THERE ARE two Robert Mugabes, according to US embassy cables.
One is a frail “crazy old man” who has a young helper kneel at his feet during high-level meetings so he can wash his hands on a silver tray; the other is a physically fit, mentally agile and “charming” leader in full control of all factions in his party.
Contradictory descriptions of Zimbabwe’s 86-year-old president show how the man blamed for his country’s calamitous political and economic policies remains an enigma.
Late last year US ambassador to Pretoria Donald Gips met Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa’s international relations minister, who expressed her exasperation with Mr Mugabe, referring to him as “the crazy old man”. In an admission that South Africa’s approach to the political crisis in Zimbabwe had not succeeded, she said: “We cannot do quiet diplomacy forever.”
Her assessment of Mr Mugabe’s mental state was given weight in a cable from Brussels in 2009, which mentioned talks with a European delegation that had made the first high-level visit by an EU team to Zimbabwe in seven years.
“In both meetings with our EU interlocutors, they told the same illustrative anecdote: during the delegation’s meeting with Mugabe, a strong, young man entered with a bowl and pitcher of water on a silver tray. He knelt in front of Mugabe, who made a show of washing his hands with this subservient man at his feet.
“The delegation thought Mugabe intended it as a show of his strength and power, but instead, as [John Clancy, spokesman for the EU trade commissioner] put it, ‘It showed that Mugabe has lost the plot of normal human interaction and the responsibility of leaders toward their people’.”
Yet in the same cable, Mr Mugabe was described as “superb debater, always looking for proof and asking his underlings regarding details”. EU officials said he appeared physically fit, mentally sharp, and was “charming”. – (Guardian service)