Cephas Msipa: One of Zimbabwe's greatest patriots

CEPHAS Msipa's death this week has robbed Zimbabwe of one of her greatest statesmen and patriots. Although I first only got to meet him in 1994, he became a valued friend, a wise counsellor and an inspirational figure in my life.

Although Msipa has captured the headlines in recent years for his frank public advice he has given to President Robert Mugabe about the machinations which have engulfed ZANU-PF, my own view is that his bravest actions were those when he spoke out against Gukurahundi in the 1980s. These are documented in his outstanding memoir In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice, published last year.

In late April 1983 Msipa (then a ZAPU cabinet minister) was approached by ZANU-PF governor of Matabeleland North Jacob Mudenda, who asked him to arrange a meeting with President Mugabe so that rural district chairmen from the province could appeal to him regarding the "intolerable cruelty people were suffering". Msipa asked Emmerson Mnangagwa to arrange a meeting, which he did. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the opening of the 1983 International Trade Fair at State House, Bulawayo.

A five-hour session ensued, during which the chairmen of Binga, Hwange, Tsholotsho, Lupane, Nkayi and Bubi districts "spoke in graphic detail of the atrocities".

According to Msipa, President Mugabe agreed in the meeting to replace the Fifth Brigade with a police support unit. This was the first time that President Mugabe had heard from people within his own Cabinet regarding the atrocities taking place.

At the time, the late Joshua Nkomo, having narrowly escaped assassination himself, was in exile and many ZAPU leaders were in detention.

Msipa would have known that as a ZAPU member he would have been under close scrutiny and threat, but despite this he made sure that President Mugabe heard about what was happening.

Again in late March 1984, some ZAPU central committee members, including Welshman Mabhena, approached Msipa imploring him to arrange a meeting with President Mugabe to draw attention to the "continuing atrocities" taking place in Matabeleland.

As had happened in April 1983 the meeting was held at State House in Bulawayo, but this time it was much larger.

Msipa recorded that it was "as if a rally had been called" with people arriving at State House on bicycles and on foot.

Once again President Mugabe heard chilling evidence for two hours from survivors as many spoke, "some with tears running down their cheeks, saying how many relatives had been lost at the hands of soldiers", how "friends were detained for no reason, tortured, executed".

Msipa recorded that after listening to their impassioned pleas, President Mugabe said he "was sorry to hear what was happening" but also implored people to stop "supporting dissidents".

Whether this meeting influenced the decision to lift the curfew imposed on Matabeleland South, which happened on April 10, 1984, we shall never know, but that is what happened.

Coincidentally, the numbers of people detained at Bhalagwe concentration camp near Kezi started to reduce and by the end of May the mass detentions ended.

Shortly afterwards, in mid 1984, the Fifth Brigade was withdrawn from active duty and underwent five months of "infantry training" at Mbalabala barracks near Esigodini.

Once again it was Msipa who bravely spoke truth to power.

In doing so he placed himself under even greater suspicion, leading to his dismissal from Cabinet at the end of 1984.

President Mugabe used ZANU-PF Senator Ndlovu's murder in Beitbridge in November 1984 as the reason for dismissing the remaining two ZAPU ministers in his cabinet, Msipa and John Nkomo.

Msipa recounted that shortly before Senator Ndlovu's murder, President Mugabe had given him the floor in cabinet to speak about people in Matabeleland "being massacred".

Msipa spoke for an hour, providing Cabinet with "a list of incidents".

Curiously, although some ministers were provocative, President Mugabe "didn't enter the discussion"; he just "listened attentively" without getting angry.

When President Mugabe later fired Msipa, he explained that it was because while Msipa and Nkomo gave the impression that they were working with Cabinet, they were "in fact secretly supporting dissidents", a claim Msipa vehemently denied.

It was a decade after these momentous events when I first got to meet Msipa.

In early September 1994 Msipa and I travelled around Germany as a guest of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Our hosts were particularly concerned to show our diverse group of Zimbabweans the stark contrast between East and West Germany soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One of our meetings there was with Hans Herzberg, the chief constable of the Free State of Saxony, who described how the East German police, the Stasi, had destroyed families and sown so much suspicion among people.

In the interests of transparency they had made all Stasi's files on some 12 million East German citizens available, and many were shocked when they inspected their own files.

One husband discovered his wife had been spying on him for 12 years; a daughter found out her father had been reporting on her for years.

I wrote at the time: "A culture of fear pervaded the entire nation and there was much to be scared about". The Stasi stories poignantly reflected Zimbabwe, a subject our Zimbabwean group discussed that evening.

A strong bond developed among us, particularly between me and Msipa who, despite his high position in ZANU-PF, remained a good friend ever since.

What is truly remarkable about Msipa is that he has remained consistent throughout his life.

He opposed the brutality and abuse of power of the Rhodesian Front and, although a member of ZANU-PF after the Unity Accord, never allowed his membership of that party to get in the way of speaking out against injustice.

As governor of the Midlands province, during the chaotic years after the turn of the century, he did all in his power to ameliorate the catastrophic consequences of ZANU-PF's violent land reform programme.

His view was that, despite his deep rooted concern about the manner in which the land reform programme was implemented, he should remain at his post to inject as much sanity he could.

Another outstanding feature of Msipa was his faithfulness towards his wife, family and friends.

His marriage to his late wife Charlotte was an inspiration to many people.

It is no surprise that his dying wish was to be buried next to her in Gweru rather than at Heroes Acre in Harare.

Being a modest, humble man, Msipa always put his family and friends ahead of political status.

I experienced that personally; despite the fact that I have been vilified over the years by ZANU-PF, he never made a secret of our friendship.

That was epitomised by his attendance at the Harare launch of my own book in July this year.

He attended despite the fact that he was already sickly; a mark of the wonderful man he was.

Sadly that was the last time I saw him.

Zimbabwe has lost a great champion of democracy, decency and tolerance.

Our nation, which is at such a treacherous juncture in her history, can sorely afford to lose patriots of his caliber.

We can but pray that his example will inspire us all to emulate him in future.

Rest in peace, Cephas.

David Coltart is a former education minister.