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Step down Cde President
Mutsa Murenje
March 19, 2010

I have a little message for Robert Mugabe, the dictator illegally presiding over the affairs of the Republic of Zimbabwe. In my 'The Struggle Continues Unabated in 2010' written in January 2010, I made an observation about Mugabe. The observation that Mugabe is nothing but a demagogue and a tyrant at heart...the greatest egotist in Christendom....Wherever he goes, whatever he does, Mugabe shows but one characteristic-that of a blustering, insolent, unscrupulous demagogue. His treatment of Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai to date has been double-dealing, treacherous and false beyond all toleration.

Required therefore, are people and/or leaders who experience within the pain of another, people who soothe the distress of others. We don't need leaders who are proud of their great achievements but humble servants who religiously work for reform and fight injustice.

Mugabe orients his life towards the satisfaction of his own needs, when he goes out to seek the love which he needs, no matter how we try to soften our judgements of him, he is self-centred no wonder why he talks about the need for the so-called sanctions to be lifted first before any concessions can be made (in relation to the tension currently prevailing in the fragile Unity Government). He is not loveable, even if he does deserve our compassion.

Mugabe is concentrating on himself and as long as he continues to concentrate on himself, his ability to contribute in a monumental manner to the smooth trajectory from authoritarianism to democracy will always remain stunted and he will himself remain a perennial infant (in the political sense). This is the immutable law under which we live: concern for ourself and convergence upon self can only isolate self and induce an even deeper and more torturous loneliness. The only way Mugabe can break this circle formed by his lusting ego is to stop being concerned with himself and to begin to be concerned with others. Above all else, Mugabe should just step down. Then maybe we can forgive him (although we will never forget his wrongs!!!!).

To the suffering, oppressed and resilient masses of Zimbabwe, I would want to urge you to stay calm in the face of these hardships. "Tears may flow in the night but joy comes in the morning" (Psalms 30:5). In addition, the late Professor Masipula Sithole wrote in his "Zimbabwe: Struggles-within-the-struggle" that: Where human beings are involved with one another and interact directly or indirectly, conflict, tension, and struggle are bound to exist and describe the relationships. ....Contradictions are a given in social and political life (1999:4).

What then are we supposed to do? To answer this question I had to go back to my library! And I came up with the following: "And I'm simply saying this morning, that you should resolve that you will never become so secure in your thinking or your living that you forget the least of these....In some sense, all of us are the least of these, but there are some who are least than the least of these.....I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be" (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr).

In conclusion, "Necessity compels me to speak true rather than pleasing things. I should indeed like to please you but I prefer to save you whatever be your attitude toward me" (Daniel Webster). May God bless Zimbabwe. The struggle continues unabated!

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