Electing the speaker was easy, because we would support the ANC, but then the next test was, are they going to support me? Because they've never supported any other party. You’re overwhelmed because you don’t know. And it took long, I was only elected that night, a bit of an unreal moment

The ANC could not bear having me not doing anything at home ...and they elected me Chairwoman for the Mashonaland South Province.

I wanted to go to the ANC to see if they can turn things around

I don’t know how it happened but I know that the community voted for me. I had won the area but on the day I was going to sign at the mayor’s office I couldn’t.”

Now that I have been convicted, I want to explain my actions so that you ... should understand why I chose to join the struggle for the freedom of my people.... It was during my primary school years that the bare facts concerning the realities of South African society and its discrepancies began to unfold before me. I remember a period in the early 1960s, when there was a great deal of political tension, and we often used to encounter armed police in Soweto.... I remember the humiliation to which my parents were subjected by whites in shops and in other places where we encountered them, and the poverty. All these things had their influence on my young mind ... and by the time I went to Orlando West High School, I was already beginning to question the injustice of the society ... and to ask why nothing was being done to change it. It is true that I was trained in the use of weapons and explosives. The basis of my training was in sabotage, which was to be aimed at institutions and not people. I did not wish to add unnecessarily to the grievous loss of human life that had already been incurred. It has been suggested that our aim was to annihilate the white people of this country; nothing could be further from the truth. The ANC is a national liberation movement committed to the liberation of all the people of South Africa, black and white, from racial fear, hatred and oppression. I am married and have one child, and would like nothing more than to have more children, and to live with my wife and children with all the people in this country. One day that might be possible - if not for me, then at least for my brothers.

I experienced a mixture of feelings. Like all the Alliance Lepep candidates, I was shocked, dismayed, sad, dejected... especially since a few days before the elections, we thought we were heading for a great victory. The people chose, they are the ones who decide, we can only respect that choice. What happened was also God's will. What saddened me most during this election period was the fact that I wasn't a candidate in constituency No. 14, to which I am still very attached, and where I have forged ties with the residents. Even at the start, I didn't even have a ticket. It was a relatively difficult time for me. But that's politics, and we were in a strategic configuration. Finally, I landed in constituency No. 17 (Editor's note: Curepipe/Midlands), but I still have good memories of it.

I got involved in electoral politics because I believed that movement activism on behalf of civil rights and women's rights and labor rights and environmental protection and peace needed to be reflected on our ballots and in the corridors of power.

I was proud to have been the anti-establishment candidate after more than twenty years in politics, a small town guy fighting for the ordinary Canadian.

The deep desire to show that mass resistance and challenging ZANU (PF) at the ballot box was possible pushed fear aside. Life had become so unbearable that those who truly cared had to risk everything for a better Zimbabwe. I chose to put myself on the line and became one of the fighters for democracy. For the record, neither I nor my family have ever been part of ZANU (PF).

Translation: I have been an active member of Mandela's ANC since the end of the 60's or the beginning of the 70's. Hassan II, the King of Morocco, talked me into helping fund the ANC. [...] I remember that at the time, the South African President, who must have been Vorster, was putting a lot of pressure on our ministers, so that they come to South Africa. A number of French ministers accepted these invites. I too was frequently asked to go... The leaders of South Africa wanted to make us believe that the apartheid was normal, or did not exist. I declared officially and most clearly, urbi et orbi, that I wouldn't set a foot there as long as the apartheid would exist.

I believe in making an impact by doing effective oversight and listening to what people want. To my advantage is the fact that I have worked on the ground for 20 years (being in government and as opposition) in different communities, and I understand the needs and challenges that South Africans face daily.

I'm happy to be a card-carrying member of the ANC.

My job is to assist the common people, I do politics for the people, not for me ... People are enjoying democracy now.

I didn’t just watch (politics evolve).I participated in helping the change happen.