Can the king survive the kingmaker’s death?
We ask if Robert Mugabe’s rule will be impacted by the death of the man who championed him.
Zimbabwe has buried the man once considered the country’s ‘kingmaker’. General Solomon Mujuru, the man who championed Robert Mugabe and who was regarded as the pioneer of Zimbabwe’s liberation, was killed in an electrical fire at his farm, 60 kilometres outside the capital, Harare, last Tuesday.
There has been some speculation about the cause of the fire, but the sentiment of many Zimbabweans can perhaps best be summed up by the words of the head of the country’s defence force, who said: “It’s hard to comprehend that such a fighter would go in such a way.”
On this episode we look at the mysterious death of the man who has been declared a national hero and ask: Who stands to gain from his demise and does his death open any doors into the tightly controlled world of Zimbabwean politics?
Inside Story, with presenter Kamahl Santamaria, discusses with Heidi Holland, a journalist and author of the book Dinner with Mugabe and Jonathan Offei-Ansah, the editor of NewsAfrica magazine.