Members of the minority Ndebele tribe cannot forget the massacre of perhaps 20,000 of their kinsfolk by Mr Mugabe's troops in the early 1980s. The president calculates that baiting minorities gains him more votes than it loses. He is probably wrong. And Mr Mugabe loses support by the cityful for his wretched handling of the economy. It takes 38 Zim dollars to buy a greenback at the official exchange rate, and Zimbabweans find it all but impossible to lay their hands on hard currency.
Fuel is scarce, and sporadic power cuts make homes gloomy and roads hazardous by night.
Half the workforce is unemployed. The only ill that is not Mr Mugabe's fault is HIV , the virus that causes AIDS , which afflicts a quarter of the adult population. From peacemaker to parasite Strange to recall, Mr Mugabe started well. The civil war was over, sanctions had been lifted, Mr Mugabe preached racial reconciliation, the rains were good and the national mood was optimistic. It did not last.