Mugabe’s Moses
I don’t mean “Mugabe’s Moses” in the Afrikaans sense (”Mugabe se Moses”), which, roughly translated, means “screw Mugabe”. On the other hand, it appears that he did get screwed.
Rotina Mavhunga, also known as Nomatter Tagarira, a spirit medium no doubt well-versed in exploiting gullibility, recognised that the lunatics in charge of Zimbabwe might be taken in by an outlandish Moses-at-Horeb scheme to strike — excuse the pun — oil.
Details of this story appear first to have been reported in Zimbabwean newspaper, The Herald. Clemence Manyukwe of the Financial Gazette also reported on the case, claiming to have seen court documents recounting the swindles of Tagarira.
I’ll let Jan Raath’s version in the Times of London tell the tale:
When Nomatter Tagarira, a spirit medium, claimed that she could conjure refined diesel out of a rock by striking it with her staff, ministers in Robert Mugabe’s Government believed that they might have found the solution to Zimbabwe’s perennial fuel shortage.
After witnessing her apparently miraculous gift they gave her five billion Zimbabwean dollars in cash (worth £1.7 million at the start of the year but now worth one seven-hundredth of that) in return for the fuel. Ms Tagarira was also given a farm, said to have been seized from its white owner during Mr Mugabe’s lawless land grab, as well as food and services that included a round-the-clock armed guard on the rock in the district of Chinhoyi 60 miles (100km) from Harare, the capital.
More than a year later officials realised they had been duped. Ms Tagarira is now in custody, awaiting trial on charges of fraud or, alternatively, of being “a criminal nuisance”. Details from court papers published this week said that over 15 months, until July this year, Ms Tagarira convinced Cabinet ministers, ruling party heavy-weights and top army and police officers that by striking the rock with her staff she could produce enough fuel to supply the country for 100 years.
The legal firm representing her told The Times that she had been refused bail and no trial date had been set yet.
“It’s an outlandish story but the people in government who believed this are the same ones who believe that Mugabe’s official policy of printing money will end inflation,” said an economist, who requested anonymity.
The story continues with details of how the official “task force” determined whether she was speaking the truth: they put the stuff in their lorries and drove off. QED.
If this story is indeed true, the world should thank the sorceress of many names for sacrificing her liberty to prove the degeneracy, gullibility and just plain stupidity of Zimbabwe’s government officials. It should thank the witch of many frauds for risking torture and death to show that Robert Mugabe doesn’t need quiet diplomacy; he needs a padded cell.
(Hat tip: Blue Crab Boulevard.)
