Emmerson Mnangagwa: The Dossier of a Ruthless Man
When Emmerson Mnangagwa took the helm of the embattled Zimbabwe on 17 November 2017, the streets of Harare were lined with jubilant crowds celebrating the fall of the brutal autocrat Robert Mugabe, who had been in power for 37 years. Coming out of exile in the wake of a military movement to depose Mugabe, Mnangagwa’s entry was powerful, explosive, absolutely heroic. On the throne sits the only man with the shrewdness, military influence and patience to be able to rid the country of a stubborn dictator.
But on the corners of the same street occupied by jubilant crowds stand the few lone activists trying to remind the rest of us who Mnangagwa really is. Yet shouting at the top of their lungs through megaphones wouldn’t have given them much more notice as euphoria grows into a new era.
What is it, however, that they were trying to warn us about?
Perhaps, to start with, they were trying to warn us about the early signs of Mnangagwa’s fury, when he joined the United National Independence Party (UNIP) at just 18 and got expelled from college from setting one of the campus buildings on fire. Two years later, in 1962, he was inducted into the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and received guerrilla military training. A breakaway group from ZAPU formed, called Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Mnangagwa decided to split from ZAPU and join ZANU, where he met Robert Mugabe.
Possibly even more telling than this, however, is his subsequent education in Beijing, China. He studied Marxism in Peking University under the Communist Party for two months, and spent another few months getting combat training in Nanjing. When he returned to Tanzania, where ZANU and its military wing, ZANLA, were operating from, he spearheaded his first project of violence and oppression.
The Crocodile Gang must be one of three events in Emmerson Mnangagwa’s history the street activists wanted us to remember. The gang’s history is marred by incongruence and misinformation, but they were alleged to have been responsible for various terrorist acts such as the bombing of the Nyanyadzi police station in Chimanimani, the attack of white-owned farms and the murder of a white police reservist, Pieter Johan Andries Oberholzer, which sparked government crackdown on ZANU and ZAPU equally. Mnangagwa’s final act of terrorism with the Crocodile Gang was the bombing of a train near Masvingo, which resulted in him being captured by police.
Mnangagwa was detained for 10 years, just barely escaping a death sentence by hanging, possibly by lying about his age, saying he was 18 (he must have been 23 at the time). The last three years of his imprisonment was spent at Salisbury Central Prison, joining Robert Mugabe and other struggle figures.
When he got out, he seemed to have started taking his law studies seriously, being admitted to Zambia’s bar in 1976. Thereafter he took it easy at a private law firm in Zambia. Things seemed to be going well.
In 1979, however, the call to violence resurfaced. Mnangagwa accompanied Robert Mugabe to London to negotiate a peace agreement and ultimately end the Rhodesian Bush War. That was a success. But when Mugabe chose his first cabinet in the newly independent Zimbabwe, he called on Mnangagwa to take the role of the Minister of State Security. This is where the second red flag (and probably the biggest, most shocking one) came up.
In early 1983 the Zimbabwe National Army’s 5th Brigade entered Zimbabwe’s western provinces of Matabeleland, where the ethnic Ndebele group resided. An estimated 20,000 people were brutally massacred over the next four years in what has since been called Gukurahundi. It was no coincidence that Matabeleland was home to the supporters of ZAPU, the nationalist political rival of Mugabe’s ZANU party. Of course, Mnangagwa denied responsibility, asking, “How do I become the enforcer during Gukurahundi?… We had the president, the minister of defence, the commander of the army, and I was none of that. My own enemies attack me left and right and that is what you are buying.” Since then, though, it has become accepted that he was probably at least an “important cog in the wheel” (Doran 2018) of the egregious crime against humanity, if not actively involved. Indisputable though is the fact that his Central Intelligence Organisation took ZAPU prisoners, interrogated and tortured them during the chaos of 5th Brigade slaughtering Ndebele citizens between 1983 and 1987.
On 9 May 2000, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) representative Blessing Chebundo was douse in petrol at a bus stop by ZANU-PF cadres with an intention to burn him. Allegedly, he had grabbed hold of one of the offenders, and so managed to keep the others from setting him alight, as their comrade would have been caught in the fire; Chebundo narrowly escaped death. On 15 May, his house was burnt down. But why was Blessing Chebundo targeted by the ZANU-PF? Parliamentary elections were set to be held on 23 and 24 June, with Mnangagwa standing for the Kwekwe constituency against MDC opponent Blessing Chebundo. Yet despite the intimidation and assault, Chebundo beat Mnangagwa with 64 percent of the vote. This incident provides just a taste of the Crocodile’s wiles.
In 2005, Mnangagwa was dropped to minister of rural housing after an incident where he and Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo were caught plotting against President Mugabe. Supposedly, they had expected Mugabe would retire by the 2008 elections, allowing Mnangagwa to take charge — but only if Mugabe’s first choice, Vice President Joice Mujuru, were to be taken out of the picture.
Mnangagwa’s plot was foiled by his demotion, however, but he wasn’t giving up just yet. He managed to worm himself back into favour with President Mugabe, organising his campaign for the 2008 presidential election. This is where the third, and possibly most consequential, red flag appears.
Mugabe lost the first round of the 2008 presidential election. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai got 1,195,562 votes, compared to ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe’s 1,079,730. Mugabe summarily called foul and ordered a second round. It was up to Mnangagwa to save the day. The rest of the campaign was marred by violence and intimidation against supporters of the MDC.
ZANU-PF bombed an MDC office in Masvingo, killing at least four MDC members. Bodies of prominent MDC members were found scattered in the streets. Word of the brutal bludgeoning of Abigail Chitoro, the wife of a mayor-elect of Harare, quickly joined dozens of stories of torture and murder of other innocents. The Guardian reported on 22 June that more than 100 citizens had died already and thousands more endured savage beatings at the hands of Mugabe’s men over the course of more than a month.
On the same day, Morgan Tsvangirai announced his withdrawal from the presidential race. Mugabe was in effect left to run in a one-candidate election. Mnangagwa’s brutal tactics worked. He broke his opponent by forcing the responsibility of the lives of thousands of innocent individuals — beaten, tortured and murdered — upon his conscience. Tsvangirai couldn’t stand feeling complicit in the people’s suffering, yet the man who actually carried out this great injustice — Emmerson Mnangagwa — held out for longer despite an even greater complicity.
This attests not just to the brutality of this man, but to his utter lack of empathy and humanity. This incident of the 2008 election topped off a lifetime of violence, intimidation, betrayal and lying with a clear indication that this is a man who is not only capable of ordering the killing of innocents, but also one who is comfortable perpetuating such killings for extended periods.
