Mugabe goes ape over bull
- From: "Zvakanaka" <lalapansi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:34:53 +0200
Mugabe goes ape over bull
The First Post
Moses Moyo in Harare
The story of a cattle rustler shows how vindictive Mugabe's justice can be
I was arrested by Mugabe's police the other day. They caught me dealing in
foreign currency, and threw me into the Harare Remand Prison. After six
hours I bribed my way back out onto the streets, but during that time I met
a man whose plight made me forget mine.
His name is Takawira Mwanza; he is 35, a tall, dark and softly spoken man. I
laughed when Takawira told me his story. As is so common in today's
Zimbabwe, I laughed to keep from crying.
Takawira is in jail because he committed the ultimate Zimbabwean crime. He
stole from our President. Mugabe hasn't forgiven him, and probably never
will. This is his story. He was a soldier. More than that, he was a member
of the Presidential Guard, an army elite dedicated to protecting Robert
Mugabe. He was stationed at one of Mugabe's rural retreats, Highfields Farm
in Norton, 40km south of Harare. The year was 2001.
The President, celebrating a close-run election victory against the newly
formed Movement for Democratic Change, decided to buy himself a present. He
had a prize bull flown in from China on Air Zimbabwe, to join his fecund
herd at Highfields Farm.
The bull was huge and white and the President named it Karigamombe, which
translates as He Who Fells A Bull. No, I don't get it either.
Takawira fell in love with the bull. "He was so beautiful," he told me.
"Also I had my own herd at my village in Sanyati, and I decided my cows
deserved a bull like Karigamombe."
He was due some leave, so he took it. The first night he borrowed a truck,
made some excuse about a visit to a vet, loaded up Karigamombe, and trundled
him the 80km to his village. His arrival was a big event for the village -
and I imagine for Takawira's cows.
"I know it was wrong to steal," he told me. "But a man has to look after his
family any way he can." Takawira is not the most cunning of criminals, and
this wasn't the most baffling of cases, even for Zimbabwe's military
intelligence officers. They turned up the next day, took Karigamombe home,
arrested Takawira for cattle rustling, and saw him sentenced to four years'
hard labour.
A stern but reasonable sentence, you might think. Takawira did his time,
looking forward to his release in 2005. He didn't get it. What he didn't
know was, Mugabe had taken it personally.
"The President doesn't think you have been punished enough," he was told. So
although he had completed his sentence he was not to be released. That's why
I found him in the remand prison. It's where the government puts anyone they
don't know what to do with. "Perhaps one day the President will be in a good
mood, and let me out," he says, with unjustified optimism. Fellow prisoners
say he cries out in his sleep for Mugabe to release him, and let him return
to his family.
Meanwhile Karigamombe continues to enjoy life with his family on Mugabe's
farm. The bull is said to be very contented. And so, doubtless, are all his
cows.
FIRST POSTED JULY 26, 2007
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