Honorary Graduates
Orations and responses
The Honourable Cyril Enoch Ndebele BA LLB
Oration given on 12 July 2001
Chancellor, the Senate has resolved that the degree of Doctor
of the University be conferred upon Cyril Enoch Ndebele.
Cyril Ndebele is a politician who has represented the people of Zimbabwe
inside and outside its Parliament. Chancellor, we like to affect attitudes
that lie somewhere between disdain and mistrust of our politicians and our
political parties while at the same time we decry the remoteness and apparent
powerlessness of our own Parliament in the face of a powerful Executive.
The low turn out in the general election in June this year is a warning not to
be complacent about the health of our own democratic institutions. We know
that they need constant attention and support if they are to remain as bulwarks
of liberty and freedom. It is right then that today, we should honour the
achievements, skill, and courage of someone who has worked to make democracy
effective and parliament more accessible in the unpredictable and often violent
environment of Zimbabwe. It is all the more appropriate since the
parliamentary institution he has especially sought to strengthen, is based on
our own Westminster Parliament.
In the new democracies in Southern Africa, the office of Speaker of
Parliament plays a much more pivotal role in consolidating democracy than is the
case in contemporary Britain. And Cyril Ndebele is a shining example of
such a proactive Speaker.
Cyril Ndebele’s career has been dedicated to the struggle for human rights,
self-determination and democracy in Africa. He joined the African National
Congress in South Africa in 1960 while a student at the University of Natal.
Thereafter he took a LLB Hons Law degree in Queens University Belfast in 1970,
where, Chancellor, it must be admitted, he was exposed to and survived the
teaching of the present Orator in my first university post. In 1970 having
returned to Zimbabwe he became Chairman of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union,
then one of the major political voices in the struggle for independence.
In 1975 he was made its UK and European representative. He was thereafter to
take part as a delegate and as a member of the legal team of the Patriotic Front
in the historic negotiations that led to independence for the colony of Southern
Rhodesia from Britain in the Geneva, Malta and Lancaster House conferences.
Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 following elections that brought the
ZANU PF party and its leader Robert Mugabe to power. Cyril Ndebele
returned to his career as a Lawyer in his native Matabeleland, where he was also
a local councillor in Bulawayo. He was first elected to Parliament in
1990. And, it has been in the Parliament that Cyril Ndebele has made a
lasting contribution to democracy and the rule of law in independent Zimbabwe.
He was immediately elected to a number of important positions including
Chairperson of the Privileges Committee and the Parliamentary Legal Committee
responsible for vetting legislation. These posts were important in
preparing him for the key post of Speaker of the 150 member House which he took
up in 1995. Over the next five years using the authority of that Office he
inspired and drove a process of reform of the Parliament designed to make it an
efficient, transparent and participatory democratic institution.
In order to do this he created in 1997 a Parliamentary Reform Committee,
which the Chancellor mentioned earlier, with great skill, having secured
President Mugabe’s approval and involving Ministers and the Vice President in
the process.
His ambition to make Parliament more relevant and visible was pursued through
an innovative consultation process that involved seeking out the views of
ordinary people throughout the country. That model was later to be used by
the President for his own consultation of the Zimbabwean people over the new
constitution – but, alas, he repudiated the results.
The Speaker turned also to this country and the British High Commission for
support for his ideas. And, I am proud to say that he also involved our
Democratic Audit project at the Human Rights Centre and its Director, Professor
Stuart Weir, to assist. The final report, was carefully drafted to focus
on the internal and external role of Parliament. Nevertheless, it became a
catalyst for the parallel democracy renewal movement in Zimbabwe and the
movement for a new constitution. That movement sought a wider scope for
reform and accountability that also embraced the Office of President and in
practical terms voiced the dangerous thought that President Mugabe should retire
at the end of his term of office.
The Speaker found himself in the middle of an increasingly difficult and
dangerous situation as the political temperature in Zimbabwe rose. One
incident in particular reflects that environment and the courage of Mr Ndebele.
In a debate on the Parliamentary Reform Committee Report in the House, an MP and
member of the Committee stood up and said “the President must go”. There was
uproar. President Mugabe insisted that the MP be disciplined through ZANU
PF. The President also launched a bitter personal attack on the Speaker
for not stopping the MP’s speech. ZANU PF then began moves to discipline
the Speaker and the President demanded an apology from him. It was at this
point that Mr Ndebele relying on the precedents in this country in the struggle
of Parliament for its independence from the Crown, stood his ground. He
insisted that he had acted properly under the Constitution and that the ZANU PF
had no right to discipline an MP for what he said in Parliament in performance
of his parliamentary duties. He gave, what those who heard it, describe as
a brilliant speech in defence of the role of Speaker and the rights of
Parliament in which he invoked the 1688 Bill of Rights. It was a
statesman-like performance in which he managed to stand firm on the rights of
Parliament while being careful not to further inflame the situation or worsen
relations with President Mugabe. His courageous stand, at the time, was of
great symbolic importance for the reform movement although, as we know, it was
not to stop the overall situation in Zimbabwe deteriorating or the end of Mr
Ndebele’s career as Speaker in the year 2000. And Chancellor, he thus has
joined another honorary graduand of this University, the Honourable Roy Gubbay,
the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, who was harried from office earlier this year.
Cyril Ndebele found time alongside his mission as Speaker to strengthen
democracy in Zimbabwe to work for similar goals with other Parliaments in
Southern Africa through the SADC Parliamentary Forum, through the Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association and through his chairmanship of the Zimbabwe branch of
the Inter-Parliamentary Union. His has been a unique career dedicated to
the advancement of democracy through ensuring that its institutions are
effective and under the control of the rule of law in implementing the peoples
will.
I should tell one story about Mr Speaker. John Hume, the Northern
Ireland politician who is well known as a great peace maker tells the story of
visiting the Zimbabwe Parliament. He noticed that the Speaker wore a full
wig as in the House of Commons and that other officials were also dressed in the
House of Commons traditional regalia. Hume asked -why had the Zimbabweans
not cast off such trappings after independence. Why, in Northern
Ireland's then new Assembly he would not as a representative put up with such
foreign and archaic symbolism. The Speaker replied “Ah yes John, but that
is the problem with the Irish: you are not able to see the value of compromise
if democracy is to work.”
The courage, care and patience with which he has built real advances in
Zimbabwe and his attention to detail; his knowledge of constitutional and
democratic affairs throughout the Commonwealth and his genuine regard for
Britain and its heritage are the qualities which we honour in awarding him the
degree of Doctor of the University.
Chancellor I present to you CYRIL ENOCH NDEBELE
Orator: Professor Kevin Boyle