Dancing on streets as Mugabe quits
Following Robert Mugabe’s resignation as president of Zimbabwe, the former British colony is likely to be taken over by the most feared man in the country, Emmerson Mnangagwa
THOUSANDS of Zimbabweans took to the streets yesterday after brutal despot Robert Mugabe finally surrendered his 37-year grip on power.
The 93-year-old at last took the hint a week after he was effectively deposed by the military in a power struggle sparked by his bid to make his wife “Gucci” Grace his successor.
He formally resigned shortly after parliament launched impeachment proceedings to force him out.
His resignation letter claimed that he had gone voluntarily, despite clinging to power for a week.
Zimbabweans celebrated both in Harare and across southern Africa where millions have fled in search of work. For years, Mugabe and his cronies have used the cloak of anti-colonialism to plunder the country. Mugabe has also been accused of genocide and vote-rigging.
His successor is likely to be long time right-hand man Emmerson “The Crocodile” Mnangagwa, 75, who was implicated in a series of massacres in Matabeleland in the 1980s.
But in Harare people danced and hooted car horns. “I am very happy with what has happened,” said opposition campaigner Maria Sabawu.
Opposition politician David Coltart tweeted: “We have removed a tyrant but not yet a tyranny.”
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the end of Mugabe’s reign appeared to be a “moment of hope”.
THEY say you should be careful what you wish for. And the people of Zimbabwe will soon find out why. For years they desperately sought the overthrow of the murderous dictator Robert Mugabe – but now the former British colony looks set to be taken over by the most feared man in the land.
Not for nothing is Emmerson Mnangagwa known as The Crocodile. As one insider explains: “He never says a word but suddenly he bites.”
That is not how he would like to be seen, of course. Mnangagwa paints a picture of himself as a wise leader, a gentle giant who loves watching football on TV – particularly his beloved Chelsea.
He describes himself as a family man – he has nine children by two wives, the first of whom died of cancer.
But most people believe this cosy image is all just a front. Mnangagwa was in fact Mugabe’s enforcer for 36 brutal years, before he was turned on by his mentor earlier this month. And he is accused of organising a reign of terror in which thousands have been murdered.
The relationship between the two men dates back to the early 1960s when The Crocodile joined Mugabe’s Marxist revolutionary movement which was dedicated to bringing down the white minority who had ruled Rhodesia – as it was then known – since 1923.
In November 1965 Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from Britain, sparking a war with nationalist guerrillas which culminated in the formation of Zimbabwe in 1980 and black majority rule under Mugabe.
Mnangagwa, now 75, trained as a guerrilla in Egypt and China and his first act of terrorism at 16 involved blowing up a train near Victoria Falls. He escaped execution only because he was under 21 – instead he was jailed for 10 years, three of them in solitary confinement. In prison he was electrocuted, hung upside down from meat-hooks and beaten so badly he went deaf in one ear.
Mugabe, 18 years older, was in the same prison and helped his protegé pass O and A level exams. Following his release Mnangagwa trained as a lawyer in Zambia and by the time Zimbabwe was internationally recognised as an independent country he was well qualified to take a place in government.
He was duly appointed security minister in Mugabe’s first Cabinet. For security, read slaughter – the Crocodile soon had blood on his hands. He is accused of masterminding the massacre of 20,000 members of the Ndebele tribe in the early 1980s, a charge he naturally denies.
In an interview with Martin Fletcher of the New Statesman magazine last year he snapped: “Our Cabinet is about 36 ministers. How do I become the enforcer? We had a president. We had a minister of defence. We had a commander of the army and I was none of that. My enemies are attacking me left and right and that’s what you are buying.”
However few believe the denials of this self-proclaimed Methodist churchgoer. And corruption has been added to the charge list. In the 1990s a United Nations report accused him of plundering diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo when his troops intervened in that country’s civil war.
Ten years later he backed the violent seizure of white-owned farms, turning ownership over to Mugabe’s cronies and causing a major food-production crisis.
West of the capital Harare, fields where maize and sunflowers grew are now barren. And orchards that once groaned with mango and citrus fruits have withered and died. But as the people starved, their rulers grew richer and ever more powerful.
Some of Mnangagwa’s supporters have co-opted the crocodile logo of French sportswear brand Lacoste, call themselves Team Lacoste and wear T-shirts with the emblem in national colours. When he stood for parliament in 2000, they poured petrol over his opponent, who was only saved from being burned alive by clinging on to one of the thugs.
Today Mnangagwa is said to control the lucrative gold trade in his home region, the Midlands, where he is known as “The Godfather”. Of course, he denies it.
WHAT can’t be denied is the role he played in destroying Zimbabwe’s economy. He masterminded Mugabe’s 2008 presidential campaign of terror in which hundreds of opposition supporters were killed – and then rampant inflation broke out.
A year later, Mugabe was obliged to print trillion-dollar notes which were enough to buy a loaf of bread. Businesses collapsed and hunger was widespread. Mnangagwa’s spin doctors claimed he was one of Zimbabwe’s poorest ministers because he wasn’t corrupt. They say he never took holidays and only relaxed on his farm – where he broke crop production records.
So why was he widely portrayed in the West as Mugabe’s henchman? “I have nothing to do with the West, I am a Zimbabwean,” he told Martin Fletcher. Why is he called The Crocodile? It’s the name of a gang he led during the liberation, he said. “This ‘Crocodile’ thing has been so used by the media that I don’t even fight it.”
What about the farm seizures? He acknowledged they could have been handled better: “There was no textbook on how to distribute land.” He saw no need for political reform because “we have done what we wanted. The British denied us human rights.”
The Crocodile fled the country when he fell foul of Grace Mugabe, who saw herself as her husband’s successor.
Following the fall of Mugabe he appears certain to take his mantle. And the people of Zimbabwe will soon find out if they have exchanged one corrupt despot for another.