THE most notable outcomes of the report by the Daily News on Sunday which ‘questioned’ Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s role in the liberation struggle was how detached the authors and publishers of the story are from Zimbabwe’s historical narrative.
Equally disturbing is how desperate the People First, sponsors and creators of the story have become in their efforts to make a mark in the country’s political arena.
In its ‘story’ the Daily News on Sunday, quoted three supposedly ‘distinguished’ war veterans ‘who were commanders during the liberation struggle, (who) claimed that VP Mnangagwa was never part of the famous Crocodile Gang that was led by the late William Ndangana as the VP has consistently asserted’.
But information gathered by The Patriot this week indicates that two of the so-called ‘distinguished’ war veterans who came from Njanja are in fact supporters of the Joice Mujuru-led People First movement while the third member, a Retired Colonel Bastian Beta, was close to the late Solomon Mujuru who promoted him during his reign as Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
This publication has it on good authority that sometime last week, a Chipoyera and a Taitezvi, both from Njanja, visited the Daily News offices with what they claimed was ‘information’ pertaining to VP Mnangagwa’s alleged ‘peripheral’ role in the liberation struggle and that he was never a member of the famous Crocodile Gang.
Despite these weird claims by the ‘war veterans’, VP Mnangagwa’s story and his role in the liberation struggle is known and we repeat it here.
In the first instance, why was VP Mnangagwa arrested and sentenced to death in 1964?
Consider the following.
In 1963 he had already joined the liberation struggle and was there when ZANU split from ZAPU in Tanzania.
VP Mnangagwa together with some comrades were at a ZAPU Transit Camp outside Iringa, preparing to go for military training in Egypt when the split happened.
Joining ZAPU in 1962, young Mnangagwa was among the first group of recruits to go for military training in Tanzania.
Soon after breaking away from ZAPU on September 22 1963, ZANU sent its first group of cadres for guerilla warfare training in China.
The group led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, included Fabion Shonhiwa, Edison Shirihuru, Jameson Mudavanhu, Thomas Ziki and Lawrence Swoswe.
The six-month course included political ideology and military science, with greater emphasis on military intelligence.
Upon their return, the Crocodile Gang would be formed at the ZANU Congress in Gweru in 1964 with VP Mnangagwa assigned to one of the units of the famous group.
During that time, he had been deployed by the ZANU leadership who were incarcerated at Sikombela Restriction Camp at that time to operate in the then Fort Victoria now Masvingo, while other members of the Crocodile Gang operated in Chimanimani and Harare respectively.
VP Mnangagwa together with Mathew Malowa were deployed to Masvingo where they blew up a Rhodesian steam locomotive in 1964 at Masvingo Railway Station.
Prior to the blowing up of the locomotive, there was an announcement that there would be an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) liberation committee meeting and there was an argument that only ZAPU was visible in the then Rhodesia.
The ZANU fighters were then instructed that whenever they sabotaged colonialists, they were supposed to leave leaflets written, ‘ZANU’, which would then be published, giving prominence to ZANU and the cuttings would be taken to the ZANU Chairman, Cde Herbert Chitepo, who would represent ZANU in the impending meeting.
In honour of this exploit which led to his incarceration and subsequent torture which resulted in one of his eardrums being damaged, the ZANU PF Department of Environment and Tourism recently launched a historical tourism initiative in ancient city Masvingo.
The launch saw the National Museums and Monuments declaring the site where VP Mnangagwa and Cde Malowa blew up the steam locomotive as a historical site.
The site has been named the ‘Trabablas Trail’ in honour of VP Mnangagwa’s Chimurenga name, ‘Trabablas Dzokerai Mabhunu’.
After blowing the locomotive, VP Mnangagwa was arrested and sentenced to death, only to be saved, among other people, by Roman Catholic Priest, Father Emmanuel Ribeiro.
Fr Ribeiro was the Assistant Chaplin-General of Prisons.
“Part of my duty was to visit the condemned prisoners and I went to visit him (Mnangagwa) in his cell and he was dejected,” Fr Ribeiro told The Patriot in 2012.
After being moved by his youthfulness, Fr Ribeiro went and drafted a letter on behalf of Mnangagwa pleading for mercy.
“I drafted the letter,” said Fr Ribeiro.
“Even though I suspected Mnangagwa was above 16, I saw the prison doctor and explained to him that there was a young boy below the age of 16 in the condemned cells.”
The priest then organised for Mnangagwa to be examined.
The doctor looked at Mnangagwa’s teeth and certified that he was too young to be hanged.
After that, Fr Ribeiro recommended that Mnangagwa be transferred to another prison.
Mnangagwa was transferred to Khami Prison where he completed his ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels and enrolled for a law degree.
There are many references of Mnangagwa’s role in the liberation struggle.
In her book, Relieving the Second Chimurenga: Memories from the Liberation Struggle; Page 156-57, Fay Chung says:
“One of his (President Robert Mugabe’s) young students was Emmerson Mnangagwa, who gained education in prison under the tutelage of Mugabe.”
In the book Perhaps Tomorrow, Tom Wigglesworth – 1980, says:
“We never knew and were never informed if we were to move.
“We were being visited by Commander Emmerson and his staff.
“His full name was Emmerson Mnangagwa and he was special assistant to President Robert Mugabe.” – (pg 84).
Even in his controversial biography A lifetime of Struggle, the late Edgar ‘Two Boy’ Tekere mentions Mnangagwa on more than five occasions.
Is it not then absurd for anyone to question VP Mnangangwa’s role in the liberation struggle?
Let those attempting to rewrite Zimbabwe’s history prove us wrong.