Understanding Mugabe’s Mind

Original Post Date: 2002-09-01 Published on: ETHERZONE.COM&nbsp  Posted By: Jan

Robert Mugabe’s actions mystify a lot of people – even here in Africa. And yet, when I
wrote Government by Deception I went to great lengths to explain to people
what motivates him and the other Marxists on our subcontinent and how things look from
their perspective.

People continuously think Mugabe is a fool. He is nothing of the kind. He is much cleverer
than people give him credit for. Once you understand Mugabe, you will see how truly evil
this man really is. This man may kill countless numbers of black people just to get rid
of a few thousand whites.

Let me quote from Chapter 2 of Government by Deception:
“A few years ago, Ian Smith, the last white ruler of Rhodesia, gave a speech in England
wherein he mentioned a discussion he once had with a black politician in Mugabe’s government.
During the liberation war the young black recruits were taken to Cuba, Russia, China, Libya,
Bulgaria or some other Russian ally for training. Part of their training required that they be
politically indoctrinated. They were taught about the wonders of communism since they were going
to be its missionaries. This black politician then told Smith of their first impressions of
communism. He said the blacks were taken to Cuba and shown communism there. They were taken to
Russia and also shown how it worked there. The blacks were not impressed. But then the
Russians said to them “with this system, you can remain in power forever.”
This clinched the deal for them – now they were fervent advocates of the system.
They could see the advantages of communism for themselves. This is what communism is really
all about. It is about giving power to the very people who are least fit to have it, namely,
the power hungry.”

Their lust for power is not however the full story. You need to understand how they apply it
and how they think. Then you will see that all of Mugabe’s actions make perfect sense. He
knows exactly what he is doing.

Let me start out by saying that Mugabe is not some lone crony out there just doing his wild
thing with all the world against him. No, this man is a hero. He is the black leader with the
most balls, and he is doing things which many admire quietly but would never dare say. Make
no mistake, many black Marxists, especially those in southern Africa, admire this guy because
he is not only sorting out the pesky whites, but because he has the balls to stand up to the
whole world. If Mugabe was really pissing off the other black countries then they could
easily destroy him. Zimbabwe is dependant upon a link to the sea via Mozambique and South
Africa. If these two countries were against him they could block his oil and imports and
exports and put him out of business in about a week. The vulnerability of Zimbabwe and other
landlocked countries inside Africa are well-known. There is no rail link to Namibia, nor Angola,
etc. The Chinese tried to build a railway link to Tanzania many years ago, but it has always been
problematic. The only truly viable rail and road links are to South Africa and Mozambique. Cut
off those routes and Zimbabwe will run out of fuel in a matter of days. Many years ago, even
under Apartheid, many of Zimbabwe’s trains were actually drawn by diesel engines from South
African railways. South Africa alone, has a complete stranglehold on Zimbabwe. Just one order
from Government here and the borders can be closed and Mugabe is finished. But that will never
happen. Militarily, Mugabe is relatively powerful in the region, but even so, South Africa and
Botswana (which is well off), have a lot power. But once more, no military intervention is
ever likely to occur.

Sam Nujoma of Namibia, wishes he could do what Mugabe is doing, and this land issue is
brewing there too. The land issue is of course trickiest in South Africa. Here, given enough
impetus it could explode into a war. The African National Congress [ANC], here in South Africa
is very quiet about Mugabe. As I write this, he is actually here in Sandton for the World
Summit on Sustainable Development and he is expected to speak this week. Strangely, somebody
did a “Rent-a-Crowd” exercise, and there was a huge crowd of pro-Mugabe supporters demonstrating
here in South Africa!! This is quite bizarre because the many millions of ex-Zimbabwean blacks
here are actually virulently anti-Mugabe.

Let me explain how Mugabe sees this problem. I have watched people like him much of my life and
I believe I understand how they think, and why they do what they do – which will absolutely
mystify most people – especially Liberals (who tend to take everything at face value).

Mugabe is at war. Yes, this is a fact. Most people don’t realise this. Since 2000, his supporters
have been wearing T-shirts inscribed with the words “The Third Chimurenga”. What is a Chimurenga?
It is a word meaning “war”. In Zimbabwean history there were two Chimurenga’s. The first was
the Matabele rebellion of 1897 against the whites. The second Chimurenga was the war of the
1970’s which brough Mugabe to power. Ever since 2000, Mugabe has been talking of “going back to
the trenches” and “fighting Ian Smith”, etc, etc. So even though the world regards Mugabe as a joke,
and even though the MDC inside the country refuse to take up arms against him, he is actually at
war. Hence, he is using terrorism, torture, etc in his efforts to subdue the black MDC opposition.

But this concept of war goes even further. Even in times of peace, after we whites had handed
over power, there was a war – but it was a war in the minds of the black Marxists we handed over
to. That war is a war to remove us whites from society and to break our power. It has been a
largely unsuccessful war, but it is a “war” played by psychological means. Let me explain it
this way. Whites maintained economic power to a very large degree in Zimbabwe, Namibia and
South Africa. Mugabe was content as long as the whites stayed out of politics. But then the
blacks became more and more disillusioned with his rule. Remember, back in 1980, Mugabe had
promised the blacks that by the year 2000, they would have FREE houses, FREE schools and
FREE education. By 2000, they had none of the above and they were worse off than before. Many
were saying white rule was better, and many now trusted the whites more than before. Mugabe has
always had a big intelligence organisation. He has spies everywhere. It is only once you live
inside Zimbabwe and speak to people that you realise what tight control this man has. Mugabe
claims the whites helped create the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change], and that they funded
it, etc. He is partially correct. It is a black controlled organisation. However, he is right
when he says a lot of whites were involved in helping it come into existence. He knows this
because of his intelligence services. So he is not dreaming. This is quite correct.

The shock Mugabe got when he lost the referendum of 2000 caused him to decide to destroy
not only the MDC but the whites too – especially the white farmers. The white farmers
employ about 400,000 blacks, and these farmers have the trust of a lot of black people. Mugabe
knows these farmers said to the blacks “If you don’t like Mugabe then use your vote and vote
him out.” Mugabe knows this. That is why he has it in for the farmers.

He needs to break the moral influence the farmers have over the blacks. In his mind, the blacks
who are friendly to the whites are traitors. He sees them as disloyal, hence he needs to put
them into re-education camps to beat or brainwash them into supporting him. That is why
intimidation is rife and why he is prepared to send thugs to kill blacks. He views these
blacks as being guilty of treason and hence he is using the utmost force against them even
to the point of having many killed.

Now let’s get into the really ominous stuff. Why did Mugabe hand over 190 recently aquired
farms to his political and military buddies? Well, that is because Mugabe is ensuring their
loyalty. Mugabe has been rewarding politicians, journalists and military people who support him
with farms he aquired. Since 2000, he has given Government and Military officials huge pay
increases of up to 70% and 100%. Mugabe is making sure that all his people are loyal to him. He
is laying the groundwork for something really vicious.

Recently, Mugabe was addressing troops who returned from the war in the DRC [formerly Zaire].
He told them that the whites were behind the MDC. He promised to reward them for their services.

In 2000, Mugabe ordered 21,000 AK47’s from Russia on short notice and he ordered $72 million
worth of equipment including tanks and anti-personnel weaponry from China. He recently ordered
anti-riot equipment from Israel.

Recently, Mugabe reshuffled his cabinet. He fired Timothy Stamps, the Minister of Health and
the only white person in his cabinet. He also fired his Minister of Finance. The Minister of
Finance had not been in full support of him. He referred to his new cabinet as his “War Cabinet” –
which is another indication of what is on his mind. Clearly, this was a bloodless, high-level
purge of any potentially disloyal people around him as he battens down the hatches for
the troubles which may lie ahead.

Mugabe has been working hard preparing for civil uprisings against him by the blacks. Mugabe
knows that the disaffected portion of the black population are against him. He knows he cannot
offer them anything constructive. Mugabe is sitting with a deilema. He knows that if he tries
to fix the country properly it will require investment, entrepreneurship, etc and that will
without a doubt benefit the whites who control a lot of the economy. He knows the blacks are
not skilled enough, nor in a position to just replace the whites. But it is of the utmost
importance for him to get rid of the whites, especially the white farmers because of their
friendship with the blacks and because they can help the MDC. So he needs to destroy the power
of the white farmers first, and the white and Indian businesses secondly. Then he has the
blacks within his grip. But now the blacks won’t be able to feed themselves. Mugabe has probably
already decided to kill all the MDC supporters. I saw a news report recently which mentioned
that Mugabe might actually want to kill half of the black population to bring it down to about
6 million. 6 million blacks will be able to support themselves using traditional (wasteful)
slash-and-burn methods. Mugabe will see to it that the resources of the state are used to
keep as many of his supporters alive, while deliberately starving the opposition to death.

It is important to understand that these black Marxists have always viewed economic power
in white hands as a problem. This is true even here in South Africa. In their minds, everything
is a battle, and anything in our hands is something which can be used against them. Hence,
they need to either take it from us, or get us to hand it over to them peacefully (Affirmative
Action or Black Empowerment), or, at worst, they must destroy it so that we cannot be a threat.
This is the stage where Mugabe is at. If he can’t take it and use it for his own ends, then he
must at least destroy it so that the whites don’t have the power in their hands. He has to
destroy the power of the white farmers – even if it means the death of millions of blacks. He will
lie to the blacks and tell them everything will be fine and rosy so that they will go along
with it. If they realise they are participating in a mass murder, or in their own suicide they
won’t do it. So he reassures them. Then off go the “War Vets” to destroy farms – set crops on
fire, etc.

The only people who will survive this will be Mugabe loyalists. The real question which has
been weighing on my mind for most of this year has been when will the blacks finally get
tired of the hardship and rebel? Mugabe’s terror and food restriction campaign seem to be
designed to hurt the blacks so much that they are too terrified to actively resist him.
Hence the ongoing beating, indoctrination and more recently the mass rape campaigns. The
question is, will the blacks remain in a corner cowering, or will sheer desperation cause
them to take the law into their own hands? I must pause on this note for a short digression.
Every now and again I happen on a forum where Americans and others are discussing Zimbabwe.
On a number of occassions I have seen some liberal stating that Mugabe is now “as bad or
worse than Ian Smith was”. This is a total and utter lie of the worst degree. There is nothing
in the colonial history of Rhodesia which comes even vaguely close to what is going on there
now. What Mugabe is doing now is thousands of times worse than anything the whites ever did.

Let us return to the question of whether Mugabe can successfully keep the black population
down while starving them to death. I would think that there must surely be a point where
starvation and suffering will be so bad that even certain death at the hands of his troops
will no longer be a deterrent. It remains to be seen if Mugabe, who is extremely well-versed
in the use of terror can manage to keep the population subdued as he slowly starves them to
death. I think most of us doubt he can manage it indefinitely. A black political analyst in
Zimbabwe said recently that he expects civil unrest by about October-November. Recently we
had news reports of British military activity in preparation for evacuating the whites. This
clearly shows that analysts have done some studying and they know serious trouble is coming.
Mugabe has been preparing for this for a long time.

Is it possible for a ruler to survive a massive popular uprising? Well, normally not, but I think
Mugabe’s super-ruthless tactics put him in a very powerful position where he might just pull off
the impossible. He is pro-active, and he is even refusing certain grain donations like for example
the “Genetically Modified Corn” from the USA. Food is his secret weapon. By cutting off food
supplies he can start killing large numbers of people on short notice. If anyone still has the
balls to rebel, or has the strength to, he can send in the army to mow them down. Failing that,
he can starve people to death selectively or at least force them to flee the country while they
still have the strength. Either way, it means he stays and he wins!

Understand this, while Mugabe is busy killing, his neighbours will sit quietly by going
“tut tut” but nobody will do anything of substance (a sure sign of their tacit approval).
Both the President of South Africa, Mbeki, and Mugabe himself have said that one nation must not
interfere in another’s internal affairs! Cute eh? By way of a quiet tacit agreement on the part
of all these African rulers, blacks in Zimbabwe may be doomed to mass murder in the coming
months.

There is one other possibility, as these people face Mugabe’s wrath on the one hand versus
certain death on the other, they may flee. They may make a run for the borders,
especially the South African border. It has been said for quite some time that millions might
head for South Africa (where we may bear the brunt of a humanitarian crisis).

Mugabe’s long term aim, regardless of the tactics he uses is to ensure that his political
party remains in power forever! Yep, power forever
is the name of the game in the politics of southern Africa – not just for Zimbabwe, but also
for Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and of course… South Africa!

A final note, this week, on www.Etherzone.com, on tuesday, you will see an article of mine
about the British SAS and paratroopers who are laying plans for the evacuation of the whites
from Zimbabwe… This would have been a great time to arm the blacks to overthrow Mugabe.
Too bad nobody in the Western world wants to do it. So instead, we may be treated to watching
whites flee and blacks dying. Disgusting eh? Stay tuned…

I leave you with this final thought: The Worst thing a conservative can do, is to keep
quiet. That is a recipe for certain defeat. The only hope for conservatism is for us to
speak out much more loudly and to counter the many lies put out by our enemies.

Etherzone Articles by Jan Lamprecht