Rhosarian 2019

The Rhosarian 1/19
10
During the transition period, a vacuum
developed, with almost no contact between
the Permanent Secretaries and Mugabe’s new
team. The Zimbabwe Promotion Council
(ZPC), as it had become, was asked if we
could arrange an informal meeting with some
of the Permanent Secretaries to meet Mr and
Mrs Mugabe. About a dozen came, and each
spoke on his ministry.
It was very worthwhile, and we had the cooperation
of almost all of them. The meeting
was unusual, the private sector introducing
members of the administration to a new
political entity. David Lewis was helpful at
these meetings, and Mrs Sally Mugabe was
charming and served all the participants at
the tea table. Lewis later wrote of that time:
‘At the time of assuming office, Mugabe was
an outstanding person who had a complete
capacity for statesmanship, reasonable
approaches to problems, and was prepared
even to follow lines or courses which were a
reversal or different to his own courses or
suggestions’.
One might estimate that this capacity
continued to be the case until arguably about
1993. It was believed that his wife Sally
played an important role in those early years.
At the meeting of Permanent Secretaries,
David Young, Secretary of the Ministry of
Finance, showed tremendously good sense
and advice to those who sought it, and
particularly to his fellow Secretaries of
Ministries.
After that introductory meeting, we took
members of the ZANU(PF) Central
Committee to see aspects of the economy
such as tobacco, cotton, mining, secondary
industry, the major Lowveld irrigation
development for sugar, and other
development projects. We believe that this
helped them appreciate the jewel they were
inheriting. As a non-political organization,
the ZPC emphasized the productive and
MSASA MAIL
October 2019
developmental sectors of the country.
Samora Machel had told Mugabe that many
of Mozambique’s problems stemmed from
the loss of confidence by their Portuguese
inhabitants, who had left in droves taking
their skills with them, and it is said that he told
Mugabe, ‘In particular, don’t lose your
farming expertise.’ After independence in
1980, the ZPC continued its role, although
the methods we used were quite different
now that the country was recognized
internationally. ...
At independence, Rhodesia had been
largely isolated from the outside world for
fifteen years, and it was clear that a concerted
effort was needed to get leaders and opinion
formers from the overseas and private sector
and in some cases, from governments, to see
for themselves the developments that had
taken place.
Before independence David Lewis and I
had an introduction to Dr Bernard Chidzero,
who at the time was based in Lausanne,
Switzerland, heading the UNCTAD team for
the United Nations. He had been groomed to
return to Rhodesia as soon as politics permitted
and was to become a key member of the new
cabinet with his experience of international
organizations and finance. On his appointment
as Minister of Economic Planning and
Development, Chidzero became an important
link for us with government and, for example,
with senior UN staff. We, at the ZPC, were
also able to help him, as some members of
government lacked sophistication and had
little understanding of First World economic
affairs. His assistant at that time was a young
man called Kombo Moyana, who later became
the first black governor of the Reserve Bank.
...
I was amused to read how the press saw
me. In London, Frederick Cleary of The Times
wrote a Business Diary profile on 18 February
1980: