Open Letter to Bona Mugabe Chikore

Dear Mrs Bona Mugabe Chikore

I hope I find you well at your home in Singapore together with Simbanashe and the first son-in-law.

It is the concern that I have for you, your brothers and probably your mother that has prompted me to write to you. You safety and welfare is of concern to some of us regardless of what your father is doing to us. Unfortunately, it is only a few people who share such concern as most are a bitter lot who may not forgive and forget what your father has done to them.

It is because of such people who may carry the bitterness emanating from your father’s misdemeanours that has prompted me to give a small piece of advice in order to safeguard your future welfare and safety and that of the rest of your family.

In our culture, we all agree that our elders reach certain ages where they cease to be key decision makers of the family. We all know that the elderly entrust the making of key decisions to their children once they have reached a stage where their decision making capabilities have diminished. It is no doubt or secret that your father is way past that stage and should have now retired and be telling folk tales to Simbanashe and probably Robert Jr’s children. Because of this, the decisions that your father may be taking now may not be in the best interest of your family. Being the eldest daughter of Mr Robert Mugabe, it is your responsibility to ensure that the welfare of your family is guaranteed.

I am kindly asking you to please sit down with your father to highlight to him the consequences of his continued stay at State House against the will of the people. If you read history very well, you will realise how the families and children of leaders who have refused to listen the calls of their people to let go have ended up in untold misery. For your reference, few examples of dictator’s children who ended up in misery include Saddam Hussein, Mao Zedong, and Muammar al Gaddafi who perished in the wars their fathers started. The son of Joseph Stalin was abandoned to the Nazis and died in a concentration camp during World War II. There are many other tyrants’ children who ended up broke and living in poverty and obscurity. It is against this backdrop that you should tell your father that it is you and your brothers who are going to reap what he is sowing once he is gone.

We have heard your father confessing that he believes in you. I trust that he even listens to what you say. I am simply saying that please Mai Simbanashe, can you tell your father to give the reigns to someone else capable whilst he still can on his own terms. Tell him that this is the best time for him to let go so that your family can salvage the little dignity that’s left of your family. If your father goes while he still can, he will be able to negotiate his safe passage out of the State House. It is not safe for you and your family to wait for the people to drive you out while they are still harbouring the anger that has been brought by your father’s misdeeds.

The negotiated departure of your father will not only assure your safety and wellbeing but will also save many people. It is great that you are now also a mother that you now understand the pain parents go through when the welfare of their children is compromised. Because of your father’s misdeeds, many parents are bearing the pain of their children who are suffering at the hands of your father. Put yourself in the situation of those parents who have sold everything that they had to send their children to university only for these children to come back and start doing menial jobs.

I will not pen off without saying something about your greedy and selfish mother. It is unfortunate that you don’t have the best mother. Having a mother who is self-centred and does not care about the welfare of her husband and the future of her children is unfortunate. Your mother is the one who should have been advising your father to let go but unfortunately, she is the one advocating and inciting him to stand as the presidential candidate at the age of 94. She is only worried about what she is enjoying now without looking forward at the future consequences of her behaviour. Because of her egocentricity, she has failed to realise the kind of risk that she is putting you and the rest of the family in.

Mrs Chikore, please remember that all those other people who are purporting to be standing by your father don’t love him but are just hypocrites. Whatever they are doing in the name of defending your father is nothing but deception just to be protected against prosecution for all their transgressions against the people of Zimbabwe. These turncoats will not protect you once you father is gone but will actually expose you. They will deny that they were ever associated with your father once he is gone, but unfortunately for you, there is no way of severing ties with your father. Once they realise that your father is on his way out of the most powerful office in the land, physically or biologically, to secure their safety, the traitors will run to join hands with the people of Zimbabwe and claim that they were with the people in the fight against dictatorship.

Your father’s transgressions will follow you if you and your family don’t deal with this issue decisively.

I hope you will take my word and act wisely to secure your safety and future welfare.

Pass my greetings to Simbanashe, Robert and Chatunga.

Kind regards

Livingstone Masamba