Former Bulawayo South MP, Eddie Cross spoke on the Denny J show about his life, politics and career in Zimbabwe.
Key Points from the Interview
- His grandfather settled in South Africa
- He studied at Gwebi college
- In 1967 he got a degree in economics
- He relocated 30 000 Tonga people from the Zambezi valley
- in 1977 when most whites were leaving Zimbabwe, he became CEO of the Dairiboard.
- In 1980, he worked closely with Mugabe to raise funds.
- He was in charge of transformation.
- After that he was at the CSS and ran it for four years
- After that the Beira Corridor where he was working on the pipeline and extended it to Harare.
- In 1983, he contacted Mugabe and warned him against perpetrating Gukurahundi and he was warned to stay away from it.
- Joshua Nkomo was his friend and he used to come to his house to drink tea.
- After this Eddie Cross left government and went into private business.
- In 1999, he got a call from Morgan Tsvangirai to join the MDC
- When Tsvangirai died, he believed the spirit of the MDC died with him.
- He never supported Chamisa.
- I met him in 2018 and I told him you lost the election.
- I told him that if Emmerson had not won, you would never been the President.
- I told him to take the leader of the opposition party and learn for 10 years.
- I told him to create and organisation.
- Morgan Tsvangirai had structures in every ward, because Morgan was an organiser.
- I realised that we are going up against a machine.
- The buildings that we were working from was owned by the military and the one opposite by the the CIO.
- Everything we did was recorded, every visitor was recorded.
- My worst day in my life was sitting in the garden with Morgan Tsvangirai two days before he died.
- What we learnt while inside the MDC was that winning power was not easy.
- Power in Zimbabwe lies with the military.
- Mnangagwa has succeeded in neutralising the JOC.
- The JOC would meet every Tuesday and every decision they made was rubber stamped.
- The moment Mugabe moved against the JOC, his time was up.
- Has Chamisa made any difference to the administration of our cities?
- On how he started working with Mnangagwa, he announced that he was leaving politics.
- He was having lunch with friends in the middle of the coup when he got a call to go to Mnangagwa’s farm.
- He spent four hours with Mnangagwa who said he would be taking power.
- He prepared a document for Mnangagwa and that was in his pack.
- The reform program failed because Mnangagwa faced major challenges.
- In 2018 the same process was repeated, except that the cabinet was all now Mnangagwa.
- Hem worked closely with SB Moyo.
- Eddie suggested an introduction of 5% of electronic tax, however, Mthuli only added 2%.
- Mnangagwa is the only decision maker in government.
- Unlike Mugabe, he listens.
- Thabo Mbeki engineered the coup against Morgan, because he couldn’t agree with South Africa.
- The only instrument Morgan had was the Voice of America.
- Eddie Cross had flown in Mutambara, who is a genius by a political idiot.
- Daniel Chapo will win in Mozambique, he will get at least 80%.
- The key test for ZANU-PF is the transfer of power.
- I meet people like David Mnangagwa, he is brilliant, MBA, beautiful young wife.
- I have been working with Mutapa, they have just recruited from the Diaspora. They are brilliant, they are here to build a new Zimbabwe.
- Africa is moving, this country is moving so fast. I am excited about the future of Zimbabwe.
- Young Presidents organisations, you have to be under 35 and have 12 million in cash in your bank, and there are 53 of them in Harare.
- Afrikaners still runs South Africa.
- Iran gave the ANC the money to pay their overdraft.
- I said to the Afrikaners to attend the ANC rallies to defend the wealth of the Afrikaners.
- I don’t know who introduced the ZIG, I suspect it was Mangudya
- Its not our fundamentals.
- Here we use the USD, in Mozambique the local currency is used.
- The ZIG is an Orphan, it has one parent the RBZ and no one wants it
- The ZIG is not convertible on demand.
