Foreign Affairs deputy minister Christopher Mutsvangwa on Monday night tore into his superior Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and the ministry’s permanent secretary Joey Bimha, accusing them of running the ministry like a personal “fiefdom” because of their proximity to President Robert Mugabe.
PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
In a no-holds-barred live radio interview on ZiFM Stereo, Mutsvangwa accused his colleagues at the Foreign Affairs ministry of failing to consult even on crucial matters such as the recent spate between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU) over denial of a visa to First Lady Grace Mugabe.
NewsDay has obtained an audio recording of the interview.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Bimha said: “I am not going to delve into details of the matter except to say it’s being handled internally.”
Mumbengegwi was not immediately available for comment.
Mutsvangwa’s remarks come as the government is still seething from the EU’s decision to deny Grace Mugabe a visa to attend the EU-Africa Summit that commences in Brussels, Belgium, today.
Zimbabwe, in retaliation, has boycotted the event.
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“It’s a difficult ministry. There are two people there,” Mutsvangwa fumed. “The minister [Mumbengegwi] and the permanent secretary [Bimha] — it’s a fiefdom. They run the ministry as they want.
“They have used their proximity to the President over a long time.
“I fought for this country. I put my life for the President and I will not try to prove my loyalty to the President.”
He argued that the two had acted in a reckless manner by putting the First Lady in an embarrassing situation where she was denied a visa.
“We should not have placed the First Lady as the sounding board of our diplomacy. In diplomacy, we should have insulated her from this embarrassment,” he said.
Mutsvangwa said the ministry should never have forwarded Grace Mugabe’s passport to the Belgian Embassy without doing enough exploratory work using diplomatic channels on whether she was going to be granted the visa or not.
He also paraded his war credentials saying Mumbengegwi and Bimha were his “juniors” during the struggle and kept themselves away from the war front.
“Both of them are juniors to me. The minister was on the margins of war as a diplomat with some Western country. The permanent secretary was here at home and ended up joining the civil service under [Abel] Muzorewa,” Mutsvangwa said.
The late Muzorewa was the transitional leader of the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government between 1978 and 1979.
During the same interview, Mutsvangwa said the country was failing to manage its diplomacy by trying to portray itself as the regional leader and trying to make its stance a common position for the whole continent.
“We should not try to posit ourselves as if we are the super champions of this region. That is not right for Zimbabwe.
“We should work with other countries and be sensitive to their sensitivities. Let’s not claim leadership,” he said.
He added Zimbabwe should never fool itself that it could influence South Africa’s foreign policy.
“South Africa’s foreign policy is too important to be [held] hostage to or guided by Zimbabwe. Let’s not take false leadership,” he said.
Mutsvangwa’s remarks were directed at the public media which had earlier reported that South African President Jacob Zuma had also snubbed the EU-AU Summit in solidarity with Mugabe.
