Discipline Falters In Mugabe’s Barracks

By Walter Murwizi,

HARARE - An extremely revealing picture of soldiers looting in Harare prompted me to do what I have not done for a long time: read the whole front page of The Herald last week.

The picture, taken on Monday and only conveniently used on Wednesday by the Herald after Minister of Defence Sydney Sekeramayi had prepared a response to the mayhem, showed four soldiers seizing clothes along Jason Moyo.

And that was the bad news that the Zanu PF government, battling to contain a cholera epidemic, food crisis, water shortages, among a vast array of challenges, would never have wanted the world to hear.

When the soldiers left their barracks and started grabbing women’s handbags, cash, cellphones and looting clothes and food from shops, these were signs that the discipline that has been the hallmark of Zimbabwe’s defence forces was faltering.

While suggestions that Zimbabwe may be ripe for a full-scale mutiny are exaggerated, the thuggish behaviour of the soldiers shows that indiscipline has started creeping into the force.
In the past few years Mugabe has counted on disciplined soldiers to suppress protests by the MDC, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). But when the soldiers themselves start the mayhem these days, can they be trusted to quell any mass action that may be called in future?

I raise that question because some of the so-called rogue soldiers who looted shops last week actually encouraged people to start demonstrating against the government.

Some reportedly told their victims to join the ZCTU-organised demonstration.
At Market Square bus terminus soldiers beat up commuters for “coming to work”. “Munouyirei kubasa musina mari yacho, garai kumba zvinhu zvigadziriswe” (Why do you come to work when you don’t have money. Stay at home so the problems can be fixed)” one of the soldiers was heard saying.

Without the support of the army Mugabe’s rule could collapse like a deck of cards.
Mugabe knows full well this reality and that is the reason why he has, at every opportunity, taken extraordinary steps, sometimes at the risk of alienating other sections of the public service, to please the army with huge bonuses, and other perks over the past few years.
With inflation threatening to breach the quintillion mark, it has increasingly become difficult for the octogenarian dictator to please the generality of men and women in uniform. This has left him with no other option but to focus on the army chefs who have been given top of the range vehicles, farms, cheap loans and fuel as incentives for them to keep the troops in check.

But the foot soldiers, who have to be deployed in the streets to defend Mugabe whenever there is trouble, have been left wallowing in poverty. At the barracks, soldiers are served with sadza without relish.

Those who stay outside the barracks live miserable lives. They can’t pay rent — which is usually charged in foreign currency — they can’t afford their transport and they wear miserably threadbare uniforms.

Many have been coerced to regard as enemies close relatives and friends just because they belong to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for which Mugabe makes no secret of his dislike. Yet they still have to live among the same friends and relatives in the townships and meet frequently at funerals and other family gatherings.

Three weeks ago I witnessed a young soldier bolt out of Food World supermarket with a stolen pie in his hand. The soldier was saved from a thorough beating because those who apprehended him felt sorry when they saw his cracked lips and pathetic demeanour. When a trained man is reduced to stealing a pie to fend off hunger, looting can become an option!

SUNDAY VIEW WITH WALTER MARWIZI