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Zimbabwe will take its place in the Global Village: Makoni
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
March 02, 2008

In this Question and Answer interview with The Standard (TS), Simba Makoni (SM) speaks on his presidential campaign. Excerpts:

TS: How far have you gone with the campaign?

SM: First, the reality...the campaign has started slowly because we came into this late... because we don't have a party. We have a team of volunteers who believe in the vision and ideal. There is a shortage of paper, shortage of material for the T-shirts. Sometimes not even coal to fire boilers for factories. So, it started slowly but it is picking up. By the beginning of next week, we will be communicating and circulating among the people which we haven't been doing physically and personally, other than through newspapers and the media which have been the main method of communication. But while I confess we are not as visible as we should be, we will be shortly and we will be circulating among people and communicate our messages. The response has been overwhelming...Messages are still pouring in. Sometimes people just present themselves and say we have come from Tsholotsho, we have come from Chipinge, and we have come from Chirumhanzu. We want to collect material to go and campaign with.

TS: And then about the alliances, we understand that you have an informal alliance with Arthur Mutambara and you are also working on having another one with Morgan Tsvangirai. Are there any ideological problems especially with the Morgan Tsvangirai formation?

SM: I am an independent candidate... so how can you be an independent and be in an alliance at the same time? But I also want us to understand that I am offering a national platform. We want a new direction for our country, we want a better life for our people and I made a commitment to the people of Zimbabwe at my launch... that when I get elected as President of this country we will set up a national authority that will harness representatives of all key national constituencies. So that means I am in alliance with the whole of Zimbabwe.

TS: Can you explain how you can be an independent and at the same time be in alliance?

SM: Because I am in alliance with the whole nation, that is why I am saying you must understand we are not about compartments, and paddocks and little groups, I am in alliance with the whole nation. I am for the people of Zimbabwe.

TS: You don't say you are in agreement with Tsvangirai and Mutambara. You are saying if there are other Zimbabweans that want to be in alliance with you it doesn't have to be formal?

SM: No. I am with the people and for the people and I know the people are in Zanu PF, the people are in MDC, the people are in other formations, the people are in churches, the people are in industry, the people are in trade unions, the people are women, the people are youths, the people are ex- combatants, the people are farmers, they are industrialists. I am in alliance with all those and that's why I am an independent candidate. Don't paddock me; don't fence me into little groups because I am bigger than little groups. Sorry I am not bigger than little groups, I am more than little groups.

TS: What it means is that you are not going out and say Tsvangirai let's agree. You are just appealing to ordinary Zimbabweans?

SM: Everyone is ordinary shamwari. I am very ordinary. There are some people who think they are not ordinary but everyone is ordinary.

TS: The rural vote is said to be Zanu PF's hunting ground. That's where Zanu PF draws its support and you say it's clearly a perception of the media?

SM: I think I want to keep emphasizing that I want to persuade our people from putting us into little groups and paddocks. The rural people have no sugar, so do the urban people, so do the peri-urban people. The rural people have no cooking oil. They have no candles; they have no bars of soap. What you don't find in an urban supermarket, you won't find in a rural trading store. So why do you want to distinguish between the experience of the rural people from the experiences of the urban people and vice versa? What we are enduring in Zimbabwe is a nationwide experience of fear. The rural people are more fearful than or as fearful as the urban people, of privation or deprivation. The rural people are more deprived than the urban people... The extent of suffering among the rural people is worse than that of urban people; so we won't devise a different strategy for the urban people from that of rural people because it would be exactly dividing our people. What we are offering is a vision for the Zimbabwe of tomorrow and that Zimbabwe of tomorrow is as rural as it is urban. The food crisis touches all Zimbabweans, the crisis of education and health is of all Zimbabweans...jobs...potholes. I plead with our people to resist the temptation of being placed in paddocks. We are one people with one experience and what I am proposing is one future, one brighter future for one people.

TS: Suppose you are elected president on 29 March
(Makoni interjects: it's not suppose. It's when I am elected) when you are elected president what will you do in the first 100 days in office?

SM: We have a framework for the initial task. When we outlined the elements of the manifesto we highlighted key areas that we must deal with. We must deal with the food crisis, we must deal with the energy crisis, and we must deal with crisis of production. We must lay the groundwork to get Zimbabwe working again. So we must set up the national authority... that is the first action.

TS: National authority... what is this animal called national authority?

SM: This animal is that authority, the entity, the government that will take Zimbabwe into Mavambo. So we must constitute the government but composed of representatives of all national constituencies.

TS: In other words you are saying you are setting up a government of national unity?

SM: I am calling it a national authority, those are the words I found appropriate. You can call it a unity government. Someone else says are you talking of a government of national unity. A rose by any name still smells like a rose. So let's not get bogged down in vocabulary...

TS: So in simple terms you are saying you have a government with MDC, Zanu, independents?

SM: The constitution prescribes who is coming into government. They have to be elected representatives. So from the elected representatives with the mandate of our people for being elected we will constitute a national authority. On 30 March in accordance with the existing constitution the executive must be constituted out of elected representatives and those elected representatives will be from Zanu PF, from MDC, from Independents and any others who are contesting...

TS: Suppose you are asked to prioritise what they will do in the first day: is it the constitution or the economy?

SM: The crisis. I have already enumerated the food crisis, the energy crisis, the water crisis and sanitation, potholes, medicines in hospitals. It's horrendous that babies should be dying in the antenatal units because ZESA has switched off the hospital, well not quite that ZESA has switched off the hospital but the hospital had been switched off. I am sure ZESA are not doing it deliberately. We must solve those crises and get life for Zimbabweans to be normal again. That they can go into a supermarket and buy milk and cereals and vegetables. We will have an immediate crisis plan and then we roll out a short term, medium term and long term plan for getting our country back to normal, getting it back to work again.

TS: Roughly how many years do you think are required to bring Zimbabwe where it was?

SM: It would presumptuous of me. I don't think we just want to bring Zimbabwe to where it was. That would be such a limited vision. This is the 21st century. We want to get Zimbabwe to the 21st century to be an equal player in the global village. Just getting back to 1996 is not a vision for me, it's not an ambition. But obviously you can't do all these at once that's why we will have a phased programme. First deal with the crisis of everyday life and I enumerated. But I must also underline that I am not the person to be doing this. Our rallying call for re-engagement, for national re-engagement is to get Zimbabweans to do things for themselves. It would be very arrogant and presumptuous for me to say I am doing this. It won't be different from those who are saying: you sit under the tree and wait for us to give you schools and boreholes and medicine, that's the antithesis of what I am proposing for our people...

TS: There are Zimbabwean businesspeople who were hounded out of country for one reason or the other; do you have plans to bring them back?

SM: We have plans to get Zimbabwe working again and that means capturing all the resources and capacity that Zimbabwe has. But the question has been posed which authorities have refrained from responding to: If these people committed a crime why are they not brought to the due process of law to answer for their crimes?

TS: And how about re-engaging the IMF and World Bank.

SM: This country will be back in the international arena, taking our rightful place in the global village... Zimbabwe needs to be at one with the rest of the world, not apart from the world... We don't want to put ourselves in little cells.

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