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Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration and Minister of Home Affairs Dr Ignatius Chombo has described President Mugabe, who celebrates his 93rd birthday today, as not only a principled and fearless leader but also as one of the rarest statesmen to ever grace this earth.

Below are excerpts of a wide-ranging interview our Political Editor, Nduduzo Tshuma, had with Dr Chombo on the legacy of President Mugabe

The genesis of the 21st February Movement

The Zanu-PF youth members many years ago decided to create an event which they called the 21st February Movement, it’s a movement, this movement was started by the youth leaders then, the likes of Cdes Webster Shamu, Ephraim Masawi and Kembo Mohadi.

Their main aim was really to show the appreciation of the President for his wise, principled leadership but also to get the youths to understand who Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe is, what attributes does he have which endears the President to the people and in so doing they would also emulate him.

Those superlative qualities I was referring to like understanding, humility, generous behaviour, fellow feeling, all those positive qualities that the President is endowed with. These are the qualities that the originators wanted these youngsters to acquire, to emulate, to aspire.

So this is the genesis of the 21st February Movement.  Now it has taken root, it is organised by the Zanu-PF Youth League but it’s not only for the Zanu-PF members but for the entire country. Our youths can benefit from it, for example, the President excelled in all his academic endeavours and ended up acquiring several degrees yet some of our people today, they acquire an odd degree and are happy that they know everything but not the President. He says continue to learn and you will be wiser.

The person of President Mugabe

The President has, in terms of his personal deportment, shown that he is a humble man who listens to the people’s wishes and aspirations and then his policies are guided by those wishes and aspirations expressed by the people.

You can look at his entire political history, he has never been a person of high ambitions in terms of aspiring to power. He would do the best he knows in the position that is given him and it is then the people that are working with him that have appreciated how he was performing and who have elevated him.

This has happened in the liberation struggle in affairs of the party up to this day, the people are the ones elevating President Robert Mugabe that you should continue to lead us. What do they see?

A fair man, a sympathetic man, a man who understands what you want and a man who wants all the efforts possible to make sure that the issues that worry people are addressed but more importantly if it was any other person, all the minerals in this country would have been sold or mortgaged to foreigners or major mining companies of the world. If it was any other person, the farm land that we now enjoy and have would have been given to the white settlers to till and we would still be farm labourers to white minority settlers.

Not only that, even the minerals we have which do not grow, we extract a mineral, it doesn’t grow back like maize that you can plant next year, the President has been so clear that in spite of the sanctions, I will not take short cuts to economic progress, I want it to come through the normal channels.

We have three things, land is all ours today, the minerals and other resources are all ours and the country is all ours but to top it all, he has created an educational system since independence which has put us at the top in terms of general literacy, reading, writing and arithmetic.

Not only that, he has also been able to foresee that we are not going anywhere unless we embrace Information Communication Technology (ICT) so more than 12 years ago, he started the schools computerisation programme before even the cell phones became a major issue. So this means he had a vision for this country, so that education we have, it means we have all the skills needed in this world.

Now we’ve got the land which is a resource, we’ve got the minerals, we’ve got everything including education and the President is saying you Zimbabweans now decide how you want to exploit these for the betterment of your country. That is the greatest thing he has done for us, if it were any other leader, he would have sought a short cut, get the Chinese, get this, create employment and we benefit from taxes, get the Americans, bring in big money please, take all you can and give us taxes but the President didn’t do that.

People ought to understand the principledness of the man, the sophistication of the man, the forward-looking aspects of the President and his general capacity and then thank God because he is also given a natural capacity to comprehend, remember and recall things. He is one of the most intellectually given people that I have had the opportunity to come across. In my view, those are the aspects and attributes that the 21st February Movement is trying to bring to the fore.

On criticism of the birthday celebrations.

Others are saying the President is going to spend $1 million on his birthday, no, it’s far much more than that, it’s the shallow aspect, the peripheral marginal understanding of the man which looks at the cake. You’ve got to be much more sophisticated and much more philosophical. We are looking at a much more complex man, a man of superlative qualities that our youth and even our adults can benefit from, can learn from and improve their lives from admiring and following.

The holiday

I think it will be done shortly, I can’t really give it in terms of time but the modalities to look at it and do some consultations have already started and once all the formalities are done as required by the government and constitution, we will let the public know but it’s really something we have embraced. The holiday may not be called the Robert Mugabe holiday but it may come up with something that relates to youths of our country. We will really get it formalised.

Has enough been done to capture President Mugabe’s legacy?

I personally feel there is a lot more to be done for the President. Yes, we have roads in major cities that are named after him but when you look at the totality of the man he is first and foremost an educationist yet we don’t even have a university named after him. I think that is a critical and important aspect. We also need to have one of the international airports named after him, it’s in our interest. But really I would like to urge the committee on place names to really look at it because we can give our President and national icon the respect that is commensurate with his stature and what he has done for this nation, for this region, for Africa.

President Mugabe’s legacy on the international scene

I think President Robert Mugabe is clearly the most articulate leader that Africa has ever produced. He has clearly articulated the vision of Africa in order for Africa to become an industrialised continent and he has spoken without fear or favour against any nation regardless of the military might that it might control. So the President has etched a clear position on the international scene that he is one of the rarest statesmen that has ever lived and I’m quite convinced that the various nations and embassies that are represented here see that as a quality he has and that he has stood firm against sanctions in support of his people. He has been vilified for many years for the land reform issue but he stood firm because he knew he was right, definitely the rational community is quite clear and aware that this is a man indeed.

Zanu-PF message to President on his birthday

We as a party are very privileged to have President Mugabe as our President and the first secretary. This is what we see as a gift from God and God has also been kind to us as a country and also kind to him that he has given him long life, wisdom, integrity and has been a principled leader who would not change his views simply because he wants to please Jack and Jill, no. So he has dedicated his entire life for the service to this country.

Such men are rare and we are very proud that such an icon is the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF and we really wish him a happy birthday and hope that God will continue to bless him and that he continues to be with us.