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Interview with newly-appointed National Security Minister Didymus Mutasa
SW Radio Africa
April 19, 2005

Gonda began by asking Didymus Mutasa if rumours that Zanu PF is planning to use its majority in parliament to extend the President's term from 2008 to 2010 were true:

Didymus Mutasa (DM): No, our constitution doesn't provide for that. We don't just do things like that without following set rules in our constitution. The constitution says every presidential election shall be every six years - and 2010 is not six years my dear.

Violet Gonda (VG): So what kind of constitutional changes are you planning to seek?
DM: Well, why don't you wait and see it when it comes. I can't tell you what kind of constitutional changes will be done three months, perhaps, to come. Please be patient and see it when it does arise and do not tell people things that are not real or true.

VG: That's why we are calling you to find out what's happening because... (Interrupted)
DM: YES, because I also don't know so you can't be finding out from me, what sort of things we want to do.

VG: But earlier when I was speaking to you, you said you were planning a senate, to have a senate in parliament.
DM: Yes, we are planning a senate, sure but that is not the constitution of Zimbabwe. It is just part of the constitution of Zimbabwe.

VG: So what is the main objective of introducing a senate?
DM: Because we had it in the beginning, from 1980 to about 1990. We had a senate and so we want to reintroduce it.

VG: And what are the benefits?
DM: Just like in the past, the same benefits as were in the past.

VG: What were those Mr. Mutasa?
DM: Aah, but for goodness sake! You must find out. It existed, you should find out on your own, what the benefits were. They were written in our newspapers, they were written in our constitution. I am not going to do that kind of research for you.

VG: Many people believe that the senate is very costly, it's a costly bureaucratic thing and that ZANU PF is trying to accommodate officials who failed to go through parliament by bringing in the senate. Could this be true?
DM: What's wrong with that if it were true? The cost is neither here nor there. And the fact that it benefits our people, what's wrong with that?

VG: How does the senate benefit the people of Zimbabwe?
DM: How does it? Tell those people who want to know that they should do their own research and find out from the records in our parliament and in our libraries here, how it benefited the people of Zimbabwe. I don't want to do that research for them. I am sorry.

VG: Okay, you have been appointed the Minister of State Security in the new cabinet, you know, and that is a huge jump from being the anti-corruption minister to the secret service ministry, why do you think Mugabe has given you that post?
DM: Why did Mugabe give me that post?

VG: Yes?
DM: Well ask him, I don't know why he gave it to me. I said to him 'thank you very much'. He knows best why he did that and I had no right to ask my boss why he was doing what he was doing. It is his right to do that.

VG: Is it true that this is the ministry that is going to be in-charge of food distribution in the country?
DM: What the, the um?

VG: Ministry of State Security.
DM: Yes. Well Security, my dear, involves economic security. It involves life security it involves social security. It involves everything that makes people live. Including talking to you, I suppose.

VG: Talking about the situation with the food distribution, we understand that in some parts of the country, food is being distributed in a partisan manner. What is your ministry going to do about that?
DM: It's nonsense, it's not going to do anything about nonsense. Those sort of things aren't happening here in Zimbabwe. So I cannot do anything about what is not happening here. Those things exist in your mind, in America and I don't know where you get them from.

VG: Well I am not calling from America, I am calling from London. But we have actually received reports that MDC supporters (interrupted)
DM: America and London are the same imperial headquarters! So I don't know where you get these things from my dear.

VG: We actually received reports that MDC supporters have been denied food in Gwanda.
DM: My dear, if you are phoning from London, you have the British embassy here in Zimbabwe. You can ask them whether it is true. Because they can then send their official to Gwanda to investigate and find out the truth themselves.

VG: Are you willing to investigate yourself since the distribution of food is now under your ministry?
DM: There is nothing to investigate! It is being done correctly. We only investigate things when something is not being done correctly.

VG: But there are reports. We even spoke with the MDC Mayor of Gwanda, saying that . . . (Interruption)
DM: They are false reports! My dear, my dear they are false reports. I am not going to follow up on falsehoods, I have no time to do that!

VG: How do you know they are false reports when you have not actually tried to investigate these complaints?
DM: My dear I know they are false because I have officials who are there!

VG: Now Mr. Mutasa, is this true that, two years ago you said the country will be better of with 6 million Zimbabweans who support ZANU PF and the rest can just suffer, is this true?
DM: (chuckles)...now are there any who died in the last year? Are there any Zimbabweans who have died over this past year?

VG: There are people who are starving and in Bulawayo in particular, there are some people who have died from starvation . . .
DM: NONSENSE! There is nobody who is starving! AY! STOP LYING my dear! I will call you a liar very soon if you say there are people who are starving in Bulawayo!

VG: Well, you are already calling me a liar so it is pointless to say ... (interrupted)
DM: You are lying of course. You are lying and I am telling you that you are lying (interruption)

VG: Mr. Mutasa . . .
DM: . . . And I am not going to apologise for that because what you have just said is a lie and therefore you are a liar!

VG: These reports have been made by the MDC. By the Mayor of Bulawayo, by the Mayor of Gwanda, by Archbishop Pius Ncube. Are all these people lying?
DM: Yes very much so, my dear, they are lying.

VG: Have you actually gone to Matabeleland and seen for yourself that people are not starving?
DM: Of course, because if there were people starving some of them would be dead and you would have actually seen the number of people dying in Bulawayo increasing.

The Minister went on to attack Archbishop Pius Ncube saying, "The cleric has a psychological disease and he needs to have his head examined because he is a liar."

DM: YES, exactly, I am saying that and you can repeat that to him that I said so.

VG: But don't you find there is a problem when a minister says such things about a man of the cloth?
DM: About the man of the cloth? A man of the cloth that heathen, a man who lies through his teeth, a man who lies knowing that he is lying?

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