ZIMBABWE’S ambassador to Australia, Jacqueline Zwambila, has denied allegations she stripped-off her clothes during a heated argument with embassy staff and insists she has not been removed from her post over the incident.
Zwambila was last month involved in a bizarre incident where she allegedly stripped down to her undergarments in a heated exchange with three embassy officials she accused of leaking information to the media.
The ambassador was reportedly angry over the leaking of information to The Herald newspaper about on an embassy website link targeted at Western audiences which claimed Zimbabwe was not the subject of any sanctions.
''I totally deny those allegations,'' Zwambila said in an interview with an Australian newspaper.
The ambassador abruptly returned to Harare to meet foreign affairs secretary Joey Bimha but said she had not been recalled as ambassador.
''I was never recalled. I went to Harare because this thing with the papers was happening and as ambassador and head of mission I had to explain what's going on,'' she said.
''I went back to report on an administrative matter, in which a letter was submitted ... and any head of embassy would go back and explain what was going on, which I did.''
Zwambila is a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party.
She is one of five Zimbabwean ambassadors appointed by the MDC-T under a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe.
Zwambila would not comment on suggestions she was the victim of a smear campaign by supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.
''All I do know is that in any new team which is formed, there is a process of getting to understand each other, a process of forming as a team,'' she said.
''There are different management styles, I definitely have a different management style. Getting people together as one team I think that takes time and some people are able to and others are not.''
Zwambila said the embassy had been working to re-establish a close relationship with the Australian and New Zealand governments.
''That (work) is continuing. We have development aid from Australia, when I first came it was quite negligible, but now Zimbabwe is getting, I believe, 25 percent of the total Africa aid from the Australian government,'' she said.