HE The Crocodile, a maniac feared even more than tyrant he ousted
OUSTED vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa landed at an airforce base in Harare yesterday, ready to wrest power from despot Robert Mugabe. But many Zimbabweans fear the man known as The Crocodile for his political cunning will be as bad, if not worse than Mugabe, who has brought the country to the brink of ruin.
With a reputation for brutality, Mr Mnangagwa, 75, is said to be the only man in Zimbabwe to inspire more fear than Mugabe, and has been implicated in the massacres of thousands of civilians.
He was Mugabe’s former bodyguard, spymaster and political enforcer, and intimidation, detentions, violence and torture became the tools of power in the regime’s 37-year misrule.
Mr Mnangagwa’s decades of loyalty saw him rise to become the ageing president’s heir apparent, only to be sacked last week in favour of Mugabe’s wife Grace.
The president accused his deputy of using witchcraft in a plot to overthrow him – but in losing his henchman, his support from the military and the powerful war veterans who supported Mr Mnangagwa was fatally damaged.
The ousted vice president fled, saying he and his family faced death threats. But he now appears poised to form a unity government and finally end Mugabe’s corrupt reign.
The pair have been politically inseparable since the Sixties, when both were imprisoned for fighting in the struggle for independence from Britain and white minority rule in what was then Rhodesia.
Mr Mnangagwa, the son of a political agitator against colonial laws, was sent to China and Egypt for military training.
But he was arrested on returning to Rhodesia when he and his gang – also called The Crocodiles – blew up a train near Victoria Falls.
narrowly escaped a death sentence after claiming to be under 21, making him too young to hang, but spent a decade in prison, including three years in solitary confinement.
He was tortured, hung upside down until he lost consciousness, and was beaten so savagely that he lost the hearing in his left ear.
The guerrilla insurgency continued through the Seventies and when Mugabe fled to Mozambique to build support and direct the fight from exile, Mr Mnangagwa went with him as his lieutenant and bodyguard.
When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, he was named as the new country’s national security chief and became notorious for his role in the brutal repression of civilians in Matabeleland.
The new country’s military Fifth Brigade – trained by North Korean soldiers – was sent to crush a potential rebellion, and executed thousands of men of fighting age.
Soldiers made victims dig their own graves before they were shot, and their relatives were forced at gunpoint to dance on the graves, chanting pro-Mugabe slogans.
Tens of thousands of civilians were believed to have died during the four-year operation, but none of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice.
Mr Mnangagwa was said to have been fully aware of what was happening, and reportedly even directed the massacre, although he has always denied any role in the killings, blaming the army.
His reputation for cruelty continued as he was implicated in countless plots to intimidate Mugabe’s opponents, and was strengthened by his links with the war veterans who led the campaign of violence and land grabs against the country’s white farmers.
He became so feared that he was one of the few political figures who travelled without security, safe in the knowledge that no one would risk an attack against The Croco- dile. He had Mugabe’s ear and – like countless others at the top of the ruling Zanu-PF party – he appears to have reaped enormous financial rewards from his position of power. A US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks claimed he had amassed ‘extraordinary wealth’ during civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Zimbabwe’s troops were accused of plundering the country’s d i a monds and gold resources.
He is also said to control the lucrative gold industry in his home region of Zvishavane.
When Mugabe made himself president, Mr Mnangagwa was appointed to a series of key roles, including as minister for justice, defence, and vice president.
He developed his own power base of supporters – known as Lacoste because of the fashion brand’s crocodile logo – who often used violence.
An opposition candidate who defeated Mr Mnangagwa in a parliamentary election in 2000, Bless- ing Chebundo, was abducted by Zanu-PF thugs who doused him with petrol, but were unable to light a match to set him on fire.
The violence continued during the 2008 elections, when Mr Mnangagwa was credited with masterminding a campaign against oppos i t i on s upporters f r om t he Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that left hundreds dead and forced thousands more to flee their homes.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round but the aggression grew so extreme that he stepped aside, and Mugabe was given a clear r un at t he presidency.
Mr Mnangagwa, who has a law degree from the University of London, describes himself as a bornagain Christian and a Chelsea fan.
He has nine children by two wives and is described as a sharp and business-savvy politician, who understands the need for economic reform in Zimbabwe and plans to revive agriculture by inviting the country’s former landowners and white farmers to return.
Although elderly, he remains physically imposing, but his hopes of becoming president appeared to have been dashed this year when they put him on a collision course with Mrs Mugabe, who said of him: ‘The snake must be hit on the head.’
Mrs Mugabe was thought to have won the encounter when her husband sacked Mr Mnangagwa and he fled.
But once out of sight, The Crocodile appears to have waited for his chance to bite, and may yet prove to be deadly to Mugabe.