Welshman Ncube Studio 7 interview Part 3 of 3

Final part of the Welshman Ncube (WN) interview with Studio 7's Gibbs Dube (GD).

GD: Now looking at what you did before the general elections, you actually crafted a coalition with Dumiso Dabengwa's ZAPU party. What happened we are not hearing anything about that anymore, what is going on?

WN: We continue to have conversations with the ZAPU leadership. We continue to in fact have conversation with leaders of various other political parties in order to examine ourselves. When I say that the last 8 months has been a period of introspection a period of reflection, this has included conversations, comparing of notes with democrats that are in other political parties including ZAPU. And this is why I keep saying the majority of us are persuaded are convinced that there is no way we can defeat the hedgemonic ZANU PF as long as each one of us is fighting from our little corner leading away at this monster that is our government, that is ZANU PF which governs Zimbabwe today.

We need to talk to each other and find a way of actually building a broad front of similar minded democrats and I underline people who are committed to democracy, people who are committed to be a complete anthisesis of ZANU PF and if we can come together not just us and ZAPU but everybody else in the political arena including civil society who are genuine democrats. I have no doubt in my mind that, that is the only way that we can effectively defeat ZANU PF.

GD: Now Professor Welshman Ncube, my second last question is, do you see any opposition leader that will actually remove President Mugabe from power in 2018?

WN: It depends what we do together collectively between now and then. And I have said it doesn't matter who it is, if each one of us are fighting from our little corners we get nowhere. We need once again to come together to present a single candidate at that next election supported by all of us.

A candidate whose commitment, whose credentials as a democrat is beyond question. And I have no doubt that if we are able to do that, put forward a candidate as the opposition, a candidate of a united front. I have no doubt in my mind that, that candidate will and can or rather can and will win the next election in Zimbabwe.

GD: Talking about that candidate, who is it? Is it Professor Ncube or Mr Tsvangirai?

WN: The identity of that candidate, the name, the name of that candidate matters not. What matters is that, that candidate must be an undoubted democrat, must be an undoubted democrat. I regret to say I do not classify Mr Tsvangirai in that category.

GD: what do you think about Mr Tsvangirai as a leader of an opposition party?

WN: Really it is not my responsibility to be talking about leaders of other parties, but you keep asking me about leaders of other political parties. It is again not for me, it is not for me to be judging and to be talking about the internal affairs of other parties all I can say is that we made a judgement, we made a judgement on the leadership of Tsvangirai in 2005 and that judgement was that he is not the person who is the antithesis of ZANU PF and who can led us to a new Zimbabwe, and that judgement we made in 2005.

If we had not made that judgement we would still be having a united MDC today. The fact that you had a split of the MDC in 2005 tells you that some of us never had any confidence from that moment in his leadership and we should not 10 years later be asked about that question.

GD: Mr Ncube before we part, do you see yourself as the next President of Zimbabwe despite coming from let me say the Ndebele minority tribe as some people always say.

WN: one of the thing that is implied in everything that I have said is that we need to transcend all these little isms that make it impossible for us to be united in one corner to fight ZANU PF. The candidate that we must put forward in the next election must be a candidate that knows no ethnicity, that knows no race, that knows no chauvinism. And the constant classification of some of us not as Zimbabweans but as this or that small tribe calls into question, calls into question our very foundations as a nation.

If we are a nation we must see each other first as Zimbabweans, first as Zimbabweans and only then will we be able to say we can build a truly, truly common single citizenship of Zimbabweans which knows no distinction of ethnicity of race etc etc. And it is for that reason that I am completely convinced that the great majority of Zimbabweans in the villages, in the townships are not swayed by the ethnic descriptions of people as Zimbabweans. Those who are actually seduced by those arguments are people who are beneficiaries of the ZANU PF governance which has been based on discrimination, on marginalisation, on selective development of areas based on those ism.

And, those are the people who fear devolution, those are the people who fear genuine democracy which empowers people because they have been feeding on benefiting from marginilising other Zimbabweans.

GD: Professor Welshman Ncube thank you so much for giving me this time to actually interview you. I really appreciate the opportunity that you gave me. Thank you very much

WN: Thank you Gibbs.