Sensational, damning, horrific, shocking and highly damaging allegations of child grooming, child sexual abuse and Statutory Rape were levelled against current Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other Senior government officials by Susan Mutami on Twitter . The after effects of those revelations are still reverberating across the world as we speak.
It is of course of crucial importance that we highlight that they are still allegations as we speak. Nevertheless, what is extraordinary is the nature of those allegations. What is even more extraordinary is, close to 24 hours later there has not been an official robust denial or rebuttal of her allegations. The closest we have got is an uncouth and unhinged alleged response from the garrulous and young Tafadzwa Mugwadi, a ZANU PF Information & Communications Director on Twitter and George Charamba, the Presidential Spokesperson whom NewZimbabwe.com have reported simply responded to them as “rubbish.”
It must of course be acknowledged from the outset that commenting on matters of this degree of sensitivity in Zimbabwe is a truly dangerous task – clearly not for the faint hearted and often invites state sanctioned reprisals and unprecedented levels of danger / insecurity of the person, hence why some journalists and leading newspapers based in Zimbabwe have practiced “self-censorship.”
The backdrop to the allegations is that Susan lost her father at a young age and the then Cabinet Minister stepped in to provide her with financial support and accommodation at the family home in Sherwood, Kwekwe, and, on occasions, the family farm also located in Kwekwe. The abuse then allegedly started at that time, when she was around 14 or 15 years old, and continued for close to a decade, including when she had relocated to Australia.
The story sucks in the former President and his wife, the military, ZRP, former Cabinet Ministers and other government officials. It is in that context, of the current President having allegedly assumed what is in effect a de facto parental role that makes the story as explosive as it is damning. The stigma that such an accusation brings, the size and nature of the audience that Susan managed to command, the centrality and prowess of the social media phenomenon in disseminating information, including beyond local borders means that ED’s image is taking a heavy battering.
ED is of course an Alpha male – a truly powerful figure who is one of Africa’s last remaining “Big Men” commanding a vast array of tools at the ready for deployment against his political opponents. Notwithstanding that status, this is a moment of great peril for him, coming as it does when there are increasingly loud voices of discontent in his party clamouring for him to be replaced as the party’s Presidential candidate for the forthcoming 2023 elections. It is the potential loss of power that would be catastrophic for him. Mind you its not long ago that he evaded the proverbial guillotine through successfully carrying out the coup.
At present, his fightback strategy has appeared to be a combination of stonewall silence and the unleashing of his apparatchiks to attack Susan’s credibility / character. Silence is of course meant to buy him time, which in turn is potentially calculated to take the sting out of the allegations while presenting a “business as usual” approach – which includes unleashing party and state “hound dogs” to identify, assess and, where necessary, (almost inevitable), neutralise that threat. Suffice to say these are dangerous times for all of ED’s enemies.
There are things that cannot be “unheard” once you hear them. Many are of course in disbelief at the staggeringly lurid details that Susan “unfurled from her sail” yesterday. The understanding is that there is as yet more to be told. We hope to be able to dissect the social, legal and political implications of Susan’s disclosures as they emerge. It must be said without any equivocation that Zimbabweans should demand some hard answers as they clearly deserve them. The allegations the man is facing rightly invite a stench or stigma of the worst kind. They represent a catastrophic collapse in a nation’s moral and social fabric. Once that goes, there is nothing left that binds a nation together.
There should ordinarily be a core set of values that a nation, irrespective of social, religious, political or other considerations coalesces around and is not prepared to compromise on. This includes the allegations that are being levelled against ED. No nation should suffer the ignominy of being served by a leader accused of committing such dastardly and despicable acts. The least that Zimbabweans should demand of ED is to address the allegations forthwith and to meet them head-on, failing which he should be resigning or his party and the opposition should be pushing for impeachment! There should also be pressure on the Police to come clean on whether or not Susan previously lodged a report as claimed, and if she did, what the outcome was! Susan’s location – far away in Australia, naturally presents a barrier and source of frustration for the regime as she appears to be out of reach of the usual MO – or Operating Manual – rapid arrest (if lucky), detention, sham criminal charges and extended denial of bail / pre-trial persecution (as opposed to prosecution) and sometimes downright disappearance.
The longer there is silence from ED & the Presidency in addressing the allegations, the more a local and international perception of their credibility (of the allegations) is understandably crystallised. Once that takes place, Zimbabwe as a nation will be in unchartered waters. The response has so far been a shambles which suggests a paralysis or crisis of sorts is taking place in the background. Susan reeled off a lot of names from our body politic, viz: Robert Mugabe, Grace Mugabe, (meetings in China), Auxillia Mnangagwa, SB Moyo, Owen “Mudha” Ncube (the former Min of State Security), Sigauke, Magna, Temba Mliswa, the former Min of Tourism & Foreign Minister, Walter Mzembi, the ZRP CID Team – and the explosive disclosure that she has previously reported the allegations. If viewed from that angle, its clear that there is a distinct possibility that most among Zim’s political establishment already know about them and are terrified on how to respond or address them, otherwise all of them would have denounced Susan immediately had what she has alleged been untrue.
