Like Mugabe, Museveni has stayed too long
It’s important that we create an environment where the media flourishes; the same tax breaks that we give to foreign investors we should give to media – the same kind of concession for importing newsprint and machinery.
You have had trouble with the Mugabe government as journalists here have had with Museveni. Do you see any similarities between Mugabe and Museveni?
There’s something in common. Both men I looked up to. Robert Mugabe was my hero; he liberated us; he is an eloquent man; I used to admire him; he embodied everything I wanted the Zimbabwean president to be. But he’s gone astray.
He is a disappointment. He’s no longer the patriot he was, the man that helped South Africa fight apartheid. And the thing really is that he’s been in power for too long. The same thing with President Museveni. Staying in power too long is never a good thing. This notion of president for life, this notion that only I can be president of this country and that no body can do better than me, is foolishness and should be discouraged.
Zimbabwe has of course had a unique land crisis. Are you satisfied with the way Mugabe has handled the land issue?
Absolutely not. There is no way one can ever justify the fact that the whites in Zimbabwe own the majority of the land and the black people own little land. But you don’t resolve that by killing the whites, by taking away their property without compensating them, and prostituting land for political reasons.
That’s what Mugabe has done; he prostituted land, which is a legitimate cry of the people, for political reasons. He was about to be unseated by the MDC and he had to use land to draw support from our African brothers across the continent who have completely misunderstood the Zimbabwean situation and supported Robert Mugabe.
How do you see the Zimbabwe crisis ending?
Robert Mugabe would like to see the crisis ending by him remaining in office forever and dropping dead in office. But Zimbabweans want a situation where Robert Mugabe gives them an opportunity to live again, dream again; we need to go back to the basics, draw up a new constitution.
But you won’t do that with Mugabe in power.
We need to discount him. Robert Mugabe is irrelevant to Zimbabwe as a people right now. He’s 83! How long is he going to live?