THE Archbishop of Canterbury didn’t know what to expect as he was driven into State House in a wailing police convoy on Monday.
“People say that sometimes you get a long lecture, nothing much else; others have said he'll be very charming, and so we didn't know what to anticipate,” Rowan Williams said after emerging from the 90-minute meeting.
“In fact it was a very serious conversation with real exchange.”
Something was also at the back of his mind: persistent rumours of Mugabe’s ill health. But like other western leaders who have visited Zimbabwe recently, Williams admitted he found the 87-year-old in robust nick for a man of his age.
"He's on top of things intellectually," Williams commented after the discussions which included a history lesson from Mugabe on Anglo-Zimbabwean relations from 1997 onwards.
"We had the history of Anglo-Zimbabwean relations from 1 May 1997 onwards in some detail. So I don't know. I think if there's a problem that is soluble without loss of political face, maybe he feels he can do something about this,” the Archbishop told reporters.
"I said at the end that what we'd all like to see is Zimbabwe fulfilling the potential that it showed in the early years of independence. He's very clear that he blames everybody else for what's gone wrong since."
Mugabe also detailed his own religious upbringing and reminded Williams that the Church of England is "a breakaway group" from the Catholic Church.
Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba had indicated before the meeting that the president would tackle Williams about what he perceives as the Anglican Church’s support for homosexuality.
"It was a very candid meeting; disagreement was expressed clearly but I think in a peaceable manner," said Williams.
"In the US and in Canada, there is a more relaxed attitude to these questions but these are provinces which do not represent the general mind of the communion on this matter. The Anglican communion worldwide holds the position that whatever our views on the morality of homosexual behaviour, we regard homosexual persons simply as human beings, as deserving of dignity and respect.”
Williams, accompanied by half a dozen other Anglican leaders, was at State House to deliver a pointed message to Mugabe about the plight of Anglicans in Zimbabwe who claim persecution by renegade bishop Albert Kunonga.
Asked if Mugabe had been receptive, he replied: "No president is ever going to say, 'I don't care about people being beaten up'. But I think there's a real concern that this is a running sore, that he and others in government would like to see it sorted.
“He was fairly clear that he and his people would want to talk to Kunonga."