Robert Mugabe, the 'Special One'

I first met President Mugabe in 1962. It was at his home at Kutama where he was in restriction.

That night, he and his (first) wife, Sally, met me together. I remember the scene: It was a small room with little light.

They turned on the radio, the idea being that no one else would hear or tape what we were going to discuss.

I had come from the UK where I was a student in Dublin to deliver a message from Ndabaningi Sithole, then one of the Zapu leaders. Zapu had been banned and its leaders were in restriction and detention. Mugabe was restricted in Kutama; (Dr Joshua) Nkomo at his home in Simukwe, Kezi; JZ Moyo was in Bulawayo and so on. They were all over at their respective homes. At the time they were exploring how to continue party activities in spite of the ban. The leaders were also seeking ways of continuing the struggle. There was a minor scheme of wanting to get out of the country and form a government in exile. Sithole was outside the country and he sent me to Mugabe.

From Kutama I went to Simukwe to deliver the same message to Nkomo. Nkomo was pushing for that idea (of forming a government in exile) and Sithole wanted to find out what could be done. Joshua Nkomo wanted money and helicopters to be hired.

I was very impressed by Mugabe of all the leaders I saw. He was very clear that that scheme was bad and should be abandoned.

He felt getting the leaders to flee and leave the people on their own was not advisable. Mugabe told me to tell Nkomo that this was his opinion and that he would not join that flight.

"We should not abandon the people", he said.

It impressed me because politically it would have been difficult to even attempt that. It would not have succeeded in the first place. To get a helicopter to fly Mugabe from Kutama and then pick Chikerema and Nyandoro where they were detained; pick Nkomo from Kezi and get them out to Botswana and then to Tanzania . . . that would not have worked.

But his point was also just a political one; that politically it would appear as if the leaders were running away and abandoning the people they were leading.

I did go to Kezi and told Nkomo what Mugabe had told me to tell him. I reported the same to Sithole who agreed with Mugabe. So that was my first encounter with Mugabe.

From power to prison

Later, Zanu was formed. I wasn't there, but I followed all the steps. The person I supported was Mugabe. I thought he would become president or leader, but Sithole was elected, with Leopold Takawira as vice-president.

In Mugabe, I saw clarity of mind. He was very clear politically and could see problems and analyse them very well.

For all those reasons, I thought Mugabe should be leader of Zanu from the very beginning. But it wasn't to be.

He became secretary-general, which was a powerful position.

The next encounter I had with him was when he had crossed to Mozambique. What happened then is from Zapu, Zanu was formed and banned soon after its formation. Its leaders were again detained for a very long time.

Mugabe and Takawira and all the others were in prison or restriction, and Takawira died in prison. Eventually, in 1974, after they had been detained for 11 years, they were released.

The armed struggle had begun in earnest and Ian Smith and South Africa's John Vorster wanted to defuse the struggle. Therefore, they came up with a policy of détente which meant the armed struggle should stop. The detained leaders would all be released and go to Lusaka to discuss how to get majority rule peacefully.

Mugabe and other leaders went to Lusaka and were forced into the ANC led by (Abel) Muzorewa. I was not in Lusaka then. I was in the United States and came back soon after and met Chitepo, and heard about the agreement which they had been forced to enter into.

I was pleased that people like Mugabe, Chitepo and Tongogara, among others, felt they should join simply as an expedient to please Frontline States on whom they depended.

They had agreed to maintain Zanu and Zanla identities so that they would resume the armed struggle once an opportunity arose.

Muzenda - bearer of kingly secrets

The next time I saw Mugabe, he then went to Mozambique to organise the party from there. I was in Lusaka, working with Simon Muzenda. It was Muzenda who - from time to time - received messages from Mugabe on what to do.

Muzenda and I would discuss all these messages, which were about reviving Zanu so that Zanu could get out of the ANC and resume armed struggle.

In the end, that prevailed.

And I was once again impressed by Mugabe's vision, which he followed even in great difficulties. He was in great difficulties where he was in Mozambique, in the camps and so on. The Frontline States were still following détente which was supported mainly by (Kenneth) Kaunda and Vorster. But Mugabe saw beyond that.

He organised the party and eventually got it resuscitated, and the Frontline States themselves eventually realised that the only way to proceed was armed struggle.

Zanu was then unbanned in Zambia.

By 1976, other Frontline States had changed their view, too, and unbanned Zanu and Zapu so that the parties could operate separately and organise their armies. However, the Frontline States said "You still have work to do together" and that is how the Patriotic Front was formed.

Again, you had to give it to Mugabe's vision: he wanted the party to be free to organise. He was, nonetheless, not opposed to co-ordinating with others; with Zapu - an alliance with Zapu if you want. Zapu would fight from one side - from Zambia - and Zanu from Mozambique. That is how we eventually revived the struggle. It was the vision of people like Mugabe, his in particular and, of course, followers like Tongogara who was leading the army.

Star of the show

We again met at the Geneva Conference in 1976 when the parties and war had been revived. The British had called for a Constitutional Conference and they had no choice but to recognise that Mugabe was leader of Zanu and not Sithole; not Muzorewa. The fighters had openly said - through the Mgagao Declaration - that the only person they respected was Mugabe. They all said: "We don't want Sithole, Muzorewa and Chikerema. The only person we respect, to talk about the war and to lead us, is Mugabe."

I was very pleased about that position because that is the one I had always taken.

I was instrumental in getting that document worked out because I used to pass messages from the camps to Tongogara and other leaders detained in Zambia.

That was my duty: I was a lawyer representing the detained.

When this eventually happened, I was very pleased because our secret work had borne fruit. Then immediately, the invitation came for Zanu, led by Mugabe, to lead a delegation to the Geneva Conference.

Mugabe chose me to lead Zanu's legal team. He didn't explain why (he chose me).

I suppose, though, in one sense, it was obvious because of the legal work I was doing in Zambia, representing detained comrades. So, we flew to Geneva - the whole Zanu delegation. Nkomo was chosen to lead his delegation.

He also had his lawyers; the leader there was Justice Leo Baron, who was at that time a judge in Zambia.

We built legal teams. In other words, we had to find other lawyers. I got some lawyers from the country here; people like Chihambakwe and Mkushi.

The Zapu team included people like Advocate Kennedy Sibanda, Professor Reg Austin and others.

In Geneva, I was very impressed by the performance of our leader, Mugabe. He outperformed everybody.

It became very clear that the shining star of the conference was Robert Mugabe. There are quite a number of instances where he clearly came out tops.

For instance, the question of defining what we were at Geneva for; what we demanded, and for a long time it was the Patriotic Front that really fought the British. There was adjournment after adjournment. At one point, Ian Smith felt he was fed up and went back to the country, but eventually came back. His reason was the Patriotic Front and particularly Mugabe were intransigent and demanding immediate independence and other conditions he could not concede to.

But it was accepted by everybody that Mugabe was the "star of the show".

Eventually, anyway, the conference failed. It broke up, but what we wanted had been established: that Zanu was there for fighting and that the freedom fighters belonged to Zanu and did not support anyone else.

When rebels cry out for parentage

After Geneva, we had other conferences. The British and Americans called another conference in Malta; from Malta, Dar es Salaam. Muzorewa and Ian Smith boycotted those conferences, but the Patriotic Front attended.

It was clear that the Patriotic Front was now the commanding authority the British had to deal with and could not ignore.

It was also clear that other internal groups - Sithole and Muzorewa's - could not stop the war.

Who could stop the war and who could go on fighting? It was clear that it was only Mugabe and Nkomo. Then finally, the final test was Lancaster House when the war had become so widespread that the settlers could not carry on.

Mugabe had managed - in two years - to reorganise Zanu and the army was reinvigorated.

The army had by 1979 grown from around 6 000 to 40 000, and it was evident Smith was going to be defeated.

And hence, eventually, the British called the Lancaster House Conference.

It was not a question of "if majority rule", but how majority rule was going to be granted. And again, I led the Zanu legal team throughout.

Mugabe was steadfast and clear on what we wanted from the conference and, of course, he was very outspoken and eloquent. Everybody at the conference knew that the great mind, the great orator was in charge. So, we were very proud and confident that we were properly led.

As is known, we managed to get independence, though we didn't get all the terms we wanted. It took us three months to hammer out the constitution, the ceasefire agreement and all that was done under Mugabe's leadership. Then the rest which followed again only proved the qualities which people like me had seen in Mugabe.

The leader others only dream of

We went to fight for elections and Zanu won the elections against all odds. During that election - the first election - I was in Lesotho where I was a professor. When Zanu won, Mugabe called and asked me to join Government. I resigned my post at the University of Lesotho and joined the first Government as Minister of Justice.

Though Mugabe had won, his foresight and leadership saw him cobble together a Government which included Zapu, and also some white people like Chris Anderson and Dennis Norman, as well as David Smith who used to be Ian Smith's deputy.

I was honoured to serve in Mugabe's Government. I served in Cabinet for 10 years (1980-1990), and throughout all those years, his leadership remained steadfast, clear and as inspiring as it has always been.

There are things we didn't get right or do in time, but it would have been because of other priorities Government was chasing. The President never lost sight of the main policy objectives of the party and Government. Land was among the major policies we fought for at Lancaster House.

We thought we had got a solution, but didn't manage to implement it in time partly because although the British agreed to fund land acquisition, they gave very little money at the time.

Perhaps we didn't also manage to push enough or find other ways of making sure land was acquired in time.

Eventually, jambanjas later evolved in 2000; 20 years after independence. But the President never lost sight of the goal.

Another leader would have said, "Aahh, let's forget about it; this land question. Let's find another method of befriending the British the Americans and forget about it."

President Mugabe never did that.

He said if the British now renege on their promise, if they decide not to give us money to buy the land, we still are not going to use our own money to buy the land. In principle, we say we can't buy the land because the land is ours. We can't tax the people to buy their own land.

He kept that promise and the land eventually came back.

On the whole, you can see what kind of leader we have. He is the kind of leader any other country will be happy to have.

Indeed, many other countries have said: "If you don't like Mugabe, give him to us!"

Obviously, during all this time of contact I have had occasion to accompany him to the United Nations and I have seen how he performs. You feel proud to have such a leader; proud to be Zimbabwean.

These are my impressions of President Mugabe.

* Recording and transcription of interview, conducted on January 29, 2015, by Senior Reporter Lincoln Towindo.