Emmerson Mnangagwa appears well-placed to return to a leading
role in Zimbabwe following the army's takeover in response to President
Robert Mugabe's sacking of the former vice president.
Nicknamed
"Ngwena" (The Crocodile) because of his fearsome power and
ruthlessness, the 75-year-old has a reputation for taking no prisoners.
He appeared to have been outfoxed by Grace Mugabe,
who is 41 years younger than her husband, after she apparently
convinced the veteran head of state to ditch his long-serving minister.
But
following the army's dramatic seizure of power and reports that
Mnanagagwa has left South Africa where he has been since his dismissal,
Mnangagwa could be preparing to return to Zimbabwe and assume a
leadership role.
"I think the army are in negotiations
with Mugabe and Mnangagwa," Derek Matyszak, an analyst at the
Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, told AFP.
"The
easiest way to present a veneer of legality is that Mugabe reappoints
Mnangagwa as vice president, briefly — Mugabe then retires."
Under Zimbabwe's constitution, the first vice president would automatically become acting president for 90 days.
Matyszak
suggested that in that time, Zanu-PF would agree on a new party leader
who would also become president "which would undoubtedly be Mnangagwa".
Presidential purges
In
the early days after independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe made
Mnangagwa, who was then a young trainee lawyer, minister for national
security.
Since then Mnangagwa occupied a host of
cabinet positions — but relations between him and his political mentor
have not always been cosy, and the younger man is no stranger to
presidential purges.
Following his removal last week, Mnangagwa issued a searing five-page condemnation of Grace's ambition and Mugabe's leadership style.
In
2004 he lost his post as the secretary for administration in the ruling
Zanu-PF party after being accused of openly angling for the post of
vice president.
Four years in the political wilderness
followed, during which his then rival Joice Mujuru became vice president
and the favourite to succeed Mugabe.
She was
ultimately deposed following a campaign orchestrated by Grace Mugabe who
convinced the president she was not to be trusted.
Political comeback
The 2008 elections, when he was made Mugabe's chief election agent, changed Mnangagwa's fortunes.
Mugabe
lost the first round, but his supporters were not going to make the
same mistake in the second round, which was marred by violence,
intimidation and allegations of vote rigging.
In the
same year Mnangagwa took over as head of the Joint Operations Command, a
committee of security chiefs which has been accused by rights groups of
organising violent campaigns to crush dissent.
He was
targeted by EU and US sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his close allies
over the elections and violence, but promptly given control of the
powerful defence ministry.
It was a return to the home that made him a force in Zimbabwean politics in the first place.
Anti-colonial fighter
Born
in the southwestern Zvishavana district on September 15, 1942, he
completed his early education in Zimbabwe before his family relocated to
neighbouring Zambia.
His grandfather was a traditional
leader and his father a political agitator for the repeal of colonial
laws that disadvantaged blacks.
In 1966, Mnangagwa
joined the struggle for independence from Britain, becoming one of the
young combatants who helped direct the war after undergoing training in
China and Egypt.
He was arrested and sentenced to death but his sentence was later commuted to 10 years in prison because of his young age.
'Destroy and kill'
After
independence in 1980, he directed a crackdown on opposition supporters
that claimed thousands of lives in the Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces.
He once remarked that he had been taught to "destroy and kill" — although he later claimed to be a born-again Christian.
Takavafira Zhou, a political analyst at Masvingo State University, previously described Mnangagwa as "a hardliner to the core".
Mnangagwa reputedly has deep pockets should he decide to launch a political comeback.
A
US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks in 2008 claimed Mnangagwa
had amassed "extraordinary wealth" during Zimbabwe's 1998 intervention
in gold- and diamond-rich Democratic Republic of Congo.
No comments :
Post a Comment