Mugabe now too old to care about Zimbabwe’s future

Charles Mabhena

An opposition party in Zimbabwe, Transform Zimbabwe’s leader Jacob Ngarivhume says President Robert Mugabe is now too old to think of the country’s future, and as such he only thinks about himself alone.

“President Mugabe is now too old to think of the future of Zimbabweans. I would encourage all fellow countrymen to vote wisely, you cannot entrust your future in the hands of someone like Mugabe who is too old.

“I am in my 50s, young, energetic, and I love my country and have the power to work and make it a good place to work and live in,” he says.

Ngarivhume adds that because of old age and leadership style, Mugabe has been detached from the masses, and no longer understands their plight and how they live. He adds that the major problem with Mugabe is that because of age, he now lives in his own world that is isolated from the people he leads.

At the same time, a political analyst, Alex Magaisa concurs with Ngarivhume’s thought line and mocks Zimbabwean leaders who are too old, giving former United States president Barack Obama, as an example of young leaders.

He believes that the ruling party is now a party of very old leaders most of them especially at the top are above 70s, and because of that type leadership style, in ZANU PF’s view, even a 60 year old person is as young as a youth.

Magaisa gives example that at Obama’s age he would have been considered a youth if he were in the ruling party (ZANU PF)’s corridors of power.

“The former president of USA is just 55 years old. In Zimbabwe he would be head of ZANU PF’s Youth League,” he mocks Zimbabwe’s old guards.

President Mugabe is turning 93 years this February, and despite struggling with poor health because of old age, he has hinted that he would stand for the Presidential elections in 2018.

He is on record for saying ‘I will rule for as long as I am sane.’

His health is now failing him and  he has recently been in and outside Zimbabwe for medical attention. Some have even mocked him likening him to a leader who visits his country and spending most of his time either in the skies or abroad.

Mugabe is one of the oldest African leaders present, and he has ruled Zimbabwe since the attainment of its independence in 1980.