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Ms Zwambila

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Former Zimbabwe Ambassador to Australia Ms Jacqueline Zwambila regularly returned to the country during her tour of duty with her last visit being in July, quashing claims that her life was in danger if she returned following the end of her tenure.
Responding to allegations made by Ms Zwambila in her application for asylum in Australia following the end of her term on Tuesday, Zimbabwe’s Embassy in Canberra said her actions should be dismissed with the contempt they deserved.

‘‘It is quite amazing and most unfortunate to hear such fabrications and falsehoods being peddled by a person who once held an esteemed position in Government. That she chooses to denigrate her own country and Government for sheer political expediency indeed smacks of the highest order of dishonesty.

“Ms Zwambila’s theatrics should be dismissed unreservedly,” the embassy said in a statement posted on its website yesterday.
“Ironically, Ms Zwambila who is today claiming that she risks being persecuted if she goes back home, was a regular visitor to Zimbabwe, travelling twice or three times a year and her latest visit being in July 2013. When she returned from Zimbabwe, she told her Embassy staff that the July elections went well.”

The statement said prior to her receiving the notice of recall, Ms Zwambila was planning to be in Zimbabwe for the festive holidays.
“In fact, Mrs Zwambila had put in place a calendar of events for the mission for 2014 that included her taking an Australian business to Zimbabwe. It would seem that the recall has had the net effect of denying her the opportunity to continue enjoying the luxuries and privileges of diplomatic life. It’s now a simple case of sour grapes,” the statement reads.

The embassy said if she felt the Zanu-PF Government was illegitimate, she should have resigned soon after the elections.
“Why did she continue to serve in her capacity as a ‘representative of an illegitimate Government’ for over five months after the July 31st elections and not feel threatened then? In the same vein the ambassador sent congratulatory messages to over a dozen Zanu-PF ministers and Members of the House of Assembly over their party’s election victory.”

The embassy said Ms Zwambila’s MDC-T party had said her actions were personal and thus had nothing to do with her “political activism”.
The embassy also refuted allegations that she was harassed by state agents and reiterated Ms Zwambila stripped before male staffers in 2010.

“She stripped naked in her office on Thursday 11, November 2010. She must not apportion blame on non-existent ‘state agents’ but herself for engaging in such a deplorable act which is inconsistent with normal behaviour,” the statement added.

The embassy said the fact that Australian courts had “ruled” in her favour in a lawsuit on the matter was irrelevant. Canberra had no jurisdiction to hear an issue that happened in Zimbabwe’s chancery, which under diplomatic conventions, is sovereign territory and is governed by Zimbabwe’s laws.

The embassy also denied her claims that its staff had sabotaged her work during her time as ambassador. Mrs Zwambila also attended a memorial of Rhodesian soldiers in Australia.

Zimbabwe’s former Ambassador to Germany Mr Hebson Makuvise has also reportedly applied for asylum after he was also recalled following the end of his tour of duty.