Is Mugabe Listening to Zimbabweans' Call for Him to Step Down?
Jacob Mafume of the People's Democratic Party said Mr. Mugabe should step down as his government is now even failing to pay civil servants.
WASHINGTON DC — Some Zimbabweans have been of late staging public protests over the deteriorating social, economic and political situation in the country. The protesters, including the Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai, Evan Mawarire's #ThisFlag, youth group Tajamuka-Sesijikile and several others, have been calling President Robert Mugabe to step down for allegedly failing to properly run the country. Such calls have been made in the past by various political parties and Occupy Africa Unity Square, led by abducted political activist Itai Dzamara. Is the president listening to calls for him to step down? For perspective, Studio 7’s Gibbs Dube reached Zanu PF lawmaker, Joseph Tshuma, and Jacob Mafume, spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party led Tendai Biti. Tshuma said calls for the president to step down are misplaced. “ ... People have a democratic right to demonstrate in whatever manner but the main question here is ... Are people seeing the root cause of these problems or they are just taking it from the surface? ... It’s not the solution for the president to go.” He said some economic problems currently bedeviling Zimbabwe were caused by what he described as “suboteuers”, who are controlling the means of production in the country and outside the borders. But Mafume dismissed these remarks as baseless, noting that President Mugabe’s government has become dysfunctional as it can’t even pay civil servants. He noted that Zimbabwe is now worse than Somalia, which has been struggling to get a stable government for many years due to an armed conflict that has been raging for many years.