The retirements — one after the other — of two of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s key civil servants during the past two weeks, are testimony to the fact that many of the mandarins at his Munhumutapa offices have seen that the writing is on the wall and others might soon be clamouring to get out, say analysts.
Charles Utete, chief secretary to the president and Cabinet and a close adviser to Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980, announced his retirement a week ago, after 23 years in the Office of the President.
Utete, a reclusive man, was regarded as Mugabe’s closest adviser and the man who was involved in the formulation of the Zanu-PF leader’s post- independence policies and cabinets.
The former academic, who lectured in Tanzania in the 1970s, was not seen at many functions of the ruling Zanu-PF party, unlike many other senior civil servants who often drive thousands of kilometres to attend and be seen at Mugabe’s political rallies.
In fact, his continuous absence from Zanu-PF rallies and the fact that he rarely made any political statements of his own in public grudgingly earned Utete respect even among the Zimbabwean opposition.
Utete was, however, said to belong to the powerful “Chivhu Mafia” that includes some of Zanu-PF’s most influential politicians, who, party sources say, have considerable say on who gets appointed to Mugabe’s Cabinet. Utete is also related to Mugabe’s wife, Grace.
The measure of his importance was felt at his farewell party when Mugabe was quoted in the state-controlled Herald newspaper as saying that although Utete deserved a good rest, “his retirement had left an acute sense of anxiety, wistfulness, ending, loss, emptiness and even desertion”.
Utete said he had tried to retire in 1999 but Mugabe had persuaded him to stay on. He had stayed even longer to help with the formulation of the Zimbabwean leader’s internationally condemned land reforms and with his controversial re-election last year.
A few days after the retirement of Utete, Zimbabwe’s attorney general, Andrew Chigovera, also announced that he was calling it quits after 23 years of service in government.
The attorney general, who at times repeatedly clashed with the media, joined Mugabe’s government in 1980 and rose through the ranks to become Zimbabwe’s top law officer.
It was during Chigovera’s tenure that some of the most draconian pieces of legislation, such as the notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act, were crafted.
Although Chigovera sometimes appeared too keen to please Mugabe and his ministers, he occasionally came under fire from the likes of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who publicly rebuked the attorney general’s office for — according to Moyo — being too soft on opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and journalists under prosecution.
Luke Tamborinyoka, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, said Chigovera “was overwhelmed by politics” during his tenure as top law officer.
While Mugabe did not publicly bemoan Chigovera’s departure as he did that of Utete, their retirements may signal the beginning of an exodus from the public service as many professionals begin to feel that the Zanu-PF leader’s administration is sinking.
Meanwhile, the MDC’s top executive met last weekend and resolved to continue with its mass action strategy as a means to oust Mugabe’s government from power.
The MDC was split over the decision, with one section favouring mass action while another preferred to lure Zanu-PF and its leader back to the negotiating table.