Stuck in the past with a hackneyed leader
Zimbabwe has little to no chance of joining the 21st century with a forever-president
At what point — when you have been alive for more than 90 years, in power for close to 40 years, seen off rivals and foes and presided over the ruin of your country — does everything appear the same, each gesture and move something to be replicated? Historians of the future will try to find the exact moment when President Robert Mugabe’s exercise of power became a cliché, a repetition of time-worn methods. Take his cabinet reshuffle last week. Mugabe shifted some of his ministers sideways, chucked out a few and brought in others in a move that brings to mind what British scholar Stephen Chan said in 2016 about the 93-year-old president: "There is no major leader anywhere else in the world who is Mugabe’s age. "In China, which also venerates age, you cannot become a member of the politburo or become president if you are over 60. You must have done that in your 50s and the president has only two terms, so it is impossible to still be president in your 70s." Zimbabwe’s government has a...
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