I stood out, not just because I was last because Zimbabwe is the last country in the alphabet but also because I was the only fellow without a title of Mr or Ms. I had told the organisers that I preferred to be called Comrade rather Mr but they said they could not use the word Cde. We agreed to drop both Cde and Mr. I still have the brochure with black and white pictures of the fellows some 36 years on because it means so much to me.
I also remember being asked in to cover the 2002 presidential elections for the Sunday Times of South Africa and I flatly refused despite the good fee they paid. I told the editor that I did not want to be associated with the crap that they had been writing in the run-up to the elections.
I told the editor that I too felt that Mugabe had overstayed but he was going to win the elections. I knew a lot of reporters had betted cash that he was going to beaten by Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and they lost their money. The simple truth was that my opinion or feelings did not matter very much in the elections as I only had one vote. Wishful thinking did not help either.
I also remember an incident when I was working on South Africa now. My ATM card was swallowed by the machine when I was withdrawing money to pay my rent. It was a Sunday. When I went to the bank the following morning, the lady at the inquiries desk told me that they would have to wait for the company that handles the machines to file their report.
I went back to the bank the following morning but was told that I had to wait. I told the lady who served me that I could not wait because the money I wanted to withdraw was for my rent. I had to pay my rent. I did not want to upset my landlord.
I asked to see her boss and when she was called I told her I needed money for my rent but I could not wait any longer. When she said she could not help. She was white. I asked to see her boss or someone who could solve my problem not give me another excuse.
I told her that the bank was the biggest in South Africa, my salary which was paid through the bank was seven times the rent I wanted to withdraw. I could not understand what the problem was. What was my rent compared the money the bank held.
I had not realised that our conversation had attracted a lot of the bank’s employees and customers’ attention. When she realised I was not leaving the bank without my money, she authorised the withdrawal and from that day, most of the bank employees respected me.
My job in South Africa involved a lot of public talks in South Africa and abroad. Every time someone introduced me and said I was from Zimbabwe, there was an insinuation that I was in exile. I therefore made it a point before any address to tell the audience that Yes, I was indeed from Zimbabwe, but I was not in exile, and I never spent more than two months without returning to Zimbabwe to see my family, which was true.
That made me feel proud to be Zimbabwean, and I am still proud to be Zimbabwean despite the fact that our leaders are mismanaging the country. We will sort that out. But I have never blamed Mugabe, or Mnangagwa right now, as an individual because Mugabe was just a leader of ZANU-PF, a very powerful and well organised party which is bigger than any individual.
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