Harare — IT had been 10 years since the President played host to such a large number of local journalists. The date was March 4 2010 and the setting was his official Zimbabwe House residence.

The long period since the last "Meet the Media" session made this event a much-awaited one.

Moments before the President entered the small conference room, his spokesman, Cde George Charamba, announced for the first time since invitations were sent out to virtually all the media houses, that this would be a no-holds-barred interactive session during which the coterie of scribes could ask the President ANYTHING.

This was the tonic needed to excite the gathering which had hitherto been in the dark about the agenda of a meeting called at short notice.

A few private media representatives could be seen rubbing their hands in glee as they relished the rare chance to grill the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

And so as the President stepped into the room, the more than 40 journalists, including those from obscure media houses, knew that it was show time.

The President began by noting the absence of white journalists and asked whether they had been barred from attending the session.

"We sent out invitations to everyone," was the response from Cde Charamba after which the President joked that they could have chickened out.

Energetic, alert and articulate as ever, the President addressed the journalists for about two hours, touching on almost every pertinent subject.

His recollection of past events and grasp of current affairs were so impressive that the uninitiated could not believe he had turned 86 just 11 days earlier.

The President first spoke about the inclusive Government, highlighting that there were no major outstanding issues in terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

"The Tomana (Attonery-General) and Gono (Reserve Bank Governor) issues were raised after the signing of the GPA.

"I was surprised to read an article which said that GNU cracks were widening.

"There are no cracks at all.

"There might be voices of discontent, some criticism, but that happens.

"It is expected," said the President, in apparent reference to a headline article carried by The Standard four days earlier.

He then touched on the burning issue of salaries for civil servants, intimating that the Government was acutely aware of the fact that the Government workers were grossly underpaid and in need of a pay rise.

"Workers in the private sector are getting slightly more, but our economic output is not enough to enable us to raise the salaries of civil servants.

"We, however, acknowledge that the civil servants need more money, but the cake is still very small and we need to harness income from the sale of our resources such as gold and diamonds for us to be able to pay good salaries."

He then explained why the Government had not acted against Western-owned companies in the wake of illegal sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.

"We have more than 400 British companies, but we have not touched them because we have not quarrelled with them.

"We are quarrelling with the British government," explained the President without a tinge of bitterness.

The President then shed light on the contentious issue of diamond mining at Marange and how previous claim owners, including De Beers, had looted the valuable mineral for over 15 years under the guise of prospecting and research.

He expressed hope that the country would be able to sell its diamonds now that it had complied with all demands of the Kimberly Process Certification.

Turning to international relations, Cde Mugabe praised Russia and China for vetoing a proposal by Britain and the United States to impose United Nations sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"We are grateful to Russia and China for vetoing the sanctions motion.

"If we had money, we could challenge the sanctions illegally imposed on Zimbabwe by the West at the International Court (of Justice)," said the President.

Speaking with an air of confidence, the President said the sanctions would not achieve the objective of getting Zimbabwe to collapse or of subjecting its citizens to the will of the West.

Shifting focus to the agricultural sector, Cde Mugabe bemoaned the failure to utilise water resources for irrigation purposes, adding that most farmers were still employing "primitive" farming methods.

"Although the rains are falling, we are not utilising water, even from the dams scattered across the country.

"This failure to utilise water resources has led to farmers laying the blame on climate change during dry spells and droughts.

"If we were able to effectively use our water for irrigation purposes, we wouldn't have food shortages."

He then recollected a visit to Israel in 1964 where he was shown a sophisticated drip irrigation scheme near the town of Haifa where citrus fruits were produced on a large scale for export to Europe.

Turning to the issue of indigenisation, Cde Mugabe said there was unanimity in the inclusive Government that locals were supposed to be the owners of resources although there were concerns that the enunciated empowerment policies could drive away investors.

"When we discuss issues, we don't seem to disagree much; for example, on indigenisation, the policy of empowerment.

"We enunciated it a long time ago in line with the principle of sovereignty.

"It is the expression of our sovereignty.

"You get from the side of the MDC views that perhaps it could drive away investment.

"Some say it is about how we will apply it that is important, others don't want it at all, but no one is opposed to the ownership of resources."

Then came the time everyone was waiting for; the question time.

Cde Mugabe answered every question in a composed manner, even when he was asked to shed light on personal details that included his financial interests.

Scribes from both the public and private media asked questions for a good two hours, and not one complained afterwards that they had not had their question answered convincingly.

The overall feeling after the end of the session was that of satisfaction with many of the journalists expressing the desire to have many such events in the future.