Events

The 2009 Lecture and Dinner

Homes In Zimbabwe Fundraiser a Great Success Despite the Recession

Over 600 people filled the RGS to hear Heidi Holland, author of “Dinner With Mugabe” talk about why she believes that the international media has never got to grips with the full complexity of the Zimbabwe story.

She had met Mugabe, the Freedom Fighter, in the l970’s and Mugabe the President and unstoppable tyrant thirty years later. What were the signs in his character that things would not go well in Zimbabwe when he took power? To understand that, she suggested, you needed to understand the power that Britain held over all Rhodesians, black and white, growing up in a colonial power. “As kids we were very aware of our colonial status. Being British and aristocratic was akin to godliness and we were brought up to believe that excellence resided in Britain.” Like all educated Africans of the time, Robert Mugabe also grew up emulating the British with their stiff upper lip, love of cricket, polished vowels and austere suits.

During 11 years in jail Mugabe never faced up to the emotional pain of his incarceration. Instead he buried his head in books and came away with six university degrees. “It is Mugabe’s denial of his true feelings over the years that has caused the unstoppable rage we see in him today. Anger is his official tongue because he believes he has sacrificed and suffered without recognition from the people he most respected, the British." As Mugabe’s power base at home dwindled, blaming the former colonial power became the perfect propaganda excuse just as it has been for so many failed African leaders. But the Blair government’s claims that Mugabe was worse than Sadam Hussein when everyone including Mugabe knew this to be untrue were misplaced and so the rest of Africa backed Mugabe.

By 2000 and his disastrous land grab Mugabe had become Britain’s one dimensional mega monster constantly vilified in the media but ignored by New Labour whose approach to diplomacy, she feels, has been a disaster. So, certain that Mugabe will never step down, she has been to see David Milliband to try to persuade him to speak to the renegade leader. “We need to deal with Mugabe because the thing he cares about most is power and he is never going to step down.”

The talk was followed by a fundraising dinner at the Royal Thames Yacht Club where Andrew Pocock, former British Ambassador to Zimbabwe was the guest speaker. He focused on two of Mugabe’s closest advisors, Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Jonathan Moyo, former Minister of Information who have been key to the collapse of the Zimbabwe economy. Both men are banned from travelling to America and the EU. Holding up a one hundred trillion dollar note, Pocock explained “This note, on the day that it was printed would have bought a box of matches... and that was before lunch!” With considerable irony he described Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as the “father of quantitative easing”, a man who holds the record for creating the highest inflation rate in history and whose mishandling of the Zimbabwean economy makes Weimar seem like a fiscal blip. Pocock suggested that Gono’s “stellar” efforts made one wonder which planet he actually inhabits. He pointed out that Moyo is wanted in Kenya and South Africa for embezzlement. The tragedy is that it is very clear that none of them is going anywhere soon.

In complete accord with Heidi Holland, Pocock believes there is no simple and imminent solution because Mugabe is not going to relinquish power.

 

Special thanks to the sponsors of the evening; ARUP, the Anglo American Foundation and an anonymous donor. Our auctioneer this year was television journalist and former presenter on BBC Television's "That's Life" programme, Gavin Campbell.

 

A huge thank you to all the very kind people who donated paintings, jewellery, holidays and hotel stays, and experiences and then an equally huge thank you to all the people who bid for them! We simply could not do the work we do in Zimbabwe without your help.