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#MugabeResigns: A night the Mugabes will never forget, reactions from social media

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7 years ago

November 21, 2017

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The social media is on fire, Twitter is ablaze. Some nations, like South Africa, wants the same Mugabe treatment to fall on their leaders. Ediale Kingsley serves herein the story of the revolution and how social tweeps are buying the Robert Mugabe’s resignation.

Mugabe fell from ‘Grace’

There are quite some people who in deed worshipped Robert Mugabe as a hero of the Pan-African revolution. His was among the names of greats like Patrice Lumumba, Amílcar Cabral, and Jomo Kenyatta — legendary and noble-hearted Africans fighting powerful and well armed colonial forces from the bush with outdated weapons and ragged cloaks.

Let’s not recount Mugabe’s story here. But suffice to say that after 20 years of total war and more than 20,000 lost lives, it was Robert Mugabe who did the impossible.

He organized the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), and — with the help of Emmerson Mnangagwa — crushed colonialism and liberated the nation in 1980.

As the leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe ruled the country with near omnipotence. Until the night of 15th November.

At around 6am on Wednesday morning, three explosions were heard in the capitol of Harare. Members of the military appeared on national television wearing uniforms to declare ‘this is not a coup’ and that they are “only targeting criminals around [Mugabe]”.

Hint: If military members appear on national television, its a coup.

Mugabe was placed on house arrest and soldiers began patrolling the areas around the capitol city. Despite all the controversy surrounding Robert Mugabe, he enjoyed immense popularity. This begs the question ‘why the coup?”

To understand the events that are unfolding, one must look not to Robert Mugabe, but to his wife — Grace.

So let’s meet the Grace

In 1996, Robert Mugabe married his mistress, Grace, in what the Zimbabwe press called “the wedding of the century’. Grace Mugabe was not shy about her indulgences.

While her nation tightened its belt to deal with a 2002 backlash from the West, she passed the time with six-figure shopping trips to Paris and building 20-million-dollar palaces. She was so prolific that the European rolled her up in sanctions to “stop [her from] going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic poverty blighting the people of Zimbabwe.”

That didnt slow her down.

According to Wikileaks, Grace hired an army of diamond diggers to feed her insatiable appetite for luxury, making “tremendous profits” in the process.

In 2014, Grace’s appetite expanded to the realms of academia and politics. She enrolled as a student of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe. After just two months, she was given a doctoral degree.

(Side note: Im not saying Grace Mugabe is not a genius. But it took Erik Demain — who graduated at 14 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science — 6 years to get a PhD. Im just sayin.)

Its worth mentioning that no one can find her doctoral thesis. This didn’t make Grace any friends in the academic community.

While she was busy pursuing her doctoral degree, Grace Mugabe kept her eye on politics. When then-Vice President Joice Mujuru looked like a strong contender to succeed the 90-year old, Grace spearheaded accusations of a plot that lead to Mujuru’s expulsion.

In February 2017, Mugabe said he would “not retire nor pick a successor, even though he said he would let his party choose a successor if it saw fit.“

This presented a problem for Grace. She was in her 50s. If Mugabe died (and that will happen sooner rather than later), then her gravy train would pull in to the station. She flew into action.

First, she manipulated her way to a nomination as the head of the ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe’s ruling political party) Women’s League, thus making her a member of the party’s government. Then, she started a divide and conquer campaign amongst party members — namely between factions called the Generation 40 and the Lacoste faction. Finally, she urged her husband to declare a successor (and probably suggested a name) and went on the offensive by headlining political rallies.

Remember the guy we mentioned in the first paragraph, Emmerson Mnangagwa? In 2014, he was promoted to Vice President when Grace chased out Joice Mujuru. Since Grace had her sights set on succeeding her husband, that put Mnangagwa in her crosshairs.

But unlike Mujuru, Mnangagwa had old, deep connections with the one counterbalance to political power: the military. Mnangagwa was a veteran of the Liberation War — and that meant a lot to groups of citizens like the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), who favored Mnangagwa as the next leader of the nation.

So naturally, when Grace successfully encouraged her husband to expel Mnangagwa from the party and fire him as the Vice President, the military was none too happy.

No one liked Grace Mugabe. Not the academic community. Not the military. Not the people. Her behavior was abusive and unruly. Her children were spoiled and running amok. Prominent members of the ZANU-PF were being fired left and right. And with her growing influence over the political kingdom of her husband, it was looking like her path to power was clear.

What Happened on the said Night, of November 15th?

Nobody wanted to see a Mugabe dynasty with Grace at the head. The only elements of Zimbabwe with the power to stop her — the Army — stepped in. Tanks pulled in, blocked off the main roads, and arrested the majority of the Mugabe regime.

Mnangagwa was installed as the acting President of Zimbabwe — and rightly so. The main “criminal around [Mrs.Mugabe]”, responsible for “committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country” fled to Namibia.

Fast forward to this very day, Mugbabe resigns and the nation is almost having a Nigeria-like Owanbe party.

Here is how the internet reacts:

There are those who are not having a party. They feel Mugabe is not the enemy.

There are those who are drawing inspirations from the #MugabeResigns and wish their leaders could be forced to resign.

Then what is a social media trend without the clowns and humor.

Some would remind us of the facts and stats. How Mugabe was already old before they were born. Or about his numerous degrees.

And it’s also quite intriguing how Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s President is dragged into the issue. Perhaps Nigerians want it to settle before they start their fables. Or is the Hate Speech law already working?