Tekere says Mugabe 'insecure' in new book

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By Staff Reporter

A LIFETIME of Struggle, a new book by veteran Zimbabwean politician Edgar Tekere is published next week.

Tekere, 70, served briefly in government before his popularity as a potential rival to Robert Mugabe caused their estrangement.

He founded the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (Zum) and stood against Mugabe in the 1990 election and was heavily defeated, but remained involved in politics and has recently rejoined Zanu PF.

Ibbo Mandaza, a veteran journalist and academic who wrote Tekere's biography said Tekere shows Mugabe as a "weak character" in the 200-page book, the second by a leading figure in Zimbabwe's war of independence after Joshua Nkomo's The Story of My Life.

"Tekere focuses on the liberation struggle itself, the military aspect of it," Mandaza told New Zimbabwe.com Thursday. "It reveals how that militarism of the liberation war has overflown into the current situation where we have violence of the state."

Mandaza said Tekere also shows in great detail how the late Josiah Tongogara was "completely in charge" on the liberation war effort while Mugabe's role was "very marginal".

While acknowledging that the book reveals a lot of "bitterness" by Tekere at his treatment by Mugabe, Mandaza insists that the book provides an authoritative history of the liberation war and the character of Robert Mugabe.

He said: "Tekere shows Mugabe as a weak character. He also comes across as an unreliable and calculating individual keen on long term strategies where people are used variously like Enos Nkala, Maurice Nyagumbo and Tekere himself to achieve set ends.

"Tekere also portrays Mugabe as manipulative and therefore, insecure which explains his desire to stay in power. Tekere also says Mugabe has an inability to see beyond himself.

"This book is an eye-opener and in a way, it explains the nature of the state today."

When Zanu won the 1980 elections, Tekere was appointed Manpower Planning Minister in Mugabe's Cabinet. He followed his appointment by making a series of outspoken speeches which went far beyond government policy.

Tekere's consistent criticism of corruption resulted in his expulsion from Zanu PF in 1988. When Mugabe voiced his belief that Zimbabwe would be better governed as a one party state, Tekere strongly disagreed, saying "a one-party state was never one of the founding principles of Zanu PF and experience in Africa has shown that it brought the evils of nepotism, corruption and inefficiency".

He ran against Robert Mugabe in the 1990 Presidential race as the candidate of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement, offering a broadly free market platform against Mugabe's communist-style economic planning.

won the election on April 1, 1990 receiving 2,026,976 votes while Tekere only got 413,840 (16% of the vote). At the simultaneous Parliamentary elections the ZUM won 20% of the vote but only two seats in the House of Assembly.

He recently rejoined Zanu PF but is barred from holding a position.

Meanwhile, Mandaza also revealed Sapes Books are reprinting the biography of Joshua Nkomo, The Story of My Life.

A Lifetime of Struggle is published by Sapes Books. You can e-mail info@sapes.org.zw for a copy. The book will be distributed by African Book Collectors in London (click here)

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