The important news this morning was that Songs of Praise host Aled Jones has been axed by the BBC for allegedly writing naughty messages to a female member of staff over ten years ago. Aled Jones came to fame as the choirboy who sang the hit song ‘Walking in the Air’ in the 1980’s. Less attention has been paid to a voluminous past correspondence on Wikileaks and numerous western government sources about Emmerson Mnangagwa President in Waiting of Zimbabwe known as ‘The Crocodile’.
The Conversation reported yesterday that “Mnangagwa is the Mugabe henchman who helped enable the misrule and tyranny of the last 37 years. He was one of the principal architects of the Gukurahundi -– the genocidal attack on the Ndebele – in the early to mid-1980s which left at least 20 000 people dead. He has also been instrumental in rigging elections and crushing all opposition to Zanu-PF rule, including the atrocities of 2008.”
Both Mugabe (also accused of being implicated in the Ndebele massacres) and Mnangagwa should by rights be cooling their heels in the International Court of Justice’s prison in the Hague prior to going on trial to test the validity of these accusations. The fact that Mugabe is 93 should not detain the court, as Nazi war criminals over that age have been tried and sentenced for similar crimes.
In due course the BBC will devote some air time to the massacres with some heavy breathing on Panorama, Channel Four News will wring its hands and no doubt blame President Trump, but soon the waters of forgetfulness will close over the whole sickening episode.
Might we even expect a state visit from the Crocodile ? Emmerson Mnangagwa is a client of the Peoples Republic of China, Zimbabwe is a colony of China just as Rhodesia was a colony of Britain. It was Peking who gave permission for the military coup.
We do a lot of business with China.
Meanwhile the public eagerly awaits further revelations by the BBC about the sexual antics of its star performers.
Plus ca change……….
Pete Townsend’s words have never been more apposite. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
For those who prefer their allusions to be classical rather than pop, I’m sure that Caligula’s succession to Tiberius was greeted with delight.
Perhaps people get the governing class that reflects their own national character. Is there a nation in post-colonial Africa that isn’t governed by a brutal, corrupt and ultimately incompetent elite? Significant that it takes the highly organised and singleminded Chinese to sort the Zimbabweans out.