In 1995, there was pandemonium at Gwanzura Stadium when a senior police officer, Jefta Dube, shot and killed (in cold blood) a junior police officer at a Jenaguru Music Festival. It was alleged that senior officer Jefta Dube was urinating in public near the performance stage. The junior officer approached him and asked him politely if he could use the nearby toilets instead of urinating in public. Officer Dube, who was armed at that time, withdrew his pistol and fired point blank at his junior officer’s head. The junior officer died instantly.
A report was made at Machipisa Police Station. Jefta Dube was arrested for committing murder. When Dube was brought before the courts, he made claims that shocked the country and shook those in corridors of power. He claimed that he shot the officer after he had called him “President Canaan Banana’s wife”. That was the point when the whole nation became aware that President Canaan Banana was gay and had been sodomising many Black Mambas soccer team players.
President Canaan Banana was happily married and a clergyman moreover. He was a reverend in the Methodist Church, as well as a theologian and politician. Up to Dube’s revelation he had managed to deceive most people in the country by projecting an image of a compassionate and understanding leader. He had lived two different lives; on one hand a peace loving statesman who loved his country and a responsible husband who loved his wife and children and, on the other hand, a stone-hearted monster who had been sodomising young men. He had been preying on young boys at Black Mambas Football Club. The courts convicted president Banana of the offences, and he served his jail sentence at Connemara Open Prison. Officer Dube also died in prison earlier.
Former President Canaan Banana was not declared a national hero when he died because of the Jenaguru Music Festival murder which later exposed him as a serial sodomist. The first President of the Republic of Zimbabwe was a disgrace to the nation and the church. He let down millions of people who had looked up to him for leadership.
The second president of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe was not the paragon of virtue that he pretended to be. He lived a double-faced life of deceit and concealment. As we all now know, Bona Mugabe and Robert Mugabe (Junior) were born when Amai Sally Mugabe was still alive. This means that President Mugabe was cheating on his sick wife. The president was indulging in an extra marital sexual relationship with Grace. Since it was not possible to bring Grace to State House when Sally Mugabe was still alive, we can only conjecture that the former president either had a secret house, or met his then girlfriend at hotels or used his office as a bedroom. Amai Sally Mugabe must have died a bitter woman. There was no one to comfort her during her time of sickness. She had become a bother in Mugabe and Grace’s lives, who must have wished for her faster demise.
In our African traditional culture, a man does not make love to another woman when her wife is sick. It is believed that the sick wife would die, because doing so would bring evil spirits into the home. Thus, in a way, Cde Robert Mugabe contributed to the death of national heroine, Cde Sally Mugabe.
Cde Robert Mugabe was also the first President to raise an iron whip against former freedom fighters who were demanding assistance to meet basic needs such as food, health care and housing. Brutal force was employed to try to silence them. It took a never-say-die spirit of the war veterans who militantly and persistently pestered him for Mugabe to finally but grudgingly provide some form of compensation to veterans of the liberation struggle. To this day, more than 99% of former combatants are still living in abject poverty.
As we entered the Second Republic former freedom fighters thought that with one of their own at the helm, their treatment was going to change. However, these hopes were misplaced.
Some women ex-combatants organised a demonstration against deteriorating living conditions; joining the frontline in the struggle for emancipation from poverty. They were greeted with button sticks and tear gas by riot police. The former combatants were just demanding an audience with the Minister of Finance, Professor Muthuli Ncube but that was never to be. Demonstrating peacefully is an offence in Zimbabwe. A number of former freedom fighters were dragged before the courts. It was a great embarrassment for all freedom fighters to be humiliated by a senior member of the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe who is now in charge as the President of the Second Republic. The great hope we had when one of our own rose to the presidency evaporated into thin air. The freedom fighters, are on their own.
Thus, the President of the second republic has not started well. He has already used weapons of war to subdue demonstrations. Already one woman is alleging sexual abuse against our president before he ascended to his current office. We hope he clears his name in these shameful allegations levelled against him by Susan Mutami to save us from further embarrassment. One line in our national anthem says, “… and may leaders be exemplary.” Our country yearns for leaders who lead by example oh Lord!