INTERVIEW - This week, United States Ambassador, James D. McGee, visited the Unicef warehouse in Workington, Harare. The visit by McGee followed the arrival, last week, of a USAID-provided consignment of nearly 440,000 bars of soap—valued at nearly US$365,000—to the UN Children’s Fund, which will provide it to humanitarian organizations to distribute as part of hygiene education programs in areas most affected by the cholera outbreak.

During the tour, McGee inspected warehouse commodities and received UNICEF briefing on distribution and general U.N. health and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs.
What follows is a transcript of his remarks after the tour where he also took questions from journalists.

Begin Transcript:

James D. McGee: Congratulations, this is a wonderful operation and the people of the United States are so happy to be able to supply the containers, soap, the purification tablets- these are all very very necessary in dealing with this, unfortunately, man-made crisis of cholera that we have here in Zimbabwe. This is a crisis that did not need to happen, but we are now committed that the people of Zimbabwe have the tools necessary to take care of themselves and their families. I want to say what a great job you and your team are doing. We really do appreciate this. We can assist you in getting these items. We need somebody with your expertise, your knowledge, your skills to make certain that these reach the people that they are intended for, so again thank you so very very much for doing a wonderful job with this.

Roeland Monasch (Unicef Representative to Zimbabwe): Thank you so much sir.

McGee: We have 57000 people who are now affected with cholera. We have 3000 deaths and again, I will say, it’s a shame because this is a disaster that did not need to happen to Zimbabwe. As I spoke to some of you, some of you are fortunate enough to have deep wells, deep boreholes and not be worried about that. Many of you, though, have shallow wells, you get water straight from the city water supply, and this is why people are getting sick. Something needs to be done and something needs to be done now to deal with this. And fortunately we have committed people who are working on this but I do call upon the government of Zimbabwe to do more to help its own people. I will answer a few questions.
Hopewell: What is the position of your government regarding the issue of an inclusive government? One of the reasons why we are here is because there is no government.

McGee: there isn’t? (laughter)

Hopewell: - no government in Zimbabwe

McGee: You are saying that, I am not (laughter)

McGee: No, we really don’t have a position on this, on the inclusive government. We know that the talks were happening down there in South Africa. We have seen the communiqué that’s come out of there and we have also heard exactly what MDC had to say about that communiqué. We are now waiting, and we are hoping that the government will abide by the inclusive agreement of September 15. We are hoping to see a government in place, an operational government in place here in Zimbabwe in the very near future.
Columbus: Sir, two questions, you said this is a man- made crisis,

McGee: I’m sorry-

Columbus: You said cholera is a man-made crisis. Why do you say this? And then secondly-

McGee: Cholera is very easily, let me just stop you there, cholera is very easily treated. Number one: the water supply here has never led to this type of crisis before. There has always been cholera but in very very small amounts, low numbers. Now all of a sudden, this number has blossomed as I said before, 57000 people affected and almost 6 percent of those people are dying, 3000 deaths, that’s unacceptable. This is something that if we had a functioning health system here, if we had a water company that was providing what the people of Zimbabwe deserve, which is clean drinking water, it would not have happened. So, of course it is a man-made crisis.

Columbus: And then my final question will be- this aid could have come through the government. Why did it not come through the government?

McGee: Let me be very frank about that. Too many things disappear when they go to the government. You all know that. I will just cite one recent case. Recently, 14 million dollars from the Global Fund which was destined for people who had HIV and AIDS disappeared. And we went to the Government, they said, ‘well, we needed that money for other things, - what’s more important than taking care of a person who has HIV and AIDS, getting the anti- retro-viral drugs that they need to continue to live. But the government took this money and freely admitted that they took this money and used it for something else. What? We don’t know. So of course, we are not going to give this money to government. We are not going to give these commodities to government, until government shows us that they can do the right thing and take care of the people of Zimbabwe. That’s all we ask- something very very small. Take care of your own people. Since October of last year, 2007, a year and a half ago, over US $250 million have come into Zimbabwe in assistance- 250 million dollars. Since 2002, one billion United States dollars has come to Zimbabwe in assistance. I don’t want to hear anybody telling me about illegal sanctions. A billion dollars- can the government of Zimbabwe say that they spent a billion dollars on their people during that time? I don’t think so. So I don’t want to hear anything about illegal sanctions. It makes me angry when U.S. tax dollars have to go to feed the people of Zimbabwe, but I see a lot of people in government with 60 bedrooms in their house. You know what I am talking about, don’t you?

Ignatius: Are we going to see a policy shift when the MDC were to join the government?

McGee: I have no idea. I do not make policy for the United States government. We have a new administration in the United States; I have not had an opportunity to speak to that administration. I have no idea what their thinking is.

Kumbirai: Mr. Ambassador the allegations by the Reserve Bank governor Gono that you once recruited him to join a post at the World Bank. What is your reaction to…?

McGee: (laughs) my reaction is I would love to get a job at the World Bank myself. How can I recruit somebody for the World Bank? I work for the United States government, State Department. The World Bank is a completely separate entity; I have no authority, no ability to recruit anybody to work at the World Bank, period. Now my colleagues who do work at the World Bank, I have friends who work there, say No, they have never recruited Dr. Gono (laughter).

Hopewell: Sir, your former boss, Dr. Jendayi Frazer, said that the United States government was not going to support any deal anymore which included (words indistinct).

McGee: You hit the key there- former boss

Hopewell: Yes

McGee: Yeah

Hopewell: so, is there going-

McGee: We don’t have any more policy statements. Again, there is a new administration in Washington; the Obama administration is the only one that we are talking about. I don’t talk about former supervisors; I don’t talk about former bosses. I talk about my current supervisor, that is the Obama administration, and until their policy towards Zimbabwe is clearly articulated, I am not going to try to guess on what that might be.
OK.

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