President Mugabe was in Singapore and he was actually not in hospital for the duration of the time that he was there. He got into hospital less than 10 days before he passed on.
The reason that President Mugabe was in Singapore is the reason that a lot of other Zimbabweans are also out of the country. That is a legacy that is very very important for the leadership in Zimbabwe to be able to recognise.
We have a lot of Zimbabweans who are not in Zimbabwe and this is something that needs to be addressed. We need to have serious conversations about why Zimbabweans are not in Zimbabwe.
Some of them are not in Zimbabwe for political reasons. Some of them are not in Zimbabwe for economic reasons.
Those of us that were in leadership with President Mugabe, we need to be able to own up to the collective responsibility that we had about the decision that we made. In some instances, we made the correct decisions. In some instances we made mistakes.
And what I would really appeal to some of my former colleagues is to recognise their responsibility where we made mistakes.
I for one will recognise responsibility during the time that I was in government, and I own up to those responsibilities.
It is extremely disingenuous for anybody that worked and served with President Mugabe to then say it was President Mugabe’s fault. Where we erred we erred collectively.
And I have taken a personal position. And I know some of my colleagues. And I can speak clearly for Professor Jonathan Moyo. I can speak clearly for Honourable Saviour Kasukuwere that we have taken a collective position and individual position to say that where we served with President Mugabe, where there are any issues that you must be able to own up to, we will own up to them.
And the reason we need to be able to do that is that we need our country to go forward. We can’t go forward without country without acknowledging where we have made mistakes. Because it is only that acknowledgment where mistakes have been made that others – even if it does include us – will be able to chart a way forward.