By RW Johnson, The Sunday Times - London, June 3, 2001.
ZIMBABWE'S embattled president, Robert Mugabe, is facing a new crisis: a growing belief among his followers that he and his government have become the victims of black magic, and that bad luck follows them at every turn.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the much feared former head of the secret police and Mugabe's designated successor, was visibly troubled when he went on television last week to discuss recent setbacks, including the deaths of two ministers in separate road accidents.
"We don't know what is hitting us," he lamented. "It's not natural. Something else must be happening."
A regional leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party went further, saying: "We fear the hand of Lucifer is at work."
The comments follow an unprecedented sequence of disasters for Mugabe. First, his brutal and dynamic campaign organiser, Border Gezi, was killed in a car crash.
Gezi had created a slush fund within his Ministry for Youth and Job Creation that was used to pay election bribes in every municipal poll and parliamentary by-election.
Mugabe had been counting on Gezi to get him re-elected as president next year.
His trade minister, Nkosana Moyo, quietly shipped himself and his family to the safety of South Africa before announcing he had resigned from the cabinet on the grounds that Mugabe's policies had made his job impossible.
Then the defence minister, Moven Mahachi, was killed in another car accident. Mahachi, an unconditional loyalist, was responsible for the detention and torture of two leading black journalists last year.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had earlier persuaded a court to set aside several election results because widespread violence by Mugabe's party meant they had not been fair.
The judge brave enough to reach this decision had to resign the next day but a legal precedent had been set for MDC challenges in more than two dozen other seats.
Meanwhile, the invasions of urban businesses by Mugabe's shock troops, the war veterans, have rebounded so badly that they not only had to be called off, but the government claimed they had been carried out by "rogue elements".
Among Zanu-PF's often superstitious supporters, the greatest impact has come from the deaths of Gezi and Mahachi and the electrifying news that Hitler Hunzvi, the war veterans' leader who led the invasions of white farms, had collapsed.
Conscious that his macho image was on the line, Hunzvi discharged himself a few days later, but he has collapsed again and is officially back in hospital suffering from "cerebral malaria".
On the streets of Harare, the word is that all this is the work of a powerful sangoma (witchdoctor) the MDC is said to have brought from South Africa - a rumour the opposition ridicules.
But such superstition has permeated even the educated elite. When Mugabe approached several leading businessmen about taking over the trade ministry, he was turned down. "To get involved with Mugabe is to invite bad luck into your life," said one.
Although Mugabe is notionally a Catholic, he has increasingly fallen back on the tribal religions that many Zimbabweans combine to a greater or lesser degree with Christianity.
Mugabe's supporters are vocal in their traditionalist beliefs. The war vets have their own spirit medium, Sekuru Mushore, whose dictum is that "those who die killing a white man will have no sin before Jehovah".
Mushore has his troubles with the law because he openly insists that using marijuana and having sex with young women are legitimate parts of the rituals he performs.
Similarly, many of Mugabe's rural supporters belong to the Va Pastori church, whose followers proclaim a brand of Christianity but are frequently caught up in witchcraft rituals.
But Mugabe's encouragement of tribal religion and scorn for the modern world has now rebounded on him, for his authority and air of invulnerability has been badly dented by the "black magic" explanations for his run of bad luck. Courtesy rense.com
Speaking as someone who lived in Africa, and fought against Mugube, yours truly can say that there is a deep belief in the power of the Sangoma (Witchdocter) in Zimbabwe. One of Mugube's principle means of motivating his terrorist army was the employment of witchdocters who gave his men "Muti" or magic potions to make them invulnerable to our bullets; at least that's what the witchdocters told Mugube's men. However like the Lone Ranger we must have had magic silver bullets because they weren't invulnerable to our weapons.
Still the fact remains that Mugube and his men are bastards. I remember my first bush patrol with four others, like myself green rookie's, never having been in a full on firefight. We were on patrol near the border with Botswana and came upon a small village; after watching it for some time we went in to be greeted by the old chief. Nearly eighty, the old man virtually bowed down before us: "You white men," he told us, "are like gods to us." He really seemed honoured by our presence and bade his daughters prepare us a meal of sadsa (white corn meal) and fresh rainwater.
Poor old guy.
A month later I heard that Mugube's men had visited him after hearing he was supporting the government of Ian Smith. In response they cut off his hands, raped his daughters and then shot him.
Bastards.
But like they say what goes around, comes around…
