Zimbabwe’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s public speaking is increasingly coming under scrutiny.
The reason is that his speeches are not usually short of a particular streak of reference to violence and death.
By Tichaona Zindoga
And his opponents, especially those in the mainstream opposition are latching onto every faux pas to lambast him.
Analysts have also seen the President’s erratic speeches as reflective of the dying intellectualism in the ruling party, Zanu-PF.
Perhaps the problem is even deeper than that: Mnangagwa was always going to struggle on the big stage, having succeeded Robert Mugabe, a consummate, if sometimes self-consumed public orator who straddled Zimbabwe’s politics for 37 years until his fall in November 2017.
On the other hand, Mnangagwa, also known simply as ED, was to compensate his limited speech talents through action, and doing good of the job of running the country.
As it turns out, as the job of running the country appears to be heading south for Mnangagwa, his speeches are getting more attention.
Particular focus has been on why the Head of State has joked about deploying soldiers to beat up people; arresting people for harbouring cockroaches (itself a fraught political symbolism in Zimbabwe’s fragile psyche); and about mortuaries.
“There is something called ‘dark/black humour’ or ‘gallows humour’,” Nick Mangwana, Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Services justified on Twitter earlier in the week.
“This is legit(imate) humour which makes light of a subject ordinarily considered as a taboo or sensitive. In some disciplines dark humour is considered as therapeutic. We should never constrict our sense of humour,” he said on Twitter.
He posted a meme to illustrate that.
Media researcher and lecturer Alexander Rusero sympathises with Mnangagwa – somewhat.
“I personally have not seen anything sensitive or harsh about ED’s statements,” he said, “they are just gaffes made which in the process have proved to be to be out of touch with reality.”
He explained: “People should understand that ED is not sophisticated, neither is he gifted with oratory skills like his predecessor.
“Evaluating ED’s speeches using Mugabe’s benchmark is not only wrong and unfair but also an inevitable invitation to disappointment as has been the case.
“That being said, a lot must be done behind the scenes in terms of choreography, grooming and rehearsals.”
Others are not so forgiving.
“I think Mnangagwa just lacks the intelligence, clarity and depth expected from a person occupying the highest job on the land,” Maxwell Saungweme, an analyst told Review & Mail.
He analysed that the President was either out of touch or reckless and should not have repeatedly made “cold and insensitive jests.”
