WHILE in exile, Cde Simon Muzenda in 1974 organised young recruits in camps in Zambia and Tanzania.
He also visited other camps to co-ordinate guerilla activities.
Cde Muzenda was personally involved in the recruitment of the first group of cadres that were sent to Ghana and later to China for military training.
In 1975 he moved to Zambia where he closely worked with President Robert Mugabe.
He later moved to Mozambique where the two closely cooperated to form a formidable force that prosecuted the armed struggle with utmost rigour.
Dr Muzenda played a crucial role in resolving the untenable situation that emerged following the assassination of Cde Hebert Chitepo by enemies of the struggle and subsequent arrest of leading comrades by the Zambian authorities.
These events occurred during the Detente period and threatened to derail the armed struggle.
Cde Muzenda was able to read the machinations of the colonial forces, eventually rescuing the armed struggle and re-launching it to a new level of intensity.
In 1977 Cde Muzenda was elected Vice-President of ZANU PF at its Congress-in-Exile held in Chimoio.
His election to the powerful post came as no surprise to many cadres because he had distinguished himself as a national leader of outstanding organisational abilities.
On the diplomatic front, Cde Muzenda attended the Geneva Conference in 1976.
The talks were preceded by the formation of a political pact between the two main liberation forces confronting white minority government, ZANU and ZAPU.
The pact which was called the Patriotic Front became the force that consolidated the struggle effectively bringing the white colonial regime to its knees.
Cde Muzenda also attended the Anglo-American proposal talks in Malta and Dar-es-Salaam.
During the same period, he suffered a personal tragedy when he lost one of his sons during the Chimoio raid where innocent and defenceless Zimbabweans were attacked by the murderous Rhodesian soldiers.
With the struggle intensifying and the Patriotic Front on the verge of overrunning the regime, the Lancaster House talks were convened in 1979 and once again Cde Muzenda played his part.
During the sometimes exasperating Lancaster House negotiations, Cde Muzenda hit out at the British kith and kin saying:
“The British are again trying to assist the UDI rebels by robbing the freedom fighters of their gains at the conference table.
“They want to appear as if the current negotiations have not been brought about by the people’s war.”
When Cde Mugabe was elected the first Prime Minister of the new independent Zimbabwe he made Dr Muzenda the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister in 1980.
Dr Mzee would later rise to become one of Zimbabwe’s Vice-Presidents.