President ED, there is ‘a time for everything’
ably have a candid talk with a few Rhodesians who never thought that this country would be governed by a black person, as Ian Smith declared, “not in a thousand years”.
They eventually learnt to say, “never say never”, including Smith himself, for the Rudd Concession of October 30, 1888 had given them a sense of entitlement that everything Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) was theirs, as they described it thus: “beyond comparison the most valuable country south of the Zambezi”.
When the voice of the people echoes and says we have entered a new era, it is surprising to hear some claiming that this new dispensation is going nowhere, and not just that, to see them remain captured with factional or successionist politics.
This is a topic for another day, I guess, but who is President Mnangagwa, and what is it about him that made him land the top post?
A lot has been put out as people want reassurance that the man they trusted with power will deliver good results as soon as yesterday.
For this writer, names and their meanings are always a good starting point. I looked up in the dictionary of names to see what his names mean, and this is what I discovered: Emmerson means “brave; powerful”.
His middle Shona name “Dambudzo” means difficulty, complication or challenge. And Mnangagwa means, “You can but fight (me/us), but (it will all be in vain)”.
But it was Smith’s spymaster Ken Flower who in his memoirs “Serving Secretly”, published posthumously in 1987, who gives a bird’s eye view of the man who is now Zimbabwe’s President. In the prologue, Flower writes: “On 25 May 1980, just over a month after Zimbabwe had become an independent nation, I received a telephone call from the Minister for State Security. ‘I think you should come to see me about a report made to the Prime Minister concerning yourself.’
“Half an hour later I was shown into the minister’s office. After scant formalities he said, ‘The Prime Minister wishes you to know that the Commissioner of Police has reported to him that you have been spending much of your time recently trying to murder him.’ ‘Was I named? And if so, who else?’ ‘You were clearly named, and certain officers working for you.’
“The minister was watching me closely and the thought flashed through my mind that I was then and there on trial for my reputation, perhaps for my life.”
‘Does the Prime Minister expect me to defend myself, or justify my actions before him?’
‘No, he merely wishes you to know what a colleague of yours has reported concerning yourself.’
‘But how can I leave it like that? And how can I justify my actions? For instance, did the Commissioner explain that some of those implicated are officers in Special Branch which is part of the Police and under his command? Or that we have always insisted on collective responsibility at the top?’
‘No, he indicated that you were in charge of the men concerned and that they were acting under your orders.’
‘Who else heard this report, and what do you intend doing about it?’
‘I was present - no one else. The Prime Minister does not intend doing anything other than to advise you.’
‘And what, if I might ask, do you believe?’
‘I was astounded, personally, that whites would want to shop each other like that.’
‘Yes . . . Of course, I can be accused of many activities, authorised and unauthorised, and in many countries that I know I could expect to be put against a wall and shot.’
‘That is not what you are being advised. In fact, the Prime Minister told the Commissioner he was surprised . . . ’
‘I appreciate what you say, but I feel I must see the Prime Minister nevertheless.’
‘It is not necessary to see him about this. He understands better than you might realise.’ ‘Or the Commissioner might realise?’ ‘Yes.” It is as though one is reading a thriller, where the writer saves the best for the climax. It is also unbelievable that this was Smith’s spy chief who had been at the epicentre of ensuring that the liberation struggle would be derailed, and “Rhodesians would never die”, although in reality the armed struggle claimed so many of them, leading to the talks at the Lancaster House in the British capital, London.
But this conversation happening five months into 1980 reveals so much, especially if one cares to read between the lines and ask hard questions: what does it mean now, and who is President Mnangagwa? He was 37 years and a few months old, but it is clear that Ken Flower was not putting on a show. The man was scared, and he saw into the future.
He only mentions the minister’s name halfway through the second page, keeping his readers in suspense in the meantime saying: “This was the gist of the conversation I had with the Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa. My first meeting with him had been several weeks previously, in March, when I and the Armed Forces Commanders had gone to offer our services to the newly elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.
Read the full article on www. herald.co.zw