The Sunday Mail
BY Timothy Stamps
I first became aware of President Mugabe in 1976 when I heard him on LM radio (Maputo Radio) giving a speech on the objectives of the liberation struggle.
The speech was so complete such that I was mesmerised by the ability of the so-called communist, insurgent and prisoner in Rhodesia. The speech was so complete that I talked about it to my friend Dr Lovemore Mbengeranwa, who succeeded me, eventually, as City medical officer of health.
When Independence came, I did not attend the ceremony but rather watched it with friends (Mr George Fleet and his wife) and again his ability to command the English language really astounded me. For the next 10 years, I was Zanu-PF member for Highlands-Greendale as Councillor in the city of Harare, formerly Salisbury.
I was asked by the President to stand for election at Manyame South (Hunyani South). I was successful at the first primary election, but they had another run in Harare and I was defeated by another councillor from Glen Norah. So, it was very much to my surprise when I was appointed Minister of Health in April 1990 only to be confronted with a nationwide nurses’ strike.
After two weeks, the President convened a meeting at State House to find the way forward, which, I’m glad to say, was successful. The next highlight was the President’s speech to the World Health Assembly as Guest of Honour.
Again it was warmly received by all concerned, even those who didn’t believe that an African could think deeply and plot the way forward. The next time I was with the President was towards the end of the year where he toured all 52 faith-based hospitals (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventist, Anglican, Methodist etc). He seemed to be in total command of all the events.
I was especially impressed by his reaction to the young children with whom he shook hands, and he warmly greeted them all at each venue. (Indeed, I subsequently found out no previous minister of health had been to all the mission hospitals.)
Wise counsel and tolerance
Next time I saw him was 1992 when he launched the National Programme of Action for Children, although I was always present and provided with a prominent seat at all national celebrations – Heroes’ Day, Independence Day and, later, his birthday. I stood for Harare East (my home district) in the 1995 election.
I was again defeated in the primary election by methods they call a fast ball in cricket and I complained to the President about some of the irregularities in that process. At the time, I was also accused of marrying a girl child in Mafindifindi where the aim was, by a skit, to get the message of Aids across.
The aim was also, of course, to indicate that Africans already had their own health tradition of confronting Aids. Although the Press was not there, they wrote a succourless article three weeks later about my purported law-breaking and the compensation I would be made to pay.
I wrote an explanatory letter to the President and he said: “Just let it pass over you; it will not affect you.” He thereby re-assured me entirely.
We had an ambitious new programme, which was building 32 new hospitals and extending 78 existing hospitals.
In the environment of Esap, the economy was being adversely affected for both the nation and individual Zimbabweans.
The Government had to pay the full costs of any projects in US dollars, and now it meant that we could no longer invest in any capital project alone. That to me indicated the commitment that the President had to “Health For All”, a slogan by which I was taunted by some other ministers who called it “Death For All”.
I was also termed the minister of Aids because of my great emphasis of the problem of an epidemic of HIV; how it would affect the nation as a whole.
At the 1997 Zanu-PF Congress in Mutare, President Mugabe said very firmly that the outstanding issue of transfer of land to indigenous black people, which had been promised at the Lancaster House Conference, and was, in fact, referred to multiple times in the agreement, had not materialised.
And this was the main purpose of the liberation war! It shows the President’s tolerance and understanding for alternative points of view rather than as he was painted a “despot and dictator who is now is too old and too sick to govern the country”. And the rise of the MDC in 1999 is evidence of that divergence.
Magnanimity
I suffered a stroke in October 2001, and my medical advisor recommended that I should resign the post, which I duly did.
But the actual replacement was not until the end of August 2002, by which time I had recovered sufficiently to communicate coherently. Realising that I would be deprived of an income with a growing family, President Mugabe personally came out to my plot in Welston to meet not only me, but my family.
A gesture he had no need to make. Three other issues I want to mention show his maturity and ability to deal with situations, which are either unexpected or intended to cause a different reaction. The first was the death of his first wife, Sally. He was at the hospital before I was.
Sally’s niece, in fact she claimed to be her daughter, came into the room with a big disturbance, with a wailing noise and falling on the floor. I suggested she have a tranquilliser, but the President said leave her alone and that was a wise conclusion.
He reminisced his life with Sally; all the problems they had been through, handling the rosary, which, he said, she always wore as an astute Catholic. The second was at the Heroes’ Acre in 1997 after the Zanu-PF Congress when his whole speech was drowned out by a mass of female “war veterans”.
He just continued his speech and dealt with them later. Third was when MDC tried to howl him down while giving his State of the Nation Address. Again there was no adverse reaction.
He continued his speech despite the heckling. Subsequently, he appointed me Health Advisor under the same conditions I had as minister and had helped me and the family greatly during the time of sanctions, which along with the stroke, adversely affected me emotionally and financially.
A rhetorical question: Who would employ me post-retirement age and half paralysed? This showed his greatness and long-sightedness. Subsequently, I have successfully attended all the official functions, except Defence Forces’ Day and continued to proffer health advice for the nation. At his 91st birthday party, I said to him: “I feel much older than you, Sir.”
He laughed. He said: “How are the cows?”, even remembering that small unimportant detail that we kept those, what he called, little brown cows.
Many many other small instances I can relate; many other issues which are too many to relate.
