Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (IPA: [m?.na.'??a.?wa] ( listen); born 15 September 1942) is a Zimbabwean politician serving as the third and current President of Zimbabwe. A longtime ally of his predecessor Robert Mugabe and a senior member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, Mnangagwa served as First Vice President of Zimbabwe from 2014 until his dismissal in early-November 2017, which prompted a coup d'état. On 21 November 2017, Mugabe resigned (a removal recognised in a statement by the African Union, not as a "coup", but as a legitimate expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people), and Mnangagwa was sworn in as President on 24 November 2017.
Mnangagwa was a guerilla leader during the Rhodesian Bush War. After Zimbabwe was recognised in 1980, Mnangagwa held a series of senior Cabinet positions under Mugabe, including minister of state security during the Gukurahundi massacres in which up to 20,000 mainly Ndebele civilians were killed. Mnangagwa blamed the army for the massacres and continued to hold senior Cabinet positions.
After being demoted to Minister of Rural Housing in 2005 for openly jockeying to succeed Mugabe, Mnangagwa returned to favour during the general election in 2008. He ran Mugabe's electoral campaign, organised a violent campaign against the Movement for Democratic Change which led to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai abandoning the presidential run-off, and negotiated a power-sharing agreement after the election. Mnangagwa served as Minister of Defence from 2009-2013, when he became Minister of Justice. Mnangagwa was also appointed as Vice President in December 2014 and was widely considered to be a leading candidate to be Mugabe's successor.
However, Mnangagwa was opposed by the Generation 40 faction led by Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe. After being dismissed from his position by Mugabe in November 2017 for allegedly plotting against the government, he fled to neigbouring South Africa for two weeks. General Constantino Chiwenga, his ally and chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, launched a coup d'état to end Mugabe's purges of senior ZANU-PF officials, which ultimately resulted in Mnangagwa returning and assuming the presidency.
He is nicknamed 'Garwe' or 'Ngwena', which means 'the crocodile' in the Shona language, initially because that was the name of the guerrilla group he founded, but later because of his political shrewdness. The faction in ZANU-PF backing him is nicknamed Lacoste after the France-based apparel company whose logo is a crocodile.
Video Emmerson Mnangagwa
Early life and career
Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa was born in Zvishavane, Southern Rhodesia on 15 September 1942 to Mafidhi and Mhurai Mnangagwa as one of six children in the family - though some sources give his birth year as 1946. He is a member of the Karanga ethnic group, the largest subgroup of Zimbabwe's majority Shona ethnic group. His parents were politically active farmers, and he had to flee to Zambia with his family because of his father's resistance against white settlers.
In the early 1960s, Mnangagwa first met Robert Mugabe when his future mentor was taken in by his family when teaching in Zambia after returning from Ghana. The meeting inspired Mnangagwa to become politically active in the liberation movement for Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa's activism led to his expulsion from school. He then joined the effort to liberate Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia, from white-minority rule in the Zimbabwean War of Liberation.
Maps Emmerson Mnangagwa
Role in the Zimbabwe War of Independence
In 1962, Mnangagwa was recruited from Zambia as a guerilla fighter for Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in the Zimbabwean War of Liberation. While at a military training camp in Iringa in Tanzania, he criticized the decisions of ZAPU's leader, Joshua Nkomo, was brought before a tribunal chaired by Dumiso Dabengwa, and sentenced to death. However, two other ethnic Karangans, Leopold Takawira and Simon Muzenda intervened to save his life, and together they decided to join the newly formed Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in 1963. Mnangagwa then left Iringa to train in Egypt and China, as part of the first group of ZANU leaders sent for overseas training. While in Beijing, Mnangagwa attended the Beijing School of Ideology, which was run by the Communist Party of China.
By 1965, Mnangagwa returned to Zimbabwe, and led the "Crocodile Gang" - the original source of his nickname - which was known for its use of knives and for its attacks in the country's Eastern Highlands targeting farms owned by whites. That year he led his Crocodile Gang in bombing a train near Masvingo, then Fort Elizabeth, but was arrested in the aftermath. Mnangagwa was tortured by being hung upside down by the Rhodesian Special Branch and beaten, which allegedly cost him his hearing in his left ear. He was sentenced to death, but his lawyers were able to successfully claim that he was younger than twenty-one, the minimum age for execution. Depending on which birth year is accepted for Mnangagwa, this claim might have been a lie. Regardless, Mnangagwa was spared execution and sentenced to ten years in prison.
While in prison, Mnangagwa became friends with Mugabe and attended his prison classes, after which he passed his O Levels and A Levels. Together, they studied law via correspondence. After ten years, including three years in solitary confinement, he was released and deported back to Zambia, where he continued to study law and earned a law degree from the University of Zambia. He also studied at the University of London. Mnangagwa then completed his articling with a Lusaka-based law firm led by Enoch Dumbutshena, who would later become Zimbabwe's first black judge.
However, Mnangagwa soon left legal private practice and went to Mozambique where the Mozambican War of Independence against Portuguese colonial rule was ongoing. He went to Maputo at the request of Josiah Tongogara (who later became his brother-in-law), and on the basis of the friendship that he had developed with Mugabe while in prison, he became a security chief for ZANU. While there, he met Robert Mugabe again, and became his assistant and bodyguard. Mnangagwa accompanied Mugabe at the negotiations that led to the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement which recognized the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Role in Matabeleland massacre (suspected genocide)
Publicly available documents from U.S DEPT OF STATE under freedom of information act link current Zimbabwe president Mnangagwa and his predecessor Mugabe to Gukurahundi. However, recently Mnangagwa said he had nothing to do with Gukurahundi . The centrality of his role in the massacre is evidenced by the fact that he held the responsibility to explain to the international community and also made most of the public comments on behalf of the Zimbabwe government on the subject of the activities of the North Korean training 5th Brigade. On March 5 1983, at a rally in Victoria Falls, Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered a threat, using language that would be echoed 11 years later by the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. As The Chronicle reported at the time: "Likening the dissidents to cockroaches and bugs, the minister said the bandit menace had reached such epidemic proportion that the government had to bring 'DDT' [pesticide] to get rid of the bandits." Mnangagwa's analogy would have been perfectly comprehensible to his audience. The cockroaches and bugs were supporters of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) and, more generally, members of the Ndebele ethnic group. The "pesticide" would be deployed by the Fifth Brigade, the infamous North Korean-trained army unit that had already begun its crackdown in Matabeleland and the Midlands, home to most of Zimbabwe's Ndebele population. The crackdown was named Gukurahundi -- meaning, in Shona, "the early rain that washes away the chaff". It was extraordinarily brutal .
Cabinet minister
At Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, Mnangagwa became the country's first security minister and led the Central Intelligence Organisation. In this position, Mnangagwa was able to cultivate strong relationships with Zimbabwe's security establishment. He also took over as Chairman of the Joint High Command after General Peter Walls was dismissed and oversaw the integration of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrilla units with the Rhodesian Army.
While Mnangagwa was security minister, the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade massacred thousands of civilians - up to 20,000 - mainly ethnic Ndebeles, in Matabeleland during the Gukurahundi civil conflict. Mnangagwa denied that he had any role in this and blamed the army for the deaths. However his intelligence agency worked with the army to suppress Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union. In 1983, Mnangagwa delivered speeches attacking the opposition, describing those who opposed the government as "cockroaches" whose villages should be burned. In a second speech, he said that: "Blessed are they who follow the path of the government laws, for their days on earth shall be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents, for we will certainly shorten their stay on earth."
The conflict ended in 1987 with the surrender of ZAPU. Despite the Unity Accord which ended the conflict and merged Mugabe's ZANU and Nkomo's ZAPU parties to form ZANU-PF, Mnangagwa is still disliked in Matabeleland because of his role in the conflict.
From 1988 to 2000, Mnangagwa was Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Leader of the House. He was appointed Acting Minister of Finance from 1995 to 1996 and was also Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs for a short period. In 1998, Mnangagwa was put in charge of Zimbabwe's intervention in the Second Congo War, and enriched himself through mineral wealth that he seized from the Congo.
Despite ZANU-PF's influence over electoral outcomes in Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa was defeated in the 2000 parliamentary election by Blessing Chebundo of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Kwekwe constituency. During the election, Chebundo was attacked by assailants who tried to burn him alive, and later had his home burnt. Mugabe appointed him to one of the unelected seats in Parliament. Following the election, he was elected as Speaker of the House of Assembly on 18 July 2000. It was during his time as Speaker of Parliament that the UN investigation into illegal exploitation of natural resources from the Congo recommended a travel ban and financial restrictions upon him for his involvement in making Harare a significant illicit diamond trading centre.
In December 2004, senior ZANU-PF leaders including Mnangagwa and Jonathan Moyo were accused by Mugabe of plotting against him.
In the March 2005 parliamentary election, he was again defeated by Chebundo in Kwekwe, and Mugabe again appointed him to an unelected seat.
After an alleged fallout with the president he was made Minister of Rural Housing from 2005, which was largely seen as a demotion. In 2005, Mnangagwa launched Operation Murambatsvina, in which urban slums home to large populations of urban poor who were opposed to Mugabe were destroyed, which resuled in hundreds of thousands of former residents homeless.
2007 Zimbabwean alleged coup d'état attempt
The Zimbabwean government claimed to have foiled an alleged coup d'état attempt involving almost 400 soldiers and high-ranking members of the military that would have occurred on 2 or 15 June 2007. The alleged leaders of the coup, all of whom were arrested, were retired army Captain Albert Matapo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Army Ben Ncube, Major General Engelbert Rugeje, and Air Vice Marshal Elson Moyo.
According to the government the soldiers planned on forcibly removing President Robert Mugabe from office and asking Emmerson Mnangagwa to form a government with the heads of the armed forces. The government first heard of the plot when a former army officer who opposed the coup contacted the police in Paris, France, giving them a map and a list of those involved. Mnangagwa and State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa both said they did not know about the plot, Mnangagwa calling it "stupid".
Some analysts have speculated that rival successors to Mugabe, such as former ZANLA leader Solomon Mujuru, may have been trying to discredit Mnangagwa.
Treason charges were laid against Matapo and other civilians, but no treason trial ever took place, for lack of evidence. However Matapo and six others (not including Ncube, Rugeje or Moyo) ended up spending seven years in Chikurubi Prison, before being released in 2014. Matapo claimed they were not attempting a coup, and had no interest in supporting Mnangagwa (whom he deemed as bad as Mugabe, and potentially even worse than him), but were simply trying to form a new political party, which was eventually launched by them after their release.
2008 election and return to favour
In the March 2008 parliamentary election, he stood as ZANU-PF's candidate in the new Chirumanzu-Zibagwe rural constituency and won by an overwhelming margin, receiving 9,645 votes against two MDC candidates, Mudavanhu Masendeke and Thomas Michael Dzingisai, who respectively received 1,548 and 894 votes.
Mnangagwa was Mugabe's chief election agent during the 2008 presidential election, and it was reported that he headed Mugabe's campaign behind the scenes. He organised the campaign of violence in the leadup to the second round of voting which forced opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who had won the first round, to withdraw from the election, which secured Mugabe's continued rule. Mnangagwa then played a critical role in bolstering the legitimacy of Mugabe retaining power by brokering a power sharing pact with Tsvangirai after the disputed result. When a national unity government was sworn in on 13 February 2009, Mnangagwa became Minister of Defense. Following Mugabe's victory in the July 2013 presidential election, he moved Mnangagwa to the post of Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs on 10 September 2013.
Indigenisation and black economic empowerment
Mnangagwa has, since the early 1990s, played a key role in implementing the "Indigenization and Black Economic Empowerment" initiative, as advised by prominent indigenous businessmen including Ben Mucheche, John Mapondera and Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo and the think tank and lobby group IBDC, how to propel the policy from Local policy, Ministerial Policy, Government Policy & Development of a ministry specific to Indigenization & Black Economic Empowerment, such as Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill. Mnangagwa believes that the national resources should be protected by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
Vice President of Zimbabwe
On 10 December 2014, Mugabe appointed Mnangagwa as Vice-President of Zimbabwe, appearing to confirm his position as the presumed successor to Mugabe. His appointment followed the dismissal of his long-time rival in the succession battle, Joice Mujuru, who was cast into the political wilderness amidst allegations that she had plotted against Mugabe. Mnangagwa was sworn in as Vice-President on 12 December 2014, and he was also retained in his post as Minister of Justice. Soon afterward it was reported that Mugabe had begun delegating some presidential duties to Mnangagwa.
In 2015, Mnangagwa launched the Command Agriculture program with the backing of the African Development Bank to invest in communities to make them more agriculturally self-sufficient. He also helped negotiate trade deals worth millions of dollars with BRICS members Russia, China, and South Africa. In 2015, Mnangagwa also headed trade delegations to Europe to try and re-open trade ties broken in 2001 with the imposition of sanctions.
Presidential ambitions
Emmerson Mnangagwa was considered as Mugabe's likely successor owing to the support he has received from Zimbabwe's security establishment and veterans of the 1970s guerrilla war, partially because of his leadership of the Joint Operations Command.
He was ZANU-PF's Secretary of Administration from 2000 until December 2004, when he was demoted to Secretary for Legal Affairs, which was considered a demotion because as Secretary for Administration he had been able to place his supporters in key party positions. The move followed reports that Mnangagwa had been campaigning too hard for the vice presidency. During this time, his main rival as Mugabe's successor was Joice Mujuru, who was his predecessor as vice-president. Mujuru had garnered a large amount of support in the politburo, central committee, presidium, and among the provincial party chairs. Mnangagwa's support came from the senior ranks of the security establishment, as well as parts of ZANU-PF's parliamentary caucus and younger party members. With Mnangagwa appointment as vice president, Mujuru and some of her key supports were dismissed from the government and from the party. Mnangagwa has a strong image in Zimbabwe as a cultivator of stability, and also has support from the Southern African Development Community.
Power struggle, removal from power and resignation of Mugabe
After the dismissal of Joice Mujuru as vice-president in 2014, and Mnangagwa's ascension to that post, his main rival to succeed Mugabe as president was the president's wife, Grace Mugabe. Since 2016, Mnangagwa's political ambitions openly clashed with Grace Mugabe's. The first lady is suspected of leading the G40 faction (Generation 40), while the other faction, Lacoste, is assumed to be led by Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa used his leadership of the country's Anti-Corruption Commission to attack leaders of G40 by targeting them with highly-publicised criminal investigations.
Mnangagwa said that doctors had confirmed that he had been poisoned during an August 2017 political rally led by the president and had to be airlifted to a hospital in South Africa for treatment. He also pledged his loyalty to the ZANU-PF party and President Mugabe and said that the story spread by his supporters that Grace Mugabe had ordered the poisoning via a dairy farm she controlled was untrue.
Grace Mugabe denied the poisoning claims as ridiculous and rhetorically asked: "Who is Mnangagwa, who is he?" Phelekezela Mphoko, Zimbabwe's other Vice-President, publicly criticised Mnangagwa, saying that his comments about the August incident were part of an attempt to weaken the country, the power of the president, and divide ZANU-PF, claiming that doctors had concluded that stale food was to blame.
In October 2017, Mnangagwa lost his position as minister of justice to Happyton Bonyongwe, the country's spymaster, though he maintained the vice-presidency.
Mnangagwa was removed from his post as Vice President on 6 November 2017 by Mugabe after allegedly plotting against the government and displaying "traits of disloyalty, disrespect, deceitfulness and unreliability", according to Information Minister Simon Khaya Moyo. His removal made it more likely that President Robert Mugabe's wife Grace would follow in her husband's footsteps as leader of Zimbabwe. She had earlier called on her husband to remove the Vice-President.
Mnangagwa subsequently fled to South Africa citing "incessant threats" against him and his family. On 19 November 2017, Mnangagwa became the leader of ZANU-PF and was reported as likely to soon become President of Zimbabwe after the military and public action against Mugabe. Robert Mugabe was given a deadline of resignation by noon of 20 November before the impeachment process would begin. However, he still refused to step down, despite his political controversy. Before impeachment could begin the next day, Mugabe resigned from office. In accordance with the Zimbabwean constitution, the vice president, Phelekezela Mphoko, became acting president, pending nomination of a new candidate by the ruling party. The ZANU-PF chief whip duly nominated Mnangagwa, telling news organisations that he would take over as president within 48 hours. Mnangagwa returned to Zimbabwe on 22 November 2017, following a temporary stay in South Africa. Zimbabwean State Broadcaster, ZBC, confirmed that Mnangagwa would be sworn in as President of Zimbabwe on 24 November 2017.
The day before his inauguration, Mnangagwa urged his followers not to seek "vengeful retribution" against his political enemies after calls from his supporters to attack the Generation 40 faction.
Presidency
On 24 November 2017, Mnangagwa was sworn in as Zimbabwe's new president in Harare's National Sports Stadium, before a crowd of about sixty thousand. Entertainment was provided by singer Jah Prayzah, and attendees included foreign dignitaries including several African leaders, as well as opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru.
Among the attendees were President Ian Khama of Botswana (warmly welcomed following his repeated recent calls for Mugabe to step down), former Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba and founding President Sam Nujoma as well as current Vice President Nickey Iyambo, Presidents Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique and Edgar Lungu of Zambia, as well as former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, and Rory Stewart, Britain's Minister of State for Africa and the first British minister to visit Zimbabwe in two decades, who issued a statement describing the change in leaders as "an absolutely critical moment" after Mugabe's "ruinous rule". Notable absentees included Mugabe, as well as President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, who was represented by his telecommunications minister, Siyabonga Cwele, as Zuma was hosting a State Visit by Angola's new head of state, João Lourenço.
Mnangagwa was sworn in by Chief Justice Luke Malaba. During his first speech, he vowed to serve all citizens, revitalize the struggling economy, and reduce corruption. He also paid tribute to Robert Mugabe, who did not attend the inauguration for alleged health reasons, as his mentor. Mnangagwa also distanced himself from his predecessor by promising to "re-engage with the world." He also said that Mugabe's post-2000 land reform programmes would be maintained, although white farmers would be compensated for their seized land. He also said that the 2018 general election would go ahead as planned. He also called for an end to EU and US sanctions against top military and ZANU-PF figures (he is himself still under US sanctions for his role under Mugabe).
Criticism
On 27 November 2017, Mnangagwa dissolved the Cabinet of Zimbabwe and appointed only two acting ministers. Misheck Sibanda, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, issued a statement saying "[t]o allow for uninterrupted services in critical ministries of government, the following have been appointed ministers in acting capacity until the announcement of a new cabinet: Honourable Patrick Chinamasa as acting minister of finance and economic development, and Honourable Simbarashe Mumbengegwi as acting minister of foreign affairs." His new cabinet was named on 30 November 2017. On 3 December 2017, Mnangagwa was met with criticism over his new cabinet appointments which led to him replacing two of his cabinet ministers.
On 6 December 2017, Mnangagwa was criticised because members of the armed forces and police services drove vendors from the streets of Harare and took the goods which they were attempting to sell. Some of the vendors were heard saying Mnangagwa was worse than Robert Mugabe and that "Mugabe was in a way better, he never sent soldiers to take away our goods."
Personal life
Mnangagwa has nine children with two wives. His second wife was the sister of Josiah Tongogara, a fellow ZANLA commander, and died from cancer in 2000. His third wife, Auxillia Mnangagwa, was born in rural Zimbabwe, and has been involved in ZANU-PF politics since 1982. However, she only became a public figure in 2014 after she was elected in the constituency seat that her husband vacated to become Vice President that year.
His eldest child, Farai Mlotshwa, is a property developer and is married to the lawyer of Mnangagwa's political rival Phelekezela Mphoko, a backer of the pro-Grace Mugabe Generation 40 faction. His youngest son is a DJ in Harare known as St Emmo. One of his twin sons serves in the presidential guard. Mnangagwa is considered to be one of the richest men in Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa is a supporter of Chelsea F.C., because Ivorian footballer Didier Drogba played there. He is a Methodist.
Offices
References
External links
- Media related to Emmerson Mnangagwa at Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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