largest budget allocations.
Senior army officers drive expensive luxury cars and many have been allocated large fertile farms seized by Mugabe from whites under his controversial land reform.
Critics say Mugabe also cemented his relationship with the army when he allowed top commanders to make money from diamond deals during Zimbabwe’s five-year involvement in the war in the gem-rich Democratic Republic of Congo. Mugabe denies his men were involved in any corruption or looting.
PAY BACK?: Although the army says is not involved in partisan politics, the MDC accuses it of taking a clear political line as Mugabe deployed soldiers to stop peaceful anti-government protests and officers threatened to stage a coup if Mugabe lost an election.
Zimbabwe’s military commanders warned ahead of presidential elections in 2002 that they would not salute, and therefore accept, a victory by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe went on to win the election amid charges of vote-rigging, which ZANU-PF has denied. Mugabe’s critics say he has further consolidated his power by using a political patronage system which has co-opted traditional leaders and set up paramilitary groups which pursue those who challenge his rule.
Over the last five years, Mugabe has secured the support of independence war veterans through huge pension payouts and the redistribution of white-owned farms. He has also wooed traditional chiefs in rural areas with state-funded perks, including monthly salaries, water and electricity services and vehicles.
Critics say ZANU-PF lures the young to its ranks through a controversial training programme in which youths undergo political indoctrination and graduates are given preference for jobs in the civil service.
The government denies the programme is partisan and says the graduate youths — commonly known as “green bombers” — identify with ZANU-PF only because they are patriots who have come to understand that the MDC is a stooge organisation.
Both the veterans and the green bombers played important roles in invading white-owned farms in early 2000 in Mugabe’s campaign to give them to landless blacks. —Reuters
