Govt deploys MDC ambassadors

By Farirai Machivenyika (18/02/10)

President Mugabe yesterday bade farewell to five ambassadors from the two MDC formations who will next week take up their diplomatic postings.

The deployment of Mrs Trudy Stevenson (Senegal) from the MDC, and MDC-T’s Ms Hilda Suka-Mafudze (Sudan), Mr Hebson Makuvise (Germany), Ms Jacqueline Zwambila (Australia) and Mabed Khumbulani (Nigeria) is in fulfilment of the Global Political Agreement.

"We have an inclusive Government and I was given names of people who were thought to be persons who qualify for positions of ambassadors.

"So I was given five names and this is the result. They are now fully fledged ambassadors," President Mugabe said.

He said the diplomats had been given the mandate to represent Zimbabwe abroad.

"We hope they will perform and perform well and we will be receiving reports from them," he said.

Speaking after meeting President Mugabe, the ambassadors pledged to work hard to improve relations between Zimbabwe and their hosts and promote the country as a safe investment and tourist destination.

"As the GPA says, it’s all about re-engagement and I will work towards re-engagement," said Ambassador Zwambila, who was expected to fly out of Zimbabwe for Australia yesterday.

Germany-bound Mr Makuvise said he would engage his hosts to assist Zimbabwe’s local authorities.

"I am going to do what I have been asked to do and that is to market our heritage, Zimbabwe’s good people, tourism and German investment, especially in municipalities," he said.

The send-off was held in the same room in which President Mugabe and other liberation war leaders from Zanu and Zapu met former British prime minister Harold Wilson at State House in October 1965.

He said Mr Wilson told them that his government would not intervene militarily to stop then Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith from unilaterally declaring independence.

"This room is where we met Harold Wilson in October 1965 just a month before UDI.

"He had come to prevent UDI and we met him as two groups; that is Zanu and Zapu.

"We were from Sikombela in Gokwe while Zapu leaders were coming from Gonakudzi-ngwa," he said.

Sikombela and Gonakudzingwa were detention camps where a number of freedom fighters were detained during the liberation war.

The President said Mr Wilson told them that while he had come to prevent UDI, he could not order military intervention as he feared a backlash from the British public back home.

"He told us he had come to talk to Ian Smith to desist from the intended mad act of declaring independence unilaterally and that if he proceeded, the country would be wrecked by an oil embargo," President Mugabe said.

He said despite protests that sanctions would not work, Prime Minister Wilson vetoed the use of military force.

"(The late Cde) Eddison Zvobgo then said why not act militarily and he said ‘I won’t do that because the British public won’t take it’, so we knew they wouldn’t act militarily," he said.

After the meeting, he said, the revolutionaries were taken back to the detention centres before being transferred to Harare Central Prison in November just before Smith unilaterally declared independence on the 11th of that month.

In the GPA, Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations agreed to appoint ambassadors from the latter two parties.