Flags flew at half mast in Harare on Saturday, but a day after former president Robert Mugabe’s death many Zimbabweans preferred to work as usual than publicly mourn the independence hero turned despot.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a period of national mourning on Friday following Mugabe’s death in Singapore at the age of 95, two years after he was ousted after nearly four decades in power.
“We are not mourning, why should we mourn when we are suffering like this,” said Ozias Mupeti, 55, standing on a dusty curb in downtown Harare. “Look at me selling pieces of ginger on the streets, at my age. I should have been an employer by now,” he said.
Icecream seller Tendai Marange who has three children to feed, said she would mourn Mugabe, but later. “When the body arrives we will stop. For now we have to work because life is tough these days,” she said. “We don’t feel sorry for the old man,” added a car rental employee who was afraid to give his name.
“In Germany when (Adolf) Hitler died I think they celebrated. In Iraq when Saddam Hussein died they celebrated,” he said. Only a handful of supporters came out onto the streets of Harare, sporting Mugabe-emblazoned T-shirts, as shops remained open and people went about their daily business.
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