‘This Country Is In Crisis’

If you're elected, what will you do in the first days and weeks?
I don't have specific policies. But we will constitute a national authority or a government of national unity, call it what you will. We will bring together competent people, we want to engage the people of Zimbabwe for self-determination. We don't want to give them things. They are caught up in this captive dependence psychology. We have a food crisis, and we will need international assistance to tackle it.

You have a lot of support from within ZANU, that bothers some people.
I have broad support among the people of Zimbabwe. I can't measure support from within ZANU, but it's not important, it's a small party in terms of members. When my nomination was made public, a deluge of people went to register [as voters].

What will you tell foreign investors interested in returning to work in Zimbabwe?
With all due respect, foreign investors are not my first priority right now. My first priority is to mobilize Zimbabweans to take up their lives again and to re-energize people. I cannot fail to win.

What went wrong with the land-distribution program?
Corruption. It wasn't done in a transparent manner, we had guidelines. People just went on to the farms. There are people now who are multiple farm owners. There were gross irregularities. We have people on farms who are not farming. Mugabe is extending favors in the mechanization process. There were people who got tractors, for example, who didn't even own land, so those tractors are just getting dusty now.

Many people say you were sent [as a candidate] by Mugabe himself.
This has been deliberately staged against me. There are two storylines. One is that I'm a Mugabe stooge, a plant. The second, which Mugabe uses, is that I'm a stooge of the West, of Britain and America. I was part of the liberation struggle as the chief representative of ZANU in Europe. I was in the politburo until 2005, and I was in charge of a number of highly sensitive dossiers. So that whole time the president kept me in a high position in the government while I'm an agent of the West? That doesn't make sense. He is smearing me because we parted ways.

What will happen to Mugabe?
He will become an ordinary citizen and become subject to the law of Zimbabwe. We will give him protection, which is accorded to a former head of state. I would hope that he would be respected for his age and left to live in peace. The former president will be subject to the due process of law as any other subject according to the constitution of Zimbabwe.

Some Zimbabweans have called for him to be held accountable for past crimes.
He will be treated like an ordinary Zimbabwean.

How much support are you getting from the military?
Are they Zimbabwean military? Yes. So they're also in the group that supports me.