Mugabe is known for having a slippery tongue. While addressing service chiefs and the new leadership of the veterans of the war of liberation in 2014, he let slip that the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 73 percent of the vote in the disputed 2008 election, against the official 47 percent, before panicked aides corrected him.
Mugabe won the 2013 elections that many local and foreign observers said was marred by violence and vote-rigging.
“It is clear that on this occasion Mugabe wants to (speak in Parliament) because recently whenever he has been given an opportunity to speak, he speaks out against Mnangagwa and his cohorts, and he would want to use the occasion to do precisely that,” said Mandaza, suggesting that Mugabe was under house arrest.
On Sunday, the privately owned The Standard newspaper reported that Mugabe had last week told visiting Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang Nguema that the government of Mnangagwa was spying on him, sabotaging his businesses and harassing his employees.
A senior ZANU-PF member told The Source: “I do not think that it serves anyone’s interests that Mugabe be allowed to speak in a public forum. He could throw many people under the bus and make it very uncomfortable for many in government today, especially with elections so close.”
Alex Magaisa, a lecturer of law and political analyst, says Parliament has already exposed itself when it failed to deal with Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu after he arrogantly refused to answer the committee’s questions and later refused to attend the hearings.
“If it failed in Obert Mpofu’s case, I can’t see how it can make headway regarding Mugabe who is even more stubborn,” he told The Source.
As Magaisa points out, Mugabe always had disdain for Parliament, which is why he created an Executive Presidency which is not answerable to Parliament.
“He might even turn this into a case of a witch-hunt, namely that the new administration is harassing him. This way he will gain sympathy from his friends and make the new administration look bad even though legally, like any other citizen, he must account to Parliament,” says Magaisa.
The theory that Mugabe is being prevented from testifying before Parliament by officials who do not want to be exposed is hard to prove, he adds.
“He (Mugabe) could easily make representations to Parliament that he wants to attend but is being prevented. I just think the man can’t be bothered and it serves the current administration well because they wouldn’t want him to expose them anyway.”
By Alfonce Mbizwo for The Source
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