Yesterday we saw former Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa representing Mugabe’s family. You will be surprised how many relatives of Robert Mugabe were within the structures of government. Bona Mugabe his eldest daughter was a Commissioner in the Censorship Board and Simba Chikore his son in-law was the Chief Operating Officer at Air Zimbabwe the national airline.
Grace Mugabe had been elevated to be the leader of Zanu-PF women’s league before the November 2017 coup and practically she was running the country and there was a push to make her a Vice President. In the cabinet I know of Mugabe’s three close relatives such as Walter Chidhakwa, Mike Bimha then a powerful minister of industry he will be remembered for the infamous import controls and Patrick Zhuwawo his nephew who was the minister of Youth and Indigenous.
The deputy commissioner of police Innocent Matibiri is a relative of Mugabe and so is the current Minister of Agriculture Perence Shiri. Coincidentally Perence Shiri was the commander of the North Korean trained 5th brigade that is accused of committing the Gukurahundi massacres. Phillip Chiyangwa is a relative. Leo Mugabe who spent many years as the president of Zimbabwe Football Association is Mugabe’s nephew.
The Gukurahundi massacre of the 1980s which saw the murder of 20 000 Zimbabweans in Midlands and Matebeleland provinces mainly affected people who were perceived to be supporters of Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. A number of the victims where of Ndebele origin.
In early 2000 Robert Mugabe lost the Constitutional Referendum. Mugabe decided to punish white farmers and farm workers who were mainly originally from Malawi and Mozambique. In Zimbabwe there is a huge population of immigrants from Malawi throughout Zimbabwe. In 1983 at Amaveni primary school my best friend Abudu Phiri whose parents came from Malawi and were working at a nearby gold mine. The other pupils I still remember was Bhukudhadi and Alaje. In high school at Nyameni secondary school in Marondera a number of my classmates were children of Malawian immigrants. My best friend in high school James Chapuma his father also came from Malawi. Mugabe then called these immigrants people without totems.
The state unleashed violence on the farms and the police looked the other way. In early 2000 I had joined an American Insurance Company, AIG Zimbabwe in Harare. I was working in the farming claims department. I had front row seat in the farming violence. I saw names of relatives in the assessment reports who were perpetrators of violence against white farmers and black farm workers.
Robert Mugabe’s government then changed the constitution to take away citizenship of hundreds of thousands of whites and millions of blacks especially those who were born outside the country or those whose parents had been foreigners. Still Mugabe had to rig the 2002 election. You can google the report compiled by then South African high court judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke regarding the 2002 Zimbabwe presidential election.
Three successive South African presidents from Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and finally Jacob Zuma refused to release the Khampepe report until finally the court ordered the release of the report. Thabo Mbeki aided the thefts of Zimbabwean elections. The damage is already done because millions of Zimbabweans are now in South Africa and now competing with struggling Black South Africans for scarce jobs and other resources.
Some notable people who lost their citizenship was Sir Garfield Todd a former Prime Minister of The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (present day Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia). Sir Todd is credited with championing the education of Africans before Independence. Even after taking away citizenship and the right to vote from many Zimbabweans, Zanu-PF still had to rig the 2002 Presidential election especially in Harare Province.
2005 there was the Operation Murambatsvina to punish many urban dwellers to force many of them to go to rural areas where they could easily be controlled to vote for Zanu-PF. My young brother was affected and I had to transport my uncle’s family back to our village in Murewa after the cottage he was renting in Highfields was demolished. It was a heartless move from the inhuman government of Robert Mugabe, even the UN had to intervene.
On Mugabe chemai mega (cry alone).
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