Not my President Day

Continued from last week

 

Human rights groups have long denounced Zimbabwe’s pattern of repression.
Dewa Mavhinga of Human Rights Watch says this year’s protests may have started over basic human and civil rights and the economy, but have escalated because the government’s reaction was to further impede on their basic rights.

“Really this is because of bad governance, poor management by the state and also rampant corruption,” he said. ”So this is what has driven people on to the streets. Unfortunately, the government has not reacted by dealing with the root causes of these protests, but it has chosen to violently crush these demonstrations, further violating people’s rights.”

But protesters say confrontation doesn’t scare them. On Friday, the opposition group behind the latest protest swore: “beat us all you want, but we shall not yield.”

They plan to hold another protest next Friday.”

 

Nevertheless, “Daily News” published the following Headline:                   “MUGABE WILL RULE

                        FROM GRAVE – WIFE”

“The Mail” newspaper, on its part, went to town with salacious stories about the President and his wife. Headline:  “ROBERT MUGABE’S WIFE GRACE HAD AFFAIR WITH HIS TOP BANKER”

The wife of Robert Mugabe has been having a secret affair with one of her husband’s best friends, Gideon Gono, head of the country’s central bank.

The couple would meet as often as three times a month either at her dairy farm or in expensive hotels in neighbouring South Africa.

Mugabe finally found out about the affair in July when his sister Sabina revealed the scandal on her deathbed, it was reported.

 

Since then his most-trusted bodyguard Cain Chademana – who is said to have told the furious president that he knew of the affair but thought it best to keep quiet – has lost his life amid suspicions that he was poisoned.

Gono, 50, is now said to fear for his safety. ‘Once he (Mugabe) hears something like that, I think someone will go to meet God,’ said one Zimbabwean intelligence official.

It is not the first time Mrs. Mugabe, who is widely reviled inside Zimbabwe for her lavish tastes and expensive shopping sprees, has conducted affairs behind her husband’s back.

One former lover, Peter Pamire, died in a mysterious car accident. Another, James Makamba, fled the country.

Gono has known Mrs. Mugabe, who married the president in 1996, for at least 15 years and they are partners in a number of business enterprises.

He is a pillar of the Zanu PF party that has held on to power in Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence from Britain.

 

As one of Mugabe’s most trusted friends, he has served since 2003 as head of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe – a period that saw the country’s currency suffer hyperinflation of more than a billion per cent a year.

While many of Zimbabwe’s desperately poor people struggle to find enough food to eat, Gono lives in a 47-bedroom mansion with swimming pool, gym and its own mini theatre.

Yesterday a source close to the bank confirmed that he and the first lady were lovers and claimed they had planned a life together after Mugabe’s death.

The senior official in Gono’s office told South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper: ‘Mugabe trusted Gono. He even thought our boss was taking care of the first lady, keeping a protective eye on her so that she could not again be adulterous.’

Mugabe’s relationship with Grace, his former secretary, is itself founded on infidelity.

Two of their three children were born when Mugabe was still married to his popular first wife, Sally, who was battling a kidney disease from which she died in 1992.”

In any case rather than confront “NOT MY PRESIDENT’S DAY” protesters directly, Donald Trump went off at a complete tangent. Instead, he launched a missile attack on the press:

“The press are the enemies of democracy” was his blunt verdict. He singled out both CNN and The New York Post (NYP). CNN and NYP refused to be intimidated. They both went to town with Breaking News and front page reports respectively quoting Eric Levenson on February 21, 2017.

“Another week, another series of demonstrations by opponents of         President Donald Trump.

“A lot of people are angry because he lost the popular vote and is ruling         like somebody who won by a landslide,” Lexell said.

In New York’s Columbus Circle, protesters held signs with a simple      message — the word “No!” in different languages.

In addition, merchants sold T-shirts reading “Not My President” above smaller text reading “Elected but not chosen.”

“In the name of humanity, fascist America — No! No! No! No! No!,” they         chanted.

 

The protests took place in several dozen cities, according to the Not My         President’s Day Facebook page.

In Los Angeles, protesters gathered and held signs at City Hall, chanting       “No ban, no wall!”

And in Atlanta, protesters included college students like Alyssa   McNerney, who said she came out to highlight Republican party’s        hypocrisy.”

In rapid order, both allies and foes of Donald Trump waded into the fray.

Here is a random selection:

President Donald Trump is “delusional”, according to Senator Bernie Sanders.

“I don’t have to tell anybody here that our country today faces enormous problems, “the former presidential candidate said outside a West Virginia retreat for Senate Democrats, according to The Hill. “We have a delusional president, who is way out of touch with the needs of the people of West Virginia and working people all over this country.”

Sanders, along with Massachussetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, joined with marchers outside, asking them to oppose Trump and Congressional Republicans who’re seeking to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He added that Democrats can only “beat” the GOP” through a massive grassroots efforts.”

 

“We saw what that grassroots effort is about on Saturday with the Women’s March all over America,” he added.

Warren called on those assembled to prepare to “fight back” against conservatives in power.

“The Republicans have the power in Washington. They have the Senate. They have the House,” she said. “They have the White House, so it is now up to us.”

“We can whimper, we can whine or we can fight back,” she continued. “Are you ready to fight back?”

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright slammed President’s Trump’s travel ban as reckless and “flat anti-American.”

• concluded

J.K. Randle