The Sunday Mail
Cde Chen Chimutengwende
Following the baseless and highly defamatory comments that were made by Cde John Makwasha against me and published in The Sunday Mail issue of April 3, 2016; l had to respond to clarify what actually happened.
The comments emanated from malicious gossip, hearsay and personal hatred. The truth is as follows.
When I came back to Zimbabwe in 1965 after my military training in Ghana, I found out that the Rhodesian police were urgently and viciously looking for me. As a result, I went into hiding in a remote part of my home area for some months while trying to find out what the party had arranged for us.
There was no ready plan for us from the party and this is what was also found to be the situation by the other comrades in our group from Ghana.
Therefore, in early 1966, I had no choice but to walk across the Plumtree border into Botswana to become a refugee. I came back to Zimbabwe when I had found a job in 1982.
Cde Makwasha said I gave him a shy or mild smile when we met at Harare Airport on my arrival in 1982. But that is my personality. I do not artificially warm-up to people that I am not close to. The nature of a person’s smile cannot be logically used to prove that he or she is guilty of a crime as Cde Makwasha insinuated.
I never studied journalism in Nairobi as Cde Makwasha said. I was a UNESCO Consultant on Broadcasting Training Needs for nine countries of East, Central and Southern Africa for a year and then I became a Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Mass Communications, and the Head of the School of Journalism at the University of Nairobi for two years.
This was until I got a job in Zimbabwe and came back home for it in 1982. I got the post of Deputy Director and Senior Lecturer in the Zimbabwe Institute of Mass Communications under the Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications. The Institute is now a Department of the Harare Polytechnic.
I can swear that I have never sold any comrades or anybody for any reason in my whole life, contrary to what Cde Makwasha alleged without any evidence.
Cde Makwasha said he heard that l was a sell-out from the Rhodesian police and that is his only proof! Why did he believe or trust them? What if the Rhodesian police used that as a strategy to divide and demoralise the comrades?
Cde Makwasha also said the Rhodesian police told him that I had sold my comrades and escaped from prison. Well, if I had done that, why would I have to escape from prison? They would have just released me.
The truth of the matter is that I was never arrested and could therefore not have escaped from prison. Did Cde Makwasha see me in prison? Did he ever see me giving evidence in court against my comrades? Can the records of my arrest or stay in prison or court proceedings be produced to prove my alleged role?
Cde Makwasha simply mentioned in passing the names of the comrades that he actually saw giving evidence in court against the other comrades. He was not so bitter against them. He did not even see me giving evidence in court, yet he bitterly went to town spreading malicious rumours against me.
When Cde Shadreck Chipanga, who was our commander when we went for training, mentioned my name and role, he never made such allegations against me in his recent interview with The Sunday Mail.
Contrary to what Cde Makwasha said, I never asked the late Cde Msika to ask for forgiveness on my behalf from the Zanu Central Committee. How could I ask Cde Msika to do that when he himself was in Zapu and not in Zanu at that time?
I must emphasise the fact that I have never apologised to Zanu because I have never committed any mistake or done anything that would require me to ask for forgiveness from the Central Committee.
I suggest that Cde Makwasha get the records of the Central Committee meeting that forgave me to prove his point.
But as a result of Cde Makwasha’s allegations, Cde Ushewokunze who was the National Commissar, asked me to write a report of what I did after my training in Ghana.
After submitting the report, Cdes Ushehokunze and Nyagumbo told me that they wanted me to work for Chitepo College because of my strong background in research, teaching and my consistent and effective contributions in the “international battles of ideas” promoting revolutionary Pan-Africanism and socialism as a writer and an intellectual activist.
The Party did not manage to establish the College at that time as had been hoped. I became a Zanu Member of Parliament in 1985.
Cde Makwasha said they exclude me from their meetings, meetings that I do not even know about? What are these meetings about? Does he call the meetings in his capacity as the Chief Security Officer in the Department of Civil Aviation?
Since when did Cde Makwasha become my boss who can decide when to call or not to call me for a meeting? Why does he think I would be interested in attending his meetings?
Would Zanu-PF have allowed me to become so senior in the party and Government if I had committed such a heinous crime against the revolution as Cde Makwasha alleges?
I became Provincial Secretary in 1983 and soon after, I served as the Provincial Chairman for 17 years, Member of Central Committee and Politburo. I have been a Zanu (PF) Member of Parliament for the past 26 years during which time I also served for 14 years as a Government Minister.
I am currently a Member of the Central Committee. I also serve as Senator and Deputy President of the Senate of Zimbabwe, Member of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and Head of the Zimbabwe Delegation to the PAP.
I am always grateful to and I profusely thank H.E. Cde R G Mugabe, Zanu(PF) national leadership, the Mashonaland Central Province party structures and members for all these positions. lt is their wisdom and trust that allows me to serve them.
The Sunday Mail should not have published such dangerously defamatory and baseless comments against me without having seen any proof or at least asking me for my version of the issues raised. This can turn such a serious newspaper into a free forum for people with personal and private vendettas to pass unfair and unsubstantiated allegations.
