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Emmerson Mnangagwa

Meet Mugabe’s anointed successor:

Secret Service Boss, Blood Diamond Racketeer, Money Launderer, Crime Ring partner, Spy, Torturer, Hit Man and Planner of Genocide.

What he calls himself: ‘Son of God’ (God, for him, being Robert Mugabe)

What Zimbabweans call him: ‘The Butcher of Matabeleland’

Previous jobs: ZanuPF Secretary for Finance. Minister of Justice and State Security and head of Zimbabwe's secret police, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). Speaker of Parliament. Recently Minister of Rural Housing in the currently dissolved Government of Zimbabwe.

Present job: joint commander of the JOC (Joint Operations Committee) which has currently placed Zimbabwe under de facto martial law. He has been appointed as Mugabe's chief election agent for the 2008 presidential run-off election, and is reportededly heading Mugabe's campaign behind the scenes. In addition he is now back on the National Security Council (NSC) which is chaired by Mugabe and effectively runs the country in the absence of Parliament and Senate.

Rejected by the people of Zimbabwe in both the 2000 and 2005 Parliamentary elections, Mnangagwa was each time given a non-constituent seat by Mugabe. In the 2008 election he had to be given a specially created new rural constituency, Chirumanzi–Zibagwe, which he ‘won’ by a specially organised overwhelming majority.

Emmerson Mnangagwa has been a fervent disciple of Mugabe, carrying out or organising any dirty work that was needed over the last 30 years or more. He is at present Robert Mugabe's first choice for presidential succession, and thus is very likely to take over from Mugabe if a ‘Government of National Unity’ is formed.

Why should Mugabe choose this ‘disciple’ over others?

Moletsi Mbeki: 'There have been an enormous amount of human rights abuses against the Ndebele to start with - now against the MDC - and Mnangagwa has been central as head of the Central Intelligence Organisation to those human rights abuses. So, from the point of view of Mugabe's own safety, he has to have somebody [to] replace him who is equally liable for those human rights abuses.'

In 2003, M-Net TV’s Carte Blanche interviewed some ZanuPF insiders:

Ex CIO Operative: 'He (Mugabe) can be sure to go and sleep after he has retired with Mnangagwa as president, because he won't spill the beans and he won't arrest him and try him for past atrocities and any wrong doing whatsoever.'

High ranking Zimbabwean military officer: 'Well I'll give you an example, of a young man who was head of the student union of the University of Zimbabwe and Mugabe indicated at one time that the boy was worrying him. And Mnangagwa ordered that this guy be killed.'

Senior Operative (CIO): 'Emmerson Mnangagwa is cruel. He hardly forgives and he shares that quality with Mugabe. They don't forget, they don't forgive and in Emmerson's case he has personally presided over the arrest, torture and general victimisation of opponents. He doesn't hesitate to give orders for someone to be exterminated.'

Furthermore, Mnangagwa holds the keys to ZANU-PF coffers and knows who has been enriched, when and how.

According to a U.N Security Council report, (Nov 2001), Emmerson Mnangagwa is the key strategist for the Zimbabwean branch of an elite criminal network operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition,Mnangagwa was "the architect of the commercial activities of Zanu-PF", the UN report said.

Political analyst John Makumbe: 'It is said that he alone and Mugabe are the only two who know everything about the party companies operating in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and in the DRC.'

Mnangagwa is probably one of the richest of the ZanuPf elite to day. In addition to his own ventures, his influence helped him become the recipient of bribes from aspiring businessmen and government tenderers. In early 1990 the now-banned Daily News ran a story about how Mnangagwa was given US$400 000 as a "loan" by Roger Boka, one of Harare’s nouveau riche party sympathisers.

Mnangagwa received military training in Egypt and then China where at age 17 he was indoctrinated by the feared School of Ideology, run by the Chinese Communist Party. His techniques of torture, interrogation and terror at the grassroots level were learned from the Maoist military.

With Mnangagwas’s blessing, any crime can be committed in Zimbabwe with complete impunity.

As Security Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa presided over Mugabe’s notorious 5th Brigade - a North-Korean-trained military unit created to root out opposition. Its commander Colonel Perence Shiri took orders from Mnangagwa. who remained Security Minister until 2000 and was involved quite significantly in the 5th Brigade massacres in Matabeleland.'

In the early 1980s between 20- 30 000 people were murdered in ‘Operation Gukurahundi’ - many buried in mass graves - in Matabeleland. Tens of thousands more were tortured. These people belonged to ZAPU, the Joshua Nkomo-led official political opposition at the time.

Emmerson Mnangagwa was born in the central region of Zvishavane and belongs to the Karanga sub-group of Zimbabwe's majority Shona people. The Karangas are the largest Shona group and some feel it is their turn for power, following 27 years of domination by Mr Mugabe's Zezuru sub- group.

He has wanted the top job for many years. At age 62 he is 18 years Mugabe’s junior, and after waiting for more than 30 years, he is getting impatient. In 2008, with the end of Mugabe’s rule in sight, he is all set to grab the tarnished crown, avoid the noose and keep his fabulous wealth. He has tried to take power before.

In 2004, Mnangagwa was investigated by the ZanuPF Politburo after claims that he attempted to unseat Mugabe. He was also part of the failed 2007 “Tsholotsho Coup conspiracy” which intended to remove Mugabe from power.

But Mnangagwa’s tentacles were too long; he survived the enquiries, partly because he has a fearsome reputation as a cold-blooded killer and assassin of political opponents, but also because he remains privy to all the party's financial secrets. "For a long time, members of the party raised the question why there was no accountability relating to the affair of Zanu PF's businesses. The whole thing was shrouded in mystery and no audits were done, no books or financial statements were ever produced.”

This remains the case to this day, and the party’s finances have improved in spectacular fashion after the Mugabe regime’s support of the the Kabila family in the DRC, where the services (and lives) of the Zimbabwe armed forces were swapped for diamond and forestry concessions worth billions of US dollars.

The UN Security Council Investigation

Investigations by both the United Nations (2002) and International NGO Global Witness have fingered Mnangagwa as the key player and beneficiary in a host of illicit deals on the shady side of international finance. With an entire army corps in the DRC to take care of logistics, transport and management, and with the help of ‘Zimbabwe’s most important foreign business partner’, the Omani businessman Thamer Said Ahmed Al Shanfari, Mnangagwa finessed the ownership of Sengamines into a business front.

Oryx Natural Resources, under a layer of shareholdings by top officials of the Zimbabwean Government and military commanders, was a blind for illegal foreign currency and blood diamond laundering through Harare airport. Known partners included an Iraqi arms dealer, Lebanese and Belgian diamond merchants, the PLO, and a Sudanese banker.

In addition to diamonds, the complex web of ZDN front companies obtained concessions for logging on 33 million hectares of Congolese trees in an area estimated to be one-and-a-half times the size of the United Kingdom. Despite protests from environmentalists that it was likely to destroy one of the largest rain forests in Africa, operations have gone ahead anyway, leading analysts to conclude that finance was raised from "unscrupulous sources" such as shady Malaysian banks, the Italian Mafia and other criminal gangs whose companies dominate large-scale logging in Africa and Asia. Profits were estimated at some US$300 million in the first few years.

Patrick Alley, a Global Witness official, said "What it means is that the ZDF by engaging in logging has no intention of leaving the DRC."

The Blood Diamond Racket

The racket for legalizing blood diamonds was straightforward. The Zimbabwean joint venture would procure uncut gems in Kinshasa, transport them to Harare in military aircraft, then smuggle them to South Africa to have them cut. The diamonds were then sent back into Harare with the assistance of the airforce and of course carte blanche in the airport itself. From there the diamonds, certified as if they hade been extracted legally from a mine owned by Oryx, were jetted to Antwerp where they were sold legally – neatly closing the circle and producing huge profits.

Money found its way into London bank accounts, from where cash would be transferred by regular courier to Harare. Mngangagwa, Mugabe and First Lady Grace Mugabe would be the main beneficiaries, with cash in cardboard boxes being delivered on a regular basis. General Vitalis Zvinavashe and Air Force Commander Perence Shiri also received their shares for their part in the operation.**

Mr. ‘Operation’

Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s early guerrilla training gave them a fondness for prefixing various projects ‘Operation’ this or that. ‘Operation Sovereign Legitimacy’ was Osleg, the company looting the blood diamonds in the DRC. ‘Operation Tsuro’ was/is the CIO’s project to murder, torture and intimidate political opponents; ‘Operation Gukurahundi’, was the name for the massacre of the Ndebele people in the early 80’s; ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ destroyed the homes and livelihoods of over a million urban poor in Zimbabwe – the list goes on.

Emmerson Mnangagwa and his close associates in the ZDF have a lot to lose if his junta is voted out of power. He has also had decades of pracitise, each ZanuPF pre-election campaign has consisted of beatings, torture and murder of the defenceless citizens of Zimbabwe.

This is why, in the most crucial election they have ever faced, the criminals in charge of Zimbabwe are mounting the most vicious campaign of atrocities yet against innocent men, women and children. Starvation, media clampdowns, complete repression - Mugabe has authorised the use of “any means necessary’ to win this desperately contested election.

It’s the end game, and the likes of Mugabe’s favourite disciple, Emmerson Mnangagwa, have everything to lose.

If the world promotes this man to take over from Mugabe and rule in a ’Government of National Unity’, it would represent the most wicked betrayal of the will of the African people since the darkest days of apartheid.

Ends

Short biography

Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (born 15 September 1946) and educated mostly in Zambia and in jail. Jointed the liberation movement at the age of 17. He belongs to the Karanga sub-group of the Shona. He has been the Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities since April 2005. He was previously Minister of State Security from 1982 to 1988, then Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs until 2000; he was Speaker of Parliament from July 2000 to 2005. He is considered one of the most powerful figures in the ruling ZANU-PF party and a leading candidate to succeed President Robert Mugabe. He was ZANU-PF's Secretary of Administration from July 2000 to December 2004 and has been its Secretary for Legal Affairs since December 2004.

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Sources:

* UN Security CouncilInvestigation:

Author: United Nations (Expert panel appointed by the Secretary-General)

Date: 16 October 2002

Title: Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Internal reference: Parts of [S/2002/1146]

Concerning: The UN expert panel reports to the UN Security Council on the illegal exploitation of natural resources of Congo Kinshasa (DRC). The panel concludes on widespread illegal operations spearheaded by the Ugandan and Rwandan occupyers and the Kinshasa government together with its Zimbabwean ally. The panel recommended sanctions against several companies and persons involved in the illegal businesses. 

*Wikipedia

* M-Net TV – Carte Blanche

* International Crisis Group – Africa Briefing No. 38 – 6 June 2006

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