Exclusive: Interview with Makoni

Exclusive: Interview with Makoni

FinGaz

Simba Makoni's announcement last week that he would stand as
an independent presidential candidate has whipped up strong
public interest, and also brought tough scrutiny of his
strategy.

Here, in his first interview since announcing his candidacy,
Makoni speaks to The Financial Gazette News Editor Rangarirai
Mberi about part of his strategy, his meeting with President
Mugabe, and his chances at the polls. Excerpts: Rangarirai Mberi
(RM): At what point did you decide to run for President? Simba
Makoni (SM): July 2007.

RM: Any significance to the timing?

SM: That was after the President had announced, in March,
long before any of the processes required for one to take
leadership of the party had been set in motion, that he would
lead the party into the next election. I then convinced myself
that we needed urgent renewal, that we needed to move to bring
about that renewal.

RM: And then what did you do? SM: I began that process of
consultation with a wide cross-section of people, from those
within ZANU-PF and those outside.

RM: Your meeting with President Mugabe, what exactly did you
talk about? SM: I went to tell the President that there were
views in the party that there was now need for a renewal of
the party, a renewal of the leadership in the party and the
country, and that there was a feeling that this should come
from within the party. I was frank with him, and I told him
that I was prepared to stand as President, and that there
were people who supported my decision to move in.

RM: And how did he react? SM: He took note.

RM: What do you mean, exactly? SM: He took note of what I had
told him.

RM: He could have told you he was elected at the December
congress? SM: That's a question you would have to ask him.

RM: Well, he was elected as ZANU-PF President in December? SM:
Let me tell you this. When the full facts of the processes
that led to that congress are made public, people would
understand why this decision has been necessary. You should
ask the legal secretary, the scretary for administration and
the political commissar.

RM: But these people that you say you consulted, from inside
ZANU-PF, that you say support you, where are they? Who are
they, and why are they not coming out in the open to back
your bid? SM: Let me talk about this notion that people
have, this belief that I was ever going to parade people in
front of the cameras. My consultation was not only with
people in the leadership of ZANU-PF. I have consulted with
the grassroots, broad consultations, with all the people of
Zimbabwe. That's what matters. I have stood for hours in
cash queues with the ordinary people, I know first hand of
the tribulations they suffer, standing out there for hours
just so you can withdraw a measly $5 million. That's a large
part of the consultations I did. I do not understand it when
I come out and say our crisis is the result of failure of
our national leadership, and people still expect to see me
parade some of this very same leadership responsible for
these same failures. Wouldn't that be a contradiction? The
people that matter are those that are going to come out on
March 29 to deliver a verdict.

RM: Which top ZANU-PF officials approached you to launch this
challenge? SM: Let me empasise this. I was not put up to
this by anybody. I had views of my own, that we were long
overdue for a change of leadership. And so I found that
there was some significant support for that change.

RM: Why did you stay this long in the party, evidently the rot
had already set in much earlier than July 2007? You could
have left earlier. SM: If you look at the record of all my
public pronouncements, from the years that I served in
government, and other public pronouncements I have made
since leaving government, you will realise what I have
always been about. I wanted to see a return to our original
principles as a party and a nation, the values under which
the President said at independence that we must turn our
swords into plough-shares, the effort to establish an
equitable and prosperous society. I believe those values are
still relevant up to now. It is that deviation from these
values by the leadership that we now seek to reverse. So,
until the last minute, I had continued to work for a return
to those original values. Zimbabwe is a country that has a
history, but it must also have a future. And so I
perservered inside the party only in the hope that there
would be some renewal of our party.

RM: How do rate your chances? SM: Judging by the responses we
have had since our announcement last Tuesday, we are heading
for a landslide win. We have reports voter registration is
up ten-fold since last Tuesday. The enthsusiasm is palpable.
I do not anticipate anything short of a landslide.

RM: Even for the rural vote? SM: Why do we always want to
categorise our people? Why do we herd them into paddocks?
All of them are Zimbabweans, and all of them yearn for the
same thing, which is an immediate renewal of our country.
Please, we should not create unnatural barriers.

RM: You have already been criticised for being vague on policy
and strategy. SM: What I will not do is make high-sounding
promises to the people of Zimbabwe. I want to emphasise
this. I am not going to give you a reel of menus and
recipes. What I am offering the people of this country is an
opportunity to make changes, real empowerment. I am not
going to stand in front of the people and say, "I will build
a road here, I will build a house here, a dam there". I
cannot make such promises. There are 14 million Zimbabweans,
and what I am about is offering each one of them the chance
to once again make the best out of their opportunities, a
chance to realise their full potential. This government made
many lofty promises, but it was a fallacy to believe any of
these would be delivered. That should be a key lesson.

RM: So how would you turn around the economy? SM: Our priority
obviously would be to get our land and our factories
producing again. We could get all the fertiliser from China,
India, and so on, but the key task would be to get our own
Zimbabwean companies producing again. Manufacturing capacity
utilisation is down, primarily because companies cannot
source raw materials. There will be a need for a
technological renewal of our industry, we need to
recapitalise our factories. But any modicum of recovery
would require a fresh supply of inputs; no big task. But the
most important thing we would need to do is to get our
people re-engaged, to restore their confidence, such that
there will be no need for a parallel market, or the need to
pretend that there is a formal market when it no longer
exists. This economy can still be turned around.

RM: Morgan Tsvangirai says you are old wine in a new bottle. SM:
I really do not think we should delve into trivialities. I
wish we could move from trivial matters into matters of
substance.

.

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