Zimbabwe Wikileaks about president Mugabe.

The Wikileaks are making some interesting waves around the world. Most of what I have read, around 200,000 of them (I was taught speed reading in Rhodesia), remain a blur because I read them rather rapidly, but I did come across one about Zimbabwe.

It is a bit old now, 2007, but is a nice piece written by the then US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher William Dell. Some of you might remember Mugabe ranting ‘Dell can go to Hell!’. Zimbabwe opposition has jumped on this Email with glee. I am not surprised. It is a beautifully written and honest account of what was/still is going on Zimbabwe. Dell says about Mugabe –

Robert Mugabe has survived for so long because he is more 

clever and more ruthless than any other politician in 

Zimbabwe.  To give the devil his due, he is a brilliant 

tactitian and has long thrived on his ability to abruptly 

change the rules of the game, radicalize the political 

dynamic and force everyone else to react to his agenda. 

However, he is fundamentally hampered by several factors: 

his ego and belief in his own infallibility; his obsessive 

focus on the past as a justification for everything in the 

present and future; his deep ignorance on economic issues 

(coupled with the belief that his 18 doctorates give him 

the authority to suspend the laws of economics, including 

supply and demand); and his essentially short-term, 

tactical style. 

There is more, but man, has this guy done us a favour or what! I just love it. The full Email can be read here. Sadly, he balls up a bit, predicting Mugabe’s imminent demise.

Anyway, in the Times (print copy, I refuse to pay for their on-line service), which I bought for a train journey to school, it gave a Wikileak reference to another leak which I gather comes from South Africa. I can’t find it online, but it quotes Mugabe as a ‘crazy old man’. Nothing new here but interestingly, it refers to ‘president Mugabe’. With a small p. Mmm, well that could just be a typo mistake…but, have a look carefully at this picture I scanned from the print edition. 

So, is this a sort of signal that he is sort of, like president, but not really President….hah hah – brilliant!