WATCH as firebrand Zimbabwe politician speaks to Trevor Ncube on her life, politics and family life.

KEY POINTS FROM THE DISCUSSIONS

  1. What comes first in my life is my country.
  2. I formed a political party because people had forgotten the reason why we went to war. We had the political power but did not have the economic power.
  3. We were taking the wrong path, we were moving towards a one party state. I thought I would help to fight from within, but I was misunderstood.
  4. As a person who went to war, I knew what I fought for, I didn’t fight to be subservient to an individual.
  5. There is very little respect for youths in Zimbabwean political parties. Even in the central committee it was very difficult for me to make any contribution.
  6. Sally Mugabe was my mentor.
  7. I grew up in Highfields, and my family was highly political. My father was from Chipinge and my mother from Dzumbunu.
  8. My father went to school with Sithole. They used to have political meetings at our house in Highfields.
  9. I would listen to them when they were speaking. Every time they would have meetings, the Special Branch Police would come and arrest my father and take him to Mbizi Police station. There were informers in the community.
  10. Whenever my father was arrested, my mother would make me take tea to him at the police station before school. I attended Mbizi Primary School.
  11. One day after he was arrested, I told my father that he should not do these meetings any longer as teacher Chaka would beat me every time I was late taking tea to him. My father felt sorry for me.
  12. My father later took me to a boarding school.
  13. This is where I met children from the Tangwena village. They used to tell us how they were removed from their fertile land and moved to the mountains.
  14. I went to St Patricks Secondary School, and that is the area where the war started.
  15. The girls’ from the local villages used to tell us of their experiences with the comrades.
  16. One day when I went on holiday, when we were in the fields near the Tobbaco auction , I told my mother that this was the last time for her to see me. She was shocked.
  17. She said please don’t join the terrorists, you will die.
  18. One day when she was nine months pregnant, we were together in the fields until about 7pm. All of a sudden we saw the municipal police. I ran away and my mother fell.
  19. I had to wait for her and held my mother until we got home. Straight from there she gave birth to our last born sister, Dorothy.
  20. Two hundred students had left our school to go to the war and our school was heavily guarded.
  21. When we decided to leave for Mozambique, we started to study of the soldiers movements so that we could sneak out.
  22. After a month, the soldiers started to relax. After some time they stopped checking on us.
  23. On the day we left, we were four girls. We just took our back packs and left. I was 15 years old, I was doing my form 2.
  24. When we got to Tanganda river, Betty said we should not use the main road, she said we should swim across the river.
  25. All of a sudden, my sister pitched up. She became suspicious and sensed that we were crossing to join the war. She told me not to cross to Mozambique. I old her I was leaving and if she didn’t want to go, she should stay and not try to stop me.
  26. At Zona tea estate we met the soldiers. We told them we were looking for jobs to pick tea. We left our bags and mingled with the other children who were picking tea. After the soldiers left, we proceeded with our journey.
  27. At night, we saw a house with a light. We saw an old woman who was alone. She asked us where we were going. She gave us some food to eat and she locked us in a house.
  28. We became suspicious.
  29. At midnight, we moved out of the house through a little window and started crawling.
  30. When we were in the bushes, we heard movements. We fell down and slept until the next morning. The noises we heard were soldiers who were patrolling.
  31. When we got to Beira, we were seen as informers. We were harassed. They asked the female soldiers to search our panties because they thought we had pipes that were put in our privates to kill the soldiers.
  32. Vivian Mwashita was one of my trainers.
  33. I was taken for training as a medical assistant. I was at Chimoio. The injuries that I saw were horrific, and we didn’t have all the medication that was required.
  34. Presently, some people are pretending to be war veterans. I never thought that one day this is what our leaders would do to us.
  35. The few that are in power, they never experienced this life in the camps. They came as visitors, announcing their policies.
  36. I feel that one day they will get what they deserve.
  37. I actually went around all the bases. In 1977, a few of young girls were moved to Doroi, then Tembwe, I used to be moved from place to place.
  38. I was very young, short and burly. I was very stubborn. I was not a yes person, I was Cde Tichaona Muhondo.
  39. The truth has never been told about women in the liberation struggle.
  40. Its a pity that very little is going to come from the women themselves.
  41. Some women ended up with babies, they were raped. Women lived under terrible conditions. They were dumped at Osibis.
  42. There was no special feeds for those women.
  43. Some people were abused by the Chefs themselves. Some Chefs would come from Maputo. The base commanders would parade the girls and choose the girl for the Chefs.
  44. For those who are still alive who broke the virginity of young girls, they should be sued.
  45. But I know there will be resistance from ZANU-PF
  46. The problem we have is that we have put power before the people too much.
  47. We are close to elections, there will be a lot of things talked about war veterans, but these people are living in abject poverty.
  48. When I came back from the war,  I worked at ZANU PF 88 and in the President’s office. Sally Mugabe sponsored me to go to polytechnic to do some secretarial courses.
  49. I was very vocal, one day a CIO recorded me and took the tape to the minister. The minister called me and asked me what we were trying to do.
  50. I told him we want to form our own war veterans associations.
  51. I was moved from my place where I used to work to the same floor as the minister so that I could be monitored.
  52. My duty was to look at the newspapers. I was working for CIO.
  53. In that process, I decided that I needed to move out.
  54. This is the time that Sally said I should set up the war veterans association.
  55. I went across the country setting up the association which had people like Gayigusu and Gwesela, those who then went on to be called dissidents.
  56. Elections are being rigged, the late Zamchiya played a big part in trying to show people how elections are rigged.
  57. I had people in the system when I formed my political party. They would warn me of dangers.
  58. If the developments that are happening now had been done since 1980, Zimbabwe would be like Dubai.
  59. The problem was they were taking kickbacks.

Please watch the video above this post for more details.