INTERNATIONAL NEWS - It was the culmination of a chaotic fortnight which began when Mugabe fired his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa, prompting a military takeover and mass street protests which eventually forced him out, ending a 37-year reign that will best be remembered for its economic ruin.
The resignation letter, which was read out in parliament on November 21, was the result of days of mounting pressure and back-and-forth negotiations with the military generals which were chaired by Mukonori.
“When the letter was done, he looked at it, read it through and he just gracefully took his pen and signed,” Mukonori told AFP in an interview in Harare.
“And as soon as he put his signature, (his) face just glowed, really a sign of saying: ‘It’s done, I have done what I have to do.’
“You could see the handsomeness of the man after signing … that he has completed his job.”
Close to Mugabe for decades, Mukonori has been involved in mediating nearly all the defining conflicts of Zimbabwean politics, starting in the 1970s when he took part in talks between the guerrillas and colonial ruler Britain that eventually led to independence in 1980.
And negotiating the exit of the man who had ruled one country for nearly four decades was “just another job”.
But most importantly, he too is relieved that the man whom he helped rise to power has finally bowed out.
– ‘I was relieved’ –
“It was the best thing he could have done, the man has served 37 years… definitely, it was time to rest,” said the softly-spoken priest.
“I was relieved when he signed,” Mukonori admitted, recalling the tension as the nation stood on edge following mass street protests and as MPs gathered to impeach him.
Asked if Mugabe’s wife Grace was part of the negotiations, he said at times she “would make comments. But we were not negotiating with Grace … the soldiers were interested in Robert Mugabe.”
Mukonori has known Mugabe for more than 40 years and says they are candid with each other. Jesuit-taught, Mugabe has always described himself as a devout Catholic.
Following the introduction of Mugabe’s controversial land reform policy in 2000 which allowed the seizure of white-owned farms, the farmers turned to Mukonori to intervene.
He also helped the negotiations for the power-sharing government between Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, before South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo stepped in.
– Begged Mnangagwa to return –
