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01 May 2008
By Geoffrey Nyarota
ZIMBABWEANS, countrymen, comrades and friends; it is with a very heavy heart that I appear before you this evening, probably for the last time while wearing the onerous mantle of President of the Democratic Republic of Zimbabwe.
I appear before you tonight exactly one month after you went to the polls on March 29, 2008, to choose new representatives in the two Houses of Parliament and to elect a new head of state.
I present myself before you tonight after a prolonged process of soul-searching and introspection. I took this decision after I engaged in another process – that of wide consultation, especially among members of the Mugabe family and among those who have been my advisers over the years. Their advice was not rendered easily. It was, however, unanimous.
My appearance before you tonight is predicated on the premise that you, my compatriots, are collectively endowed with certain special gifts that I so obviously do not possess. They include the gifts of patience, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness.
I realise in retrospect that I am a man of little courage. Otherwise I would have asked my press secretary, Cde George Charamba, to arrange this television appearance many months ago, perhaps even before the extraordinary congress of our Zanu-PF party last December. Nay, had I been gifted with courage I would have requested Cde Jonathan Moyo, our then Minister of Information, to arrange this final address to the nation even before the presidential election back in 2002.
Looking back in retrospect now, this appearance would have been facilitated back then if my peers and advisors in both government and the party had been men and women of honour, genuine and selfless friends as well as honest and reliable advisors. I refer here to those that I have always regarded as my close confidantes – people such as Comrade Nathan Shamuyarira, Cde Didymus Mutasa, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, Cde Joseph Msika, Cde John Nkomo, Cde Solomon Mujuru and Amai Joyce Mujuru, as well as Cde Oppah Muchinguri. I refer here to all those others who walked on the long and arduous road of the liberation struggle to our independence.
Unfortunately, when their input was sorely needed they all elected to hold their silence. None of them said a word of advice or warning on the many issues on which I now stand accused. Now I am judged even by children who were not born when we wrested this wonderful country from the racist hands of Ian Smith, General Peter Walls, Pieter van der Byl and those other many of our oppressors whose hands dripped with the blood of the comrades who fell in the struggle for our liberation.
It was and continues to be a painful experience for me that when the people turned against us with a vengeance I relied on the support of little-known comrades such as Jonathan Moyo, Chenjerai Hunzvi, Joseph Chinotimba, George Charamba, Patrick Chinamasa, Jabulani Sibanda and now Brighton Matonga. I should have known the sunset of our presidency had drawn nigh when I now relied for survival on the intervention of comrades with little or no liberation credentials.
In retrospect, I realise now that Cde Edgar Zivanai Tekere was right; likewise, Cde Dzikamai Mavhaire and Cde Margaret Dongo. But, with your thunderous approval we kicked them out of our party and humiliated them. I want them to accept my sincere apologies tonight.
Let me hasten to explain, however, so that my intentions are not misunderstood, that I did not ask to appear before the nation tonight as an opportunity to lay blame on others for the many ills, the many wrongs and the arrogant disdain that has brought our once proud and prosperous nation down to its knees.
In politics, as in life itself, a moment must come when, after the aforesaid process of introspection, one must be courageous enough to call a spade a spade and to accept full responsibility for one’s wrong decisions and ill-advised actions. For me that moment is tonight.
“Carpe diem,” or seize the day or the opportunity, the Romans of old used to say.
I stand before you tonight to open my heart to you my fellow countrymen so that I can depart with a clear conscience and an untroubled mind. For, yes, depart I must now finally do after nearly three decades at the helm of a great African nation. I had wanted these to be years of dedicated, inspirational and revolutionary service to my nation. In my heart of hearts there is confidence that I gave to Zimbabwe selflessly, unstintingly and with a singular determination to uplift the standard of living of the people of Zimbabwe.
But, and this will be my first confession to you on this momentous occasion, I lacked the capacity to tell when it was time to go. I have harboured a genuine grievance against Cde Oliver Mutukudzi, our accomplished musician and true international ambassador, when he composed what I thought were spiteful lyrics about my presidency. The popularity of Bvuma and Cde Steve Makoni’s Handiende should have been a clear signal to me that all was no longer well. The rejection of our draft constitution in the referendum in 2000 after its promotion by the indefatigable Cde Jonathan should have served as a clarion call to me that it was time to move on. But power and comfort had blinded me to reality.
My second confession, my fellow countrymen, pertains to my reliasation now that I am just a man of the flesh like everyone else, although many in the upper echelons of our party treated me as a superior or an immortal being. In my foolishness I believed the blandishments of Cde Mutasa, Cde Tony Gara, now late, Cde Webster Shamu, Cde Oppah Muchinguri, Cde Joseph Chinotimba, Phillip Chiyangwa, and Cde Gideon Gono and many others who sought to immortalize me.
One of my greatest failures was to fail to perceive their very transparent self-seeking agendas.
To err is human, my dear compatriots. I erred before you and before the Lord and I now seek your forgiveness.
It is not in vain that I invoke the name of the Lord. I now believe he loves me. He has constantly granted me new opportunities. This time I will not spurn his divine intervention. Zimbabwe is at a crossroads. I find myself at a crossroads tonight because He has given me an opportunity to choose between two options. I must decide whether to accept rejection by the people of Zimbabwe and extend my hand to Cde Morgan Tsvangirai to congratulate him graciously for his well deserved electoral victory. The other option is to raise my clenched fist in his face again while saying: “Never, ever, ever.”
In all honesty, the spirit may still be willing but the body now lacks the requisite strength. Those who suggest that I should now head a new government of national unity speak without consulting. I cannot lead a government of national unity through subterfuge seeking to deny Cde Tsvangirai his well deserved turn, or to appease either those security chiefs who say they cannot salute him or those academics who claim that he is as educated as them.
A government of national unity can only be created if Cde Tsvangirai, in his magnanimity and graciousness, invites the losers to join him at the high table. A government of national unity can only come about if the losers accept that Cde Tsvangirai and the MDC emerged as the legitimate winners.
Tonight, after steering this ship of state for a full 28 years and 10 days, I hereby announce that I am relinquishing my captaincy. For me to fail to seize this golden opportunity would certainly be to squander the last chance for a dignified exit available to me.
Considering the dramatic events of the past month, I can only continue to challenge Cde Morgan out of spitefulness and selfishness, nothing else. I am not a young man any more. To live for a total of 84 years in a nation whose life expectancy has been reduced to less than 40 years is a remarkable achievement. I am not ungrateful.
I must now retire to the sidelines with the modicum of dignity that remains at my disposal rather than be forced do so with a bloodied nose. God granted me the gift of offspring late in my life. I must now devote my undivided attention to raising a family in a normal setting, far away from that atrocious State House.
I am both stung and humbled by the humility, patience, tolerance and the mature demeanour of the people of Zimbabwe in the face of relentless provocation, humiliation, insults and violence, especially over the past month when they rejected me at the polls.
So why did we order a recount of the parliamentary election votes and, more significantly, why has it taken Cde George Chiweshe, so long to announce the presidential election results?
I will be forthright. We, as a party, were stunned by the overwhelming electoral performance of Cde Morgan and the Movement for Democratic Change. Many of us in the upper echelons of Zanu-PF were totally unprepared, including psychologically, for the prospect of stepping down from office. A great sense of fear has, therefore, gripped most of those who helped to sustain my administration over the years.
“You can negotiate your own safe landing,” they now challenge me. “How about us?”
These are the people who have created the state of confusion surrounding our departure.
Cde Constantine Chiwenga, the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Cde Augustine Chihuri, the Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and Cde Perrence Shiri, the commander of the Air Force, for instance - are understandably petrified by the prospect of retribution. Political Emmerson Mnangagwa provides the necessary political backing. He has never concealed his ambition to be the next President of Zimbabwe. Our security chiefs are supposed to be men of courage. The outcome of the elections has pulverized and transformed them into cowards. But I cannot allow them to continue to hold our nation and our long-suffering people to ransom.
Let us consider one example.
Like his predecessors, Cde Solomon Mujuru and Cde Vitalis Zvinavashe before him, Cde Chiwenga has become one of Zimbabwe’s wealthiest men. Like them he has made ill-advised threats against the people of Zimbabwe and the future leadership of our nation. He owns wealth the magnitude of which most Zimbabweans cannot fathom. He has no less than six exquisite mansions that I know of, five in Harare and one in Marondera. He has two farms.
His spouse, Mai Jocelyn Chiwenga has not helped Cde Chiwenga’s cause. Drunk with power by association, she has threatened and humiliated people. There was the shameful case of the young Daily News lawyer, Cde Gugulethu Moyo, I believe that was her name. She was insulted, assaulted and humiliated right inside a police station. She had done nothing wrong. The army commander has not restrained his spouse as she tarnished his name and reputation while undermining the image of our party.
I never intervened.
Cde Jocelyn became emboldened as a result. She accosted Cde Morgan Tsvangirai in public, virtually spat in his face and generally humiliated him. On that occasion my conscience was stung but I had become a prisoner in State House.
I am not by any means trying to find scapegoats for my own failures, weaknesses, shortcomings, blunders or for any of my own excesses. I want to be held fully responsible and accountable.
My one request if that I want the people of Zimbabwe, not the international community, Mr George Bush and Mr Gordon Brown in particular, to sit in judgement of me.
They did not elect me to power and I do not hold myself accountable to them.
I want to publicly tender my sincerest apologies for the murderous madness that was Gukurahundi. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people lost their lives during that campaign in Matabeleland and the Midlands. I wish to apologise for the outrageous Operation Murambatsvina, which rendered thousands homeless. I apologise for the hundreds of other citizens who perished throughout the country, including last week as Zanu-PF sought to perpetuate its power long after it ceased to be a popular party.
Finally, a few words of advice to Cde Tsvangirai as incoming President:
Be careful not to surround yourself with opportunists who are guided only by their relentless pursuit of self-aggrandisement.
The commitment of individual members of the leadership of the MDC is not necessarily synonymous with skills in running the affairs of state.
You are taking over the reigns as the president of Zimbabwe, not as the president of the MDC.
My government denied the people of Zimbabwe freedom, justice, fairness and equal opportunity. I beseech you, please rectify these anomalies for me.
Show the people of Zimbabwe and world at large that you are in charge of the situation.
One last word of advice, what ever you do, please don’t reverse the gains of our revolution. That is not say members of the white community who are devoted to farming should not go back to the land in appropriate circumstances. We fought to establish a non-racial Zimbabwe. Our racist rhetoric was obviously responsible for driving a wedge between Zanu-PF and the people. By rejecting Zanu-PF and me the people have demonstrated that they are non-racist.
As for me it is up to you, the people of Zimbabwe, to determine whether I should be allowed to play a role in an exciting future Zimbabwe or whether I should face justice here in Zimbabwe for all my transgressions.
The choice is yours.
I thank you
First published in the Zimbabwe Times 28/04/08.
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