HARARE, ZIMBABWE —
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was expected to arrive home Friday after his annual holiday in Asia.
Mugabe, one of the world’s longest-serving heads of state, will head right into a fresh debate, both inside and outside his party, on whether it is time for him to step down.
No members of the media were invited to the airport to cover Mugabe’s arrival late Friday.
It may not be the homecoming Mugabe expects.
Time for a change
“I would simply say: President Mugabe, welcome,” said Raymond Majongwe. “You did a lot for this country. But I think for now, the time to go is now.”
Majongwe is the head of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. He is one of the thousands of civil servants still waiting on their year-end bonuses. The government has delayed their salaries repeatedly over the past year.
Majongwe said Mugabe’s opulent holidays abroad are increasingly out of step with economic realities.
“[We] are in a country that has no roads, no drugs; education is under trial,” Majongwe said. “Everything is not there; water drainage systems. It is just a catastrophe.”
