The Sunday Mail
Ben Mucheche
President Mugabe’s parents and mine lived in the same village in Chishawasha. This is where James Chikerema’s parents also lived.
Mugabe was born in 1924 while I came three years later in 1927.
They later moved to Kutama as it was being founded. My memory of the actual events then is rather faint since I was still very young.
I later learnt, though, that he had been educated at Kutama.
When inner battles
produce fiery bullets
We were to meet again – call it a reunion of sorts – in Highfield around 1956 just as the liberation struggle was beginning.
I operated a taxi business – Easy Way Taxis – and my vehicles ferried leaders of the struggle, who lived in the area, from one point to another.
Mugabe left for Ghana and returned in the early 1960s. He immediately joined the rest of the nationalists in intensifying the struggle for independence.
I learnt then that he is the kind of person one would describe as a “born visionary”. He would not backtrack on principle. Even in earlier days, he stuck to his philosophy.
He was a man of his word.
So, that is when we met again: In Highfield, with his (first) wife, Sally.
At the time, Highfield was a hotbed of political agitation; the cradle of the struggle.
A major reason why the struggle began here was because council only gave accommodation to its employees and industry workers. Business owners and professionals could not get houses.
That is what forced people like me . . .
I started living in Highfield in 1956 and this is where my taxi business began.
The Engineering section was the first part to be developed.
Soon, young Africans started meeting to discuss the discrimination around us.
It was then that the idea of forming a political party to fight the white government emerged.
That is when we all agreed to form a party, mainly because of the frustration.
Mugabe was later elected secretary-general of Zanu. He had demonstrated his ability, commitment and intelligence to everyone. I was particularly impressed.
In him, I saw a leader above other leaders.
He was advanced.
Coming from independent Ghana to Rhodesia, he had so much experience.
He was completely different.
He always told us about the joys of living in an independent country; the freedoms the people of Ghana enjoyed.
That inspired everyone else to work harder for independence.
Since I operated a taxi business, I would drive party officials as they conducted party business.
I remember I was at one point asked to sell one of my vehicles to Joshua Nkomo.
This was around the time he and the likes of Chikerema and George Nyandoro went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the formation of the Organisation of African Unity.
I took the car to Nkomo’s home in Bulawayo and returned by train.
The party was banned while they were in Addis Ababa. They were arrested upon their return and taken to Gonakudzingwa and into restriction.
Government took the car and auctioned it off. I never received any payment for it.
Escape into Mozambique retold
Before leaving the country in 1975, Mugabe was always at my office along with Edgar Tekere. They would park the Alfa Romeo just outside the gate.
On the day they left, I heard that the two of them had arrived at the office at around 6 o’clock. They had come from Mushandirapamwe Hotel and left a number of top secret files with my secretary.
I was not there.
The documents were from meetings Mugabe, Tekere and I had had in my office. As a matter of fact, we met frequently and discussed a number of issues pertaining to the struggle. What most people do not know is that part of the escape to Mozambique was planned in this very office.
We always met at night to escape the glare of Ian Smith’s security agents who would have arrested us pronto had they known what we were up to.
It was during that time that we grew very close.
He even sent for me when he returned to Zimbabwe and was living in Mt Pleasant. He inquired about my family, business and how we had helped the struggle during his absence.
Well, during the struggle, I was eventually fully established in the bus industry.
I used to order all my drivers plying various routes countrywide to provide subsistence money to freedom fighters they came across. At one point I was arrested for doing that. Police came to my office in 1978, whisked me off to Southerton Police Station, and was transferred to Central Police Station the next day.
I was interrogated and told that intelligence operatives had tracked one of my vehicles and seen the driver offloading supplies to “terrorists”.
I feigned ignorance. They tortured me and only released me the following day.
As people who shared a common history, Mugabe and I were very close friends.
Often times, we spent lots of time chatting, sharing experiences.
We shared secrets, which, I obviously cannot discuss with anyone else. I know he won’t tell anyone what we spoke about and I reciprocate this trust.
He trusts me and I trust him. What we discussed was between two grown men.
He often asked my opinion on several issues and I would give him my honest opinion. As a leader, he likes that very much. He likes honesty above all things.
When I talk to him, I talk to him as our leader and tell him about what the people on the street are saying.
I have been a business leader for a very long time and interact with many people who tell me a lot of things that even Government ministers may not always tell him.
He does not like liars.
I remember a memorable incident that really surprised me during my days as president of the Bus Operators’ Association of Zimbabwe. The Transport Minister then was Denis Norman. I thought he was not doing any good for the transport industry.
So, I went and told Mugabe: “Cde President, the Transport Minister has no idea of how to run public transport.”
I told him exactly where I thought Norman was making mistakes.
Then on a certain day pursuant to this meeting, I received an invitation from State House. I drove there wondering what the subject of this invitation was.
When I arrived, I entered immediately.
Inside the President’s office sat Denis Norman and President Mugabe.
“Gentlemen,” the President said. “I am the one who has invited you here. Mr Mucheche, when we last met you told me about your reservations about how the transport sector is being run in the country. So, I have seen it fit to invite both of you here so that you can tell him what you think he should do.”
“Cde President,” I began, “this man, Denis Norman, who is the Minister of Transport . . . I went to his office and told him about what he is doing wrong in terms of running the public transport sector and he refused to heed my advice.
“I told him what was wrong and what should be done and because he is stubborn, he refused outright to listen to my advice.” I said all this while he sat right there before us, listening.
The President asked Norman whether what I had just said was what I had told him earlier.
Norman’s answer was in the affirmative.
Mugabe respects honesty above all things. He is, himself, a very honest man and gets hurt when you lie to him. He reprimands people who lie there and then and does not wait for an “opportune moment”.
That is what leadership is all about.
Reminiscing about
the good ol’ days
It is sad that most people who were part of our inner circle have since passed away. We had close relationships with people like Solomon Tavengwa, Paul Matambanadzo, Philemon Machipisa and Mike Chidziva. That was our group. We used to meet and discuss matters that affected us.
The President was very close to all of us. We, in turn, saw him as an inspiration because of his uprightness and political correctness.
He really trusted people in that group.
We rarely had any disagreements because of our mutual respect.
Some of our friends have died.
Only Chidziva, Machipisa, the President and I remain.
The African statesman
Today, as the leader of the Indigenous Business Development Centre and as the President’s personal friend, I would like to congratulate him for being elected African Union Chair.
I have no doubt that he will succeed in this role. There is no other leader on the African continent who can compare.
Mugabe is a clear number one and no one can surpass what he has achieved.
For instance, whenever he attends the United Nations General Assembly, he talks about Zimbabwe and Africa.
He always tells hostile outsiders to leave Africa alone and always calls for African solutions to African challenges.
No leader in Africa is bold enough to make such statements — they appear frightened of the West.
That is why the West decided to punish him through illegal sanctions because they thought he would shift from principle.
I am convinced they will come to a point when they will be forced to scrap the sanctions completely because he will not change. He has placed Zimbabwe on the world map. As small as we are, we are now leading an organisation as huge as the AU.
Experiences have shown that no other leader on the continent can do as much as he can given that position.
Other leaders should learn from his principles and philosophy. These are the same principles of the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda and Patrice Lumumba.
Recording and transcription of interview, conducted on February 6, 2015, by Senior Reporter Lincoln Towindo
