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President Mugabe

Caesar Zvayi recently in HAVANA, Cuba
PRESIDENT Mugabe has urged Zimbabwe’s diplomats in Havana to work to ensure relations with Cuba remain cordial and survive the demise of leader of the Cuban revolution Commandante Fidel Castro Ruz, who passed away on November 25.

Addressing guests, comprising Zimbabweans resident in Havana among them medical students, at a dinner hosted for him by ambassador to Cuba Cde Ignatius Mudzimba and his wife on Wednesday evening, President Mugabe paid tribute to Commandante Castro and expressed optimism that his brother Raul would walk the beaten path.

“Don’t give up because this hero is gone, aiwa. Heroes come and heroes go, ndo-life yacho. We are happy he charted the way. Even those who were reluctant in Africa to follow him began asking whether their relations with the West are benefiting them, and asking whether they should not also, to some extent, take a tough line. With us, well, ndozvatiri.

Also read:

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• President off to Cuba for Fidel Castro’s burial

“Keep it up. Let it not be said Zimbabwe became cold after the death of Castro, no! Let’s remain warm, very warm in our relations,” President Mugabe said.

Zimbabwe-Cuba relations date back to the liberation struggle when Cuba extended material, logistical and moral support. They firmed with the establishment of formal diplomatic relations at independence in 1980 and have been manifest in manpower development that culminated in the establishment of the Bindura University of Science Education in 1996.

The university was born out of the localisation of the highly successful science and mathematics teacher education programme that churned out over 3 000 graduate science teachers between 1986 and 1996.

Not only that, many others graduated in medicine with Cuba also seconding many medical doctors, many of them specialists to work in Zimbabwean hospitals, particularly in the countryside.

President Mugabe urged the ambassador and his team to study all areas of agreement as some of the agreements with Cuba were Commandante Castro’s personal initiatives that some officers may not be well versed with.

“I hope you will study thoroughly the areas of agreement we had with Fidel. With Fidel ka, aiita zvimwe zvinhu ari iye pachake. Zvakanga zvisingasano zivikanwa nevamwe vese. Even vanaRaul vaiziva kuti Castro has brought about relations with others in the world but kuti vazive kuti relations dzacho chaidzo ndedzipi? Kuti vazive kuti with these, country by country, with this country, this agreement, aiwa, no!

“But vane vanhu down in the ministry, who were carrying out some of these agreements like those in the health sector. Zvava kuda kuti zvimutsiridzwe nanaRaul, kuti tiite generate that same spirit in him that his brother had so those plans can be done . . . ”

It was providential, President Mugabe said, that Raul was not just deputy to his brother Fidel but fought alongside him and shared his ideology, a boon to enhancing relations.

“Fortunately, Raul was not just a deputy to him but he fought with and shared the same ideology as his brother,” President Mugabe said.

The President paid tribute to Commandante Castro’s resilience in the face of a punitive Western blockade whose effects, he said, were also felt by resident missions.

“Cuba has been under sanctions for a long time, a long, long time and the man we celebrate, gathered to celebrate was a doer, determined, courageous individual who never surrendered to imperialists. And one American regime after another, they all followed the same path and the burden of sanctions was increased each time.

“It’s only now there is a slight relief but still sanctions are real,” President Mugabe said.

“But the joy is that the world has come to know that all which has been said about Cuba is not correct. Cuba is not an oppressor. It has been pursuing a policy of socialism,” President Mugabe said.

Cuba has some of the most impressive human development indices even beating well funded regimes like the United States.

Ambassador Mudzimba, who chronicled his long association with President Mugabe from the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference to date, pledged to continue putting shoulders to the wheel to move Harare-Havana relations forward.

The Zimbabwean embassy, with a modest staff complement of five, is one of 25 African missions in Havana, and only one of six from the Sadc region.

President Mugabe, who was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa, returned home yesterday and was welcomed at Harare International Airport by Vice Presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, Cabinet ministers, service chiefs and senior Government officials.