Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa?

Mr. Emmersion Mnangagwa with members of security at ZANU party function .   Family connection Mr Mnangagwa was born Born: On September 15, 1...

Mr. Emmersion Mnangagwa with members of security at ZANU party function .  

Family connection

Mr Mnangagwa was born Born: On September 15, 1942 (age 75) in the central region of Zvishavane and is from the Karanga sub-ethnic group of Zimbabwe's majority Shona community. The Karangas are the largest Shona group and some feel it is their turn for political power, following 37 years of domination by Mr Mugabe's Zezuru ethnic group.

Political Profile

Emmersion Mnangagwa was an influential henchman behind Bob Mugabe's power. The security analysts have compare him with Heinrich Himmler the iconic figure who master-minding the "Death-head Squad" known as Security Service Sicherheitsdienst (SS) of the Nazi Party's secret service that was formed in 1934 specially to protect and guards the Führer, Adolf Hitler's power in Germany along with Gestapo. Mnangagwa have same fearlessness notoriety in intelligence circles, which sealed very well with his good smiley face. As state optive for Zimbabwean government he single handled all the dirty laundries ushered by Robert Mugabe in culling his political opponents. 

Mnangagwa has a long protracted timeline providing close protection to President Robert Mugabe's government and its interests spanning several years. Even Mugabe admitted at one time that the 20,000 deaths perpetrated by Crocodile's protege unit that were unacceptable, labeling it as a “moment of madness”.  But this doesn't stop him from trusting his lieutenant Mnangagwa who raise up to the ranks to become justice minister, defence minister and eventually, in 2013, vice-president. We should understand that all empires that span throughout human history, were built by blood. And remember that " the frog eat another frog in order to get bigger" 

Robert Mugabe couldn't be known thus far, without "Mr.Crocodile" and he couldn't toppled from power if he didn't sacked ED.  Mugabe has survived most brutal events in history include many  assassinations attempts which were directed toward him.  Mnangagwa as a spymaster was solely responsible for ensuring the state machines' functions and maintain its influence at local and regional level, despite the international amounting pressure and flocks of enemies lurching upon President Robert Mugabe's life from both sides left and right. However, due to his unbreacheable protection ring he has successfully ruled Zimbabwe with iron fist for consecutive many years, breaking the record of (37 years ) as a long-serving leader in Africa chasing after President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea on second position (38 years) and President Paul Biya of Cameroon (42 year) at number one. 

Only, now uncle Bob Mugabe forgot or failed to read his history note very well due to aging, perhaps he might recall the irreplaceable qualities of his lieutenant who actual keeping him on power for almost 4 decades. And perhaps, he shouldn't discarded as cigarette's trash. There is a sufficiency evidence that good plots were made to get lid off him completely but miraculous the crocodile survived such a well contrived invents. 

The regime of President Mugabe became vulnerable when Mnangagwa, a man who knew most all weakness and strength of Mugabe and studied every Zimbabwe's most top secrets and have licence to access classified information, ran away after fired from his post as vice-president, following the purge by the G-40 in clearing the way for Mugabe's dynasty, to his wife Grace Mugabe whose seen Mnangagwa as political threat of becoming a vice-president. Since the Crocodile was believed as the only right person to be a heir to Robert Mugabe's throne.

As Mugabe's security chief in 1980s he led a secretive unit of North Korean-trained special agents who carried out unimaginable acts of cruelty against white minorities,political enemies include Ndebele tribes in western Matebeleland regions of Zimbabwe. He has denied any role in the massacres, referring the blaming to the Zimbabwean army. He has took direct part in Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence where many of white Boers were killed. His critics say the 71-year-old has blood on his hands. He is known as "the crocodile" because of his political shrewdness, the west especially Britain and United States hate him, because he was directly involved in the execution of whites who were occupying the large chuck of Zimbabwean arable areas. 

• Known as "the crocodile" - his Zanu-PF faction is "Lacoste"
• Mr Mnangagwa, is an educated lawyer who grew up in exile in Zambia, of course he is feared within the rank and file of his own party.
• He escaped the hangman’s noose when he told his British captors that he was 19 - two years younger than the death penalty limit.
• Received military training in China and Egypt
• Tortured by Rhodesian forces after his "crocodile gang" staged attacks
• Helped direct Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence
• Became the country's spymaster during the 1980s civil conflict, in which thousands of civilians were killed
• Seen as key link between army, intelligence agencies and Zanu-PF party
• The mastermind and architect who incapacitate Selous Scouts of Rhodesian Army.

Education

He attended early education at Lundi Primary School in Shabani which now renamed (Zvishavane in 1982). He continued up to secondary education at Mumbwa Boarding School from 1956 to 1957. Later he enrolled at Hodgson Technical College, but he was subsequently expelled from college in 1960 for political activism, when he had joined the UNIP student movement at the college and had already been elected into the executive.  At one time he was arrested by the Rhodesian authority for political activism and upon his release from prison was deported back to Zambia where again he enrolled at the University of Zambia for law and where he remained from 1973 to 1974.   Initially, he wanted to study Economics but instead he took the Law degree.

 In 1975, he did his post-graduate LLB degree and another post program in Advocacy at University of London. After successfully completing his law studies, he was admitted to the Bar of the High Court of Zambia in 1976. 

Military Training

Mnangagwa was recruited into Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in 1962 by Willie Musarurwa. After joining ZAPU, In April 1963, Mnangagwa, along with twelve other ZAPU cadre members sent to Dar es Salaam in Tanganyika (Tanzania) where he joined ZAPU training camp with others likes of James Chikerema, Clement Muchachi and Danha. Later again sent to Heliopolis for military training at the Egyptian Military Academy

While in Egypt he was detained by Egyptian authorities for affiliating with another Zimbabwean liberation movement ZANU which was not being recognised in Egypt. The Egyptian government gave free training to ZAPU only, but not ZANU. During this detention, the ZANU members communicated with Robert Mugabe who was in Tanganyika at the time and told him that eleven brilliant students had broken away from ZAPU and were now detained in Egypt. Mugabe himself was in need of able members for the movement so he diverted Trynos Makombe, who was travelling from China, to come to Egypt to secure their release.

After released from prison he joined the newly formed Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).   Makombe provided them with tickets to fly to Dar es Salaam for further political indoctrination. On arrival in Tanganyika, six of the eleven members came back to Rhodesia while Mnangagwa and the remaining five joined the first Frelimo Camp at Bagamoyo in late August 1963. Mnangagwa was sent to China with other Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) cadre members, where they spent the first two months at the School of Marxism, Peking University in Beijing at the School of Ideology, run by the Chinese Communist Party. 

He trained in military combat of Maoism "guerrilla warfare" that was conducted in Nanking for the next three months. Mnangagwa subsequently remained at another school for military engineering after the military phase has ended. After completing training in May 1964, they went back to Tanganyika, where they formed a special platoon "Crocodile Group"comprises of fearless and brave soldiers. There was no weapons available for them to operate in the then Southern Rhodesia at that time,but they innovate their own art of warfare, of fighting with bare handed and only have a hope to capture enemies's weapons.

Ice Cream Plot
His rivalry with Grace Mugabe took a bizarre turn earlier this year when he fell ill in August at a political rally led by President Mugabe and had to be airlifted to South Africa, the incident dubed as cyanide food poisoning. His supporters suggested that a rival group within Zanu-PF had poisoned him and appeared to blame ice cream from Mrs Mugabe's dairy firm. It appears now that by trying to take Mr Mnangagwa's head, she has bitten off more than she can chew.

Former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and President Robert Mugabe.  

In recent years he became the sure-fire bet to replace an ailing Mugabe. But The Crocodile clashed with Mugabe's wife Grace to such an extent that the 93-year-old president forced him out of office earlier this month. The move was widely seen as a bid by the old tyrant to pave the way for his 52-year-old wife to succeed him. After the president dismissed him and publicly accused him of "treachery", his supporters in the security forces and intelligence where he made his name intervened on his behalf. Mnangagwa did not take it so slightly by just lying down, however, he made his army to punch back in military fray so he finally grab the power for himself.

Those who fought in the 1970s war, like Mr Mnangagwa, have long monopolised power in Zimbabwe. There was a commotion that all war veterans would lose their positions if Grace Mugabe were to succeed her husband, as seemed to be on the cards, if they couldn't  intervened with a marshal law. When his close ally, Gen Constantino Chiwenga, warned against the "purging which is clearly targeting members of the party with a liberation background", it was obviously a reference to Mr Mnangagwa's sacking. "When it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in," he warned, a threat which has now been carried out.

One veteran of Zimbabwe's war of independence, who worked with him for many years, put it simply: Another Zanu-PF official posed an interesting question when asked about Mr Mnangagwa's prospects: You think Mugabe is bad but have you thought that whoever comes after him could be even worse?"  He responded "he's a very cruel man, very cruel." 

The opposition candidate who defeated Mr Mnangagwa in the 2000 parliamentary campaign in Kwekwe Central, Blessing Chebundo, would also agree that his rival is not a man of peace. During a bitter campaign, Mr Chebundo escaped death by a whisker when the Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with petrol.

Liberation Heroism

Mnangagwa's fearsome reputation was made during the time of national liberation struggle against British occupations and civil war which broke out in the 1980s between Mr Mugabe's ZANU party and the ZAPU party of Joshua Nkomo the once-fiery African nationalist and guerrilla leader who was regarded as the father of Zimbabwe's struggle for independence before even Robert Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe (L) Josiah Tongogara (C) and Emmersion Mnangagwa of (ZANU-PF) in 1979.

The Crocodile acted as Mugabe’s muscle during the 70s in a bid to gain independence from Britain through political attrition against Rhodesian Army. Eventually, Zimbabwe outsmart the British Empire and Zimbabwe was guaranteed independence. Despite his strong opposition to British whites, Mnangagwa has several links with London include white people, since he studied law there at the University of London and he is a fan of Chelsea, thanks to his love of African football hero Didier Drogba. 

Robert Mugabe co-leader of the Patriotic Front guerrilla forces at the conference in London, 19 Dec 1979 during agreement at Lancaster House on a new constitution, transitional arrangements and a ceasefire.

The brutal efficiency of his Maoist combat mimics the tactics of Japanese "Ninja Assassin of the "cut-throat and breaking-necks" with bare-hands. During Zimbabwean liberation struggle he waged guerrillas that would attack white farmers with improvised weapons and hunting knives and machetes. Labour MP Kate Hoey once said Mnangagwa: “[He is] probably the one person in Zimbabwe who inspires even greater terror against the white government of Rhodesia [than Mugabe] . The heroic act that later earned him the nickname The "Crocodile".  Mr Mnangagwa, though, does enjoy the support of many of the war veterans who led the campaign of violence against the Selous Scouts and white farmers and then the members from opposition in 2000. They remember him as one of the men who, following his military training very well

Mnangagwa earned heroic credentials when he fought head-on with Selous Scouts one of the most highly effective and well trained security operatives of the Rhodesian regime specialized in counter insurgency. The Selous Scouts was a special forces regiment of the Rhodesian Army, which operated from 1973 until the introduction of majority rule in 1980. It was named after British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous (1851–1917), and their motto was "pamwe chete", which, literally in the Shona, roughly means "all together", "together only" or "forward together". The Selous Scouts waged a serious clandestine operations just from early First Chimurenga to Second Chimurenga to eliminate all indigenous people and then targeting terrorists both within and outside the country. 

As National Security Minister, Mr Mnangagwa was in charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), which worked hand in glove with the army to suppress Zapu opponets. Thousands of innocent civilians fellow Africans mainly ethnic Ndebeles,seen as Zapu supporters were killed in Second Chimurenga before the two parties merged to form Zanu-PF.

The Selous Scouts, was an unique unit in Rhodesian Army to counter-insurgency.  

Despite the 1987 Unity Accord, the wounds are still painful and many party officials, especially whites in the west not to mention voters, in Matabeleland would be reluctant to support a Mnangagwa presidency. However, the supporting base of him from ZANU-PF party and countries that formerly associated with communism stance like China,Russia and others will support his presidency, if come on power in Zimbabwe.   

Mr Mnangagwa's official profile says he was the victim of whites' regime violence after being arrested by the white-minority government in the former Rhodesia in 1965, when the "crocodile gang" he led helped blow up a train near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo).

"He was tortured, severely resulting in him losing his sense of hearing in one ear," the profile says. "Part of the torture techniques involved being hanged with his feet on the ceiling and the head down. The severity of the torture made him unconscious for days." As he was under 21 at the time, he was not executed but instead sentenced to 10 years in prison.

"He has scars of that period. He was young and brave," a close friend of Mr Mnangagwa once said, asking not to be named. "Perhaps that explains why he is indifferent. Horrible things happened to him when he was young." His previous demotion came in 2005, when he lost his post as Zanu-PF secretary for administration, which had enabled him to place his supporters in key party positions.

But an insider in the party's security department confirmed that Mr Mnangagwa was the political link between the army, intelligence and Zanu-PF. "He connect party deals, organised the campaign that links both security and party. He has Mugabe's ear and eyes on everything."