Joseph Msika, who died on August 4 aged 85, was vice-president of Zimbabwe and a central figure in his country's headlong rush to ruin.
A foul-mouthed, embittered man, much given to swearing in public and delivering foam-flecked speeches, Msika was perhaps the only Zimbabwean who could outdo President Robert Mugabe when it came to verbal vitriol. The targets of his bile included journalists, farmers, all young Zimbabweans -- who had allegedly failed to match his standards of patriotism and devotion -- and white people in general.
During a rally in Bulawayo in August 2001, Msika took racist rhetoric to a new level. Mugabe would routinely refer to white Zimbabweans as "greedy exploiters". But Msika bluntly declared: "Whites are not human beings." Even his audience from the hardened rank-and-file of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party was taken aback. |