The grandmother, former public relations entrepreneur and political activist is two years into her first diplomatic posting – and is expected to return to her part-time evening classes in 2013 after an enforced gap year prompted by a heavy bout of diplomatic work.
Australia is a challenging post for a first-time head of mission. It is more important to Zimbabwe than ever. From 2005-06 to 2007-08, Zimbabwe received $5.6 million of Australian aid, according to AusAID. Since the start of 2009 it has received $177 million.
‘’Zimbabwe was a dirty word when I came here [in 2010],’’ Zwambila says. Australia now sends more aid to Zimbabwe than any other African nation. In her office inside the embassy in O’Malley, a modest building, a portrait of President Robert Mugabe looks down on us. It is interesting because it was Zwambila’s opposition to Mugabe that essentially brought her to Canberra.
She supported the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai, now the Prime Minister in the Government of National Unity formed in 2009. As complex power deals were struck to form the GNU Zwambila was chosen for the Australian posting.
When an allegation surfaced that in late 2010 that Zwambila had stripped naked in her Canberra office while admonishing members of her staff, it was reported that Mugabe supporters had perpetrated the smear. Zwambila fought back publicly by suing for defamation. She says she has reached an out-of-court settlement with Nationwide News, which reproduced the original story from a Zimbabwean publication, and she is still pursuing one journalist who wrote the story in an African paper. If someone is looking to needle Zwambila, it won’t be easy. Her father was an entrepreneur who started as a bookkeeper and ended up building supermarkets and cocktail bars.
Growing up, Zwambila attended an elite multinational school, a school with white kids. A place where Africans such as her were excluded from sports such as netball. It was a lonely time. There was no protection from racist teachers. ‘’I’ve had to fight the whole system,’’ she says. ‘’I’m a fighter.’’
That same aggressive spirit to survive and achieve can be seen, she says, in mothers who run households in Zimbabwe. Homes which somehow save the money to send children to expensive university courses in Australia. The Ambassador doesn’t believe being a diplomat is any more of a challenge because she is female. Once you have the position, she explains, it is up to you how you use it.
Australia assists Zimbabwe with institutional strengthening, such as helping the revenue office collect taxes. While Australians rank number two on the list of tourists visiting Zimbabwe, Zwambila wants to see more Australian investors move on from their ‘’wait and see attitude’’ toward her country.
During 2012 she has hosted four top level delegation visits, including deputy minister of Mines Gift Chimanikire and Tapiwa Mashakada, Minister of Investment Promotion at the Africa Down Under Conference in Perth where she organised an investment luncheon attended by 100 captains of mining and investment companies.
Later this month she is scheduled to give a key-note address at Bond University at the Gold Coast. To unwind, she enjoys playing golf. – With acknowledgement to the Sydney Morning Herald
Post published in: News