The ManicaPost
Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is the new ruling party Zanu PF’s President and First Secretary.
A few days after his dismissal as Vice President and party’s second secretary, Cde Mnangagwa was reinstated by the Central Committee on November 19, 2017 as party leader and State-President-in-waiting.
Background
Cde Mnangagwa was born in Zvishavane, Midlands. He is married to Cde Auxilia Mnangagwa, who is currently MP for Chirumhanzu-Zibagwe, also in Midlands. Together they have three children namely Emmerson Junior, Collin and Sean.
He holds a Bachelor of Law from the University of Zambia (1974). He also studied Law at the University of London soon after independence. He also attended the Beijing school of ideology run by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC).
Political career
Cde Mnangagwa joined politics at a very tender age after being recruited into the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) in 1962. He then went to China and later Egypt where he received his military training in 1963.
During his early days as a political activist he was nick-named “Ngwena” due to his crocodile style of using stealth and ruthlessness in sabotage activities against the colonial government.
He was part of the Crocodile Gang, an elite group of guerrilla fighters during Zimbabwe’s war of independence from white race minority rule which carried out massive sabotage activities against the colonial government.
He was a victim of the regime’s brutality when he was arrested and tortured in 1965 after allegedly helping blow up a train near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo). He was given a death sentence but eventually spent the following ten years in prison.
Positions held and success
At independence, Cde Mnangagwa was appointed Minister of State for Security, a position he held until 1988. He was then appointed Minister of Justice in 1988.
Cde Mnangagwa served as acting Minister of Finance between 1995 and 1996 before he was made Speaker of Parliament from 2000 to 2005, after which he was appointed Minister of Rural Housing from 2005 to 2009.
During the Government of National Unity from 2009 to 2013, he served as Minister of Defence. In December 2014, he was appointed as the Vice President of Zimbabwe and was later dismissed on 6 November 2017.
Attempted Poisoning 2014
There was an attempt to poison him just before he was appointed Vice President. Unknown assailants were believed to have sprinkled the deadly cyanide poison in Cde Mnangagwa’s office at Zanu PF headquarters in Harare.
Cde Mnangagwa was lucky to survive after his secretary; the first one to enter into office was seriously affected by the poison. She was rushed to a local hospital where she was treated.
Former President Robert Mugabe broke the news on December 10, 2014 while announcing the new look on Zanu-PF Politburo, which saw Cde Mnangagwa replacing Cde Joice Mujuru as Cde Mugabe’s deputy.
Poisoning 2017
Cde Mnangagwa was ferried from a Youth Interface Rally in Gwanda in August 2017, after he allegedly fell ill and started vomiting. He was later airlifted to South Africa, where he was reported to have recovered.
At the end of September 2017, Cde Mnangagwa confirmed that he had been poisoned. Speaking at the memorial service of the late Cde Shuvai Mahofa in Masvingo, Cde Mnangagwa said:
“I have come to tell you that what happened to Mai Mahofa in Victoria Falls is what also happened to me. I am making tremendous recovery. Those who wished me dead will be ashamed because when God’s time for one to die is not up, he will not die. I still have many years to live and the truth will come out”.
Reinstatement into the Party
The Zanu-PF Central Committee which is the highest decision-making body outside of Congress dismissed President Robert Mugabe as the party leader and First Secretary of Zanu-PF on November 19, 2017, a development that saw Cde Mnangagwa appointed party leader and State-President-in-waiting.
He is scheduled to be sworn-in as State President on November 24, 2017. – Post Reporter/Online.
