Although his tenure was brief, for it was during his stint
that the Mugabe’s regime fell, it was an event-packed period that has not been
recorded.
Daily News Editor Gift Phiri had an opportunity to hear
these events from the horse’s mouth. Below are excerpts of the interview:
Q: Where were you when the military tanks rolled into
Harare? What was your reaction?
A: Before I respond to your questions, let me hasten to say
the “first casualty of conflict is truth”. I am hoping this interview can lay
to rest the many falsehoods and fake news that have been generated and
disseminated around my name and whereabouts in the most recent past, amounting
to hate speech! Thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight. Now
back to your first question, we were of course in bed at that wee hour but had
been kept wide awake by anxiety over the statement by the military and its
implications and also queries from the region on what was going on, remember on
the night in question I had missed a flight to South Africa, where I had been granted
an appointment with the South African Foreign Affairs minister in Pretoria in
the morning of the 15th and later a meeting with President (Jacob) Zuma at 6pm
in Cape Town as part of my regional diplomatic tour but also as the
ex-president’s special envoy. I had just completed a similar assignment in
Zambia the previous day, where I had met both the Foreign Affairs minister and
President Lungu. So my colleagues in the region were equally anxious. As to our
reaction as a family, we stayed on, and only moved into a hotel around 6am, as
we were now responding to various messages on the insecurity of Cabinet
ministers getting to us from various sources.
Q: Some people suggest you took sanctuary in the Cuban
Embassy. Is this correct?
A: We never were visited by the military contrary to
falsehoods peddled by social media, and some of my colleagues in government who
have been authoritatively peddling lies about my whereabouts and supposed
fugitive status. I never left Zimbabwe nor sought sanctuary anywhere including
the Cuban Embassy as asserted by some. My immigration and passport records can
confirm this, including checking with the said embassies that are clearly
irritated by these falsehoods. It’s just malice!
Q: So where did you go?
A: I went to a hotel, and after two days was back at my
residence.
Q: Why do you think you were expelled from Zanu PF?
A: Retaliatory action from my colleagues. Remember we were
clearly split into two factions. The one with the upper hand expels the other!
Those expelling others had been expelled the previous week or so, some childish
game of sorts hence the intervention by the military who are stockholders of
this party.
Q: In hindsight do you think you did the right thing ?
A: None of us is more righteous than the other, I hope one
day there can be an honest stocktaking of actions, and a genuine attempt to
heal the party. We have no other home outside Zanu PF, so expelling individuals
is not the solution for a mature party such as Zanu PF. You sit down in the
true spirit of “Operation Restore Legacy” , and examine the conflict points
including generational and ideological misunderstandings and mend the fences,
not just physically but mentally.
Q: What do you make of the process used to oust the
president?
A: It was unfortunate, what started as a struggle within a
struggle of a liberation movement was hijacked by civil society and others and
we were unable on our own to sort things out without inviting other interests.
Now they talk of going for the kill, and here they refer to Zanu PF, we have to
pause and sort things on our own going forward, and “clearly an eye for an eye
left the world blind”. This is my cautionary statement to the party.
Q: Do you believe the ex-president was ousted through a
coup? Some are calling it a democratic military coup, which seems like an
oxymoron.
A: He denied it himself that it was a coup and instructed
me in the diplomatic solution I was championing to communicate that to Sadc.
Our courts also adjudged that it wasn’t a coup. So it wasn’t a coup but a
military arbitration in a party in which the military are stockholders. Don’t
look for it anywhere, nor try it elsewhere, you will not find a precedent. It
was made in Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans.
Q: You were suspected of being a member of the so-called
G40. Is it a correct assertion?
A: No I wasn’t a member of G40 as you know it or as it’s
characterised now. I spent my last two years detached from local politics until
after the UNWTO General Assembly in Chengndu, China this last September. So my
drama in local politics is two months old, with the results you know now.
Q: Do you buy the argument that the ex-first lady had
usurped the authority of the ex-president and there were plans afoot to impose
a dynasty?
A: That can only be answered by the former president
himself.
Q: Have you spoken to the ex-president or former first lady
after November the 21st?
A: Yes
Q: Your expulsion also deprived you of a Cabinet post. You
have since been replaced by your predecessor who has become your successor.
Your comment?
A: No deployment is permanent. The president must be
allowed space to choose his own Foreign minister, it’s his prerogative! And we
serve at his pleasure. It’s a very sensitive portfolio, requiring absolute
trust, and when you are in there you are the last in terms of loyalty to ship
out hence my hanging on until “D” Day. I am sure even the new president
respects and admires my loyalty, he needs a lot more principled people around
him, that’s my prayer.
Q: Would you accept a Cabinet post in President Mnangagwa’s
administration?
A: Am I ready to work and contribute in any capacity
including as a private citizen? So the answer is yes, that notwithstanding
Zimbabwe needs all hands on the deck private and public and it should not just
be about Cabinet posts, there are people who have been contributing to the well
being of Zimbabwe beyond measure as Private Citizens, in business, academia,
religion etc. There is life beyond these deployments, so I will lend my
absolute support regardless of nomination for Cabinet and in whatever role.
Q: You have interacted in Cabinet with the new President,
what type of man is he?
A: Pragmatic, shrewd and maybe reserved bordering on
aloofness, but he certainly has bottled up ideas and refreshing thoughts that
are only coming out now, which is natural for an astute politician who was
reserving his best for future use and avoiding policy clashes!
Q: Do you think he will revive this shrinking economy?
A: He will lead the revival of the economy only to the
extent that we all support him. He has said all the right things so far and is
on track. He is carrying the cross as our leader but he needs all of us to
achieve his vision and mission for a prosperous Zimbabwe.
Q: Zanu PF has recalled five MPs. Are you confident of
retaining your seat?
A: I am ready to surrender my seat if it unites the party
more going forward provided its done procedurally. An election is in the
horizon and I am not sure what is served by taking away my seat from the
electors in Masvingo South Constituency purely out of a decision of a central
committee that may be completely disconnected to grassroots feelings on the
same. They just sit here in Harare and decide for the people without consulting
them.
Q: You went to the National Assembly on Wednesday, and
reports suggest you shook hands with the new First Lady. Why did you do that?
A: She is the first lady of Zimbabwe and the shadow of the
president inside the House of Assembly. Secondly, circumstances had not
permitted me to pay my respects and courtesies nor attend the inauguration
ceremony, so it was the cultural and normal thing to do. I am still on standby
to extend my congratulations to the president himself too.
Q: Are you pursuing a future in politics?
A: President Mnangagwa was an avid supporter of my UNWTO
Campaign, politics cannot only be constituency representative and/ or Executive
deployment, both of which I am reconsidering going forward. I am yet to meet my
constituency to sound them out on this, but if it’s not Zanu PF representation
as predicated by my expulsion from the party, it’s time for a sabbatical. I
will lend my support to any Zanu PF cadre nominated by the Party and I hope
they can support me in my private life trajectory as well.
Q: There were claims by some war veterans that during the
talks between H.E and the generals you acted as the ex-president’s special
envoy ostensibly to mobilise regional support for him to dig in. What happened?
A: No, quite to the contrary the traditional itinerary of a
new Foreign minister kicks off with regional courtesy calls, starting with Sadc
and its dean who happens to be minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane of South Africa,
then it follows the hierarchy of the Sadc Troika which was very relevant at the
time, Angola as chair, Zambia, vice chair and Tanzania. The special envoy
status is a coveted one, because it allows the visiting minister to engage the
host president and share his foreign policy thrust at the highest level in
addition to any message one may be delivering at the time from the Head of
State. It’s time for a political sabbatical, says Mzembi. So you are not privy
to the contents of the special message but should be ready to appraise the host
president of issues that may be prompted by him during interaction. So my
diplomatic tour was overtaken by events and ostensibly even the special
messages because I never embarked on the rest of the tour after Zambia.
Q: You visited Zambia during that interregnum, what was the
purpose of your visit?
A: Same objectives as alluded to already, but I came back
from Zambia on the evening of the 13th of November, and the mix up of my
whereabouts kicked off from there, notwithstanding the fact that I attended the
Cabinet session of November 14. Even the reassurance message given to President
Lungu that all was well was also overtaken by events thereafter. There was a
very naughty string of fake news that sought to bring the integrity of our
meeting and President Lungu’s position on Zimbabwe into disrepute. I am glad he
shamed the purveyors of these falsehoods by bringing a high powered delegation
of three presidents to the inauguration, two of them past Presidents. It was
the highest expression of endorsement of President Mnangagwa seen in Zambia as
their son too because of shared family links dating back to the liberation
struggle. As vice president, he was recently the guest of honour to the class
of 1975 law school celebrations , which he was part of at UNZA.
Q: President Lungu later despatched ex-president Kaunda to
Harare to lean on the old man. Were you involved in that shuttle diplomacy?
A: We were pleasantly interrupted from a lengthy
conversation with former president Mugabe when President Kaunda telephoned
announcing his arrival , and he just exclaimed “Oh KK “, and indicated he would
call me back. Of course, I was constantly in touch with both the Foreign
Affairs minister and President Lungu. It was their own decision. On my earlier
visit I had sought to see ex-president Kaunda which I have done before
regardless of deployment, because he is my mentor having been partly educated
in Zambia myself too. In 2015, he was the Guest of Honour at my firstborn son
Komba’s wedding in Lusaka.
Q: To what extent where you involved in the talks?
A: I was in the loop on the Sadc diplomatic solution, and
the point person with regards to communication with ex-president Mugabe and the
region, and would consult him frequently on direction and vice versa. This in
hindsight seemed disconnected to the local mediation effort. The diplomatic
solution to be communicated by presidents Zuma and Lourenco of Angola was to
deliver the same outcome as the people have now in President Mnangagwa except
that it was a sequential one, starting with our Congress endorsing him for
presidency of the party in December, and reappointment to vice president in
government and then president Mugabe hand holding him to elections in 2018. It
was a solution in the interest of healing relations between the two of them and
inside the party which has been raven by expulsions and counter expulsions. The
mediators are presiding over sister liberation movements and had no interest in
an implosion of Zanu PF, contrary to the indifference which was coming from
civil society and other political parties who were assisting the demise of our party in the name of the
“Mugabe must go” mantra . .There is
contagion effect on the Region if one of liberation parties is under siege.
Q: When did you sign off as Foreign minister. There are
claims you stood with Mugabe, to the end until he capitulated, why and how?
A: Given the diplomatic networking role not known to many,
I am sure you appreciate the need for my professional conduct at the time, and
why it was necessary to abstain from processes that were taking place in the
party and in Parliament, they would have clearly conflicted my role in this
whole saga. I chose to stand on principle and the rest is history. All this
coordination and mediation work with Sadc happened from my home office, not the
Cuban Embassy or any other country as shared at press conferences by comrades
who were trying to cash in on my whereabouts and perceived demise for their own
sinister interests. I played my anticipated diplomatic role diligently to the
end and I do not feel it was an exercise in circumventing a people’s will at
all. I go honourably with my head high after 10 years of illustrious service
and dedication to my country, and president and I have no regrets in being the
last man standing. I was observing my oath of loyalty consistent with the
seniority of the office I was holding.
Q: Your final word?
A: Hail the new President, His Excellency Cde ED Mnangagwa!
It is time to move on for everyone, time for healing, for forgiveness, time to
love, to smile, to laugh , time to live. As in 1980, let’s turn our swords into
ploughshares. Let bygones be bygones. Daily News
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