Mugabe’s army getting antsy
posted at 8:19 am on December 1, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Robert Mugabe owes his position and his life to his armed forces, which have not only kept the Zimbabwean dictator safe from overthrow but also suppressed his opposition. They’ve remained loyal so far, but that may soon change. The rank and file now find life just as hard as the rest of their countrymen:
Restrictions on the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from the country’s banks amid an economic crisis and hyperinflation mean that soldiers, like the rest of the population, can only take out the equivalent of 50 pence a day - enough to buy a single banana.
Fourteen soldiers were arrested this week after scores went on the rampage in the capital Harare and the middle class suburb of Braeside, attacking foreign currency dealers with batons.
The soldiers had earlier swarmed into a city centre bank demanding more than the allocated maximum withdrawal but neither it nor any commercial banks, including Britain’s Standard Chartered and Barclays, have enough cash to placate the daily queues outside.
The soldiers had been expecting to pick up an ex gratia payment of Z$10 million (£4) from the department of defence, but the central bank could only pay half that sum, and only to soldiers from one barracks - the King George VI. The mood soon turned ugly.
It’s only going to get uglier. Mugabe had the foresight to ensure payment to his officer corps, at least in the more senior positions, but the enlisted men and junior officers make up the bulk of the force. If they can’t get paid enough, especially in the rapidly-declining Zimbabwean currency, they’re not just going to stop oppressing the opposition — they’re going to start joining them.
Mugabe has refused to share command over the nation’s security forces with the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai, for good reason. Once he loses control over them, Mugabe is finished. If the senior leadership loses control over the army, the MDC won’t be able to stop the carnage, even if Mugabe allows them to share power. It will mean a civil war, and Mugabe and his goons will be the first against the wall — and Mugabe knows it.
The Mugabe regime is rapidly approaching its end game. The question will be whether Mugabe concedes and runs before it all collapses entirely, or whether he will get swept up in the whirlwind.
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Unfortunately, this will not restore the lands to the white farmers that he took the lands from. They were the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy. The farmers were ran out of the country or killed and their homes given to people that did not know how to operate the farms.
kingsjester on December 1, 2008 at 8:26 AM
Ultimately this is how Chavez will end as well. Once a thug socialist dictator runs the economy into the ground and gets to the point where he can’t pay his thugs and bullies who keep him in power they will turn on him.
wildcat84 on December 1, 2008 at 8:29 AM
It’s a wonder that any foreign businesses have remained in that armpit of a nation.
jgapinoy on December 1, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Thanks Jimmy Carter for thirty years of hell for the Rhodesian people.
eaglewingz08 on December 1, 2008 at 8:35 AM
If you have to live in a police state, join the police… of course, if all your pay and perks are gone, then what’s the point? Might as well join the masses and bring down your benefactor… Say good-bye, Bob.
Frozen Tex on December 1, 2008 at 8:36 AM
When will Thugabe grab his golden parachute & run?
jgapinoy on December 1, 2008 at 8:37 AM
Straight from the article. This is why the army is getting antsy. It works under Mugabe.
Anyone willing to voice surprise over the enforcer thugs becoming discontented and acting like… thugs?
Marine_Bio on December 1, 2008 at 8:38 AM
But, will the people have learned anything from all this?
OldEnglish on December 1, 2008 at 8:42 AM
Yeah!! Coups are fun! :)
Illinidiva on December 1, 2008 at 8:43 AM
Obarfa is going to replace Paulson with Mugabe.
Bishop on December 1, 2008 at 8:44 AM
About all, sad to say.
OldEnglish on December 1, 2008 at 8:45 AM
Life imitates The Lion King.
aunursa on December 1, 2008 at 8:48 AM
In my left hand I hold an American $20. In my right hand I have a Zimbabwe 1 million dollar bill. Which is worth more? That pretty much says it all.
Tommy_G on December 1, 2008 at 8:51 AM
“Restrictions on the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from the country’s banks amid an economic crisis and hyperinflation mean that soldiers, like the rest of the population, can only take out the equivalent of 50 pence a day - enough to buy a single banana.”
US in 2012
angryed on December 1, 2008 at 8:53 AM
Replace the $20 with a single penny.
sethstorm on December 1, 2008 at 9:00 AM
This says it all. From the photos associated with the article.
Marine_Bio on December 1, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Gosh, it would just be a big ol’ darn shame if the monster turned on the master, eh?
Warner Todd Huston on December 1, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Maybe Hopey/Changey can show Mugbe how to
presto Change-o Hope-o, can improve Mugbe’s
political outlook!Ha ha.
Wait a tick,Hopey should send ACORN over to
help Mugbe organize his Dictatorship!
canopfor on December 1, 2008 at 9:02 AM
It’s a pity that people like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu decided not to use their considerable moral authority to end the situation peacefully earlier this year. That would be much better than the violent coup that is probably going to end it.
Illinidiva on December 1, 2008 at 9:04 AM
Paulson should look at this.
lodge on December 1, 2008 at 9:07 AM
Unfortunately, I doubt it.
That image is the one that irritated me. (The rest were fairly sad) It is aparently a universal human condition to focus on the wrong things to fix problems. It will take real leadership from someone to pull them out of the culture that has been fostered under Mugabe.
Marine_Bio on December 1, 2008 at 9:08 AM
The absence of leadership is what will lead to the violence. Just more of the chaos that seems to be stacking up for Obama to deal with.
sigh. We’re in for a very bumpy ride.
Marine_Bio on December 1, 2008 at 9:11 AM
They couldn’t do that. It would be akin to admitting that whites were not as bad as they made them out to be, during their run for power.
OldEnglish on December 1, 2008 at 9:11 AM
According to the website (www.oanda.com) that I got the conversions at “1,000,000 Zimbabwe Dollars = 16.37249 US Dollars” as of 12/01/08.
Tommy_G on December 1, 2008 at 9:12 AM
He knows very well that what he’s doing will lead to complete chaos here. He doesn’t care though. He is helping himself and his cronies out and to hell with the little people. By the time the shit hits the fan here, Paulson, Bush, Bernnake, Greenspan et al will be safe and sound in Costa Rica or some place like that without a care in the world.
angryed on December 1, 2008 at 9:16 AM
Z$10 million (£4)
The very fact this is a real exchange rate and not a parodical exaggeration is indicative of how truly terrible Mugabe, and by association, all his friends and cohorts in the UN are.
BKennedy on December 1, 2008 at 9:25 AM
France would welcome him with open arms if he needs a place to go….France loooooves former heads-of-state, especially if they are murderers.
ex-Democrat on December 1, 2008 at 9:31 AM
I think that supporting a fellow traveler out of blind loyalty is more likely.
Illinidiva on December 1, 2008 at 9:34 AM
Not good news for First Lady - elect, MEchelle; I’m sure she was looking forward to getting some personality pointers from the “
goodgeneral”….Take it easy folks, it’s early Monday and just joking around - Mrs. Obama already has an abrasive personality and need not pointers.
Branch Rickey on December 1, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Totally agree! Mugabe has been in power how long and we have politicians worrying over the manufactured “crisis” of
climate changeWEATHER?Branch Rickey on December 1, 2008 at 9:53 AM
Taking notes Barry? Be sure and pay your “civilian force” on time. A pocket full of cash is all the incentive they need to keep the “evil corporatist” in line. Ha!
RMR on December 1, 2008 at 9:58 AM
I had hopes that George W Bush, would take out one more tyrant before he left office…George has freed a lot of people. Liberia is coming back after the devastating rule of Robert Taylor, people don’t have to live under tyrants…this guy Mugabe needs to go away…I don’t care if it is vertical or horizontal.
Dr Evil on December 1, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Reminds me of my very own employer’s president…who just told all his workers there will be no raise this year, and probably not next year either. Not even the 2% we were promised. And guess who just took a 16, yes, SIXTEEN percent increase? Can I have my banana now?
scalleywag on December 1, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Nominee for feel good story of the day.
thegreatbeast on December 1, 2008 at 10:36 AM
It’s funny - I seem to recall that Barclays (and Standard too?) had to pull out of South Africa as part of the anti-Apartheid sanctions, yet they continue to operate in the infinitely more vicious Zimbabwe? Talk about a double standard.
holdfast on December 1, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Was this the intended meaning of holdfast or merely coincidental? Gotta ask, there aren’t many seaweed fanatics out there. :D
Marine_Bio on December 1, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Jimmy Carter’s Mugabe has been long lived indeed, much to the chagrin of Zimbabwe.
I wonder what the joys of Hussein Obama, Jimmy Carter II, will bring to the world. Chart topping new territory.
tarpon on December 1, 2008 at 11:23 AM
This is what happens under a dictatorship; power, greed and corruption have had their sway and the people have suffered. I’m waiting for some loon on the left to blame this all on Bush….
DL13 on December 1, 2008 at 11:27 AM
An officer corps is only useful as long as they can command. Seems that utility is rapidly approaching an end…
Diogenes Online on December 1, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Africa is essentially ungovernable. Kenya, DRC, Slaughter this week in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa the rape capital of the world, Somolia the pirate capital bringing the nations to their knees and on it goes. We have wasted more money over the last 60 years propping up these black thugs than what we are now trying to scrounge together to bail our own country out of hock. They have riches, they squandered our money and banked it in Switzerland, send in the marines and decimate the thieving, murdering thugs and rid the world of a pestilance. In this case, if we can take out the media, the people will likely hail us as heros and get their garden lands back. When I was in Kenya several years ago, a kenyan wrote to the Nairobi paper asking the whites to come back and restore the country to the order it had prior to the blacks taking over management of the country. He blamed the national government for all the woes. He was right. Now we are to see how a Kenyan governs the once most powerful nation in the world. This really ought to be interesting.
wepeople on December 1, 2008 at 11:55 AM
Hening on December 1, 2008 at 12:04 PM
I read it as meaning attacks on Zimbabwean dealers in foreign currency, not on foreign dealers in currency.
There is definitly a double standard. The world is a better place now that Aparthied is gone from South Africa. But their were and are much worse examples of ethnic and racial discrimination and violence in Africa that are ignored simply because they aren’t neatly color coded. If the situation in South Africa was a black ethnic minority oppressing the the rest of a black population, it would never have become the major cause it was. And that’s just sad.
jic on December 1, 2008 at 12:05 PM
That’s Sir Robert Thugabe to you!
/s
TheSitRep on December 1, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Oops, as you were.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/mugabe-a-knight-no-longer/
TheSitRep on December 1, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Bingo! But then, thirty years ago there were still a few Krugerrands.
Speakup on December 1, 2008 at 12:31 PM
A wall, blindfold and bullet. A fitting end for Mugabe. Say hi to the Ceauscesus when you see them, Bob!
Cicero43 on December 1, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Robert Mugabe?
Rob Mugabe before he robs you.
iamse7en on December 1, 2008 at 5:39 PM
“Z$10,000,000 (£4)”
They should have an immigration problem. Come to Zimbabwe, where everyone’s a millionaire!
Kevin M on December 1, 2008 at 7:17 PM
N…43?
JUNTA!
SuperCool on December 1, 2008 at 7:19 PM
I still remember years ago watching a news show about some white farmers that were co-operating with Mugabe. I watched as they talked at town meetings about the need for co-operation, that there was nothing to fear,, they were all just “trying to get along.”
I have often wondered what posts their heads ended up on.
JellyToast on December 1, 2008 at 9:09 PM