via Nkomo a sell-out: Mnangagwa – NewsDay Zimbabwe September 3, 2015
VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has sensationally claimed the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo lost the 1980 general elections to Zanu PF leader, then Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe because he represented interests of the white minority.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Mnangagwa, in a recent interview with the New African magazine, claimed the former late Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith confided to him and Mugabe that Nkomo and Zanu founder, Ndabaningi Sithole lost the elections because they did not represent the interests of the black majority.
Nkomo and Sithole participated in the elections under PF Zapu and Zanu Ndonga tickets respectively and lost to Mugabe, in elections where they alleged electoral fraud.
Mnangagwa told the New African magazine that Smith, in a meeting held in Mount Pleasant after the elections, said Mugabe won the polls because he was a principled leader compared to the two.
“In 1980, just after the elections in Zimbabwe, but before Mugabe, who was PM-elect was inaugurated, we were at a place in Mount Pleasant in Harare when Mugabe said he wanted to talk to Ian Smith, the outgoing PM and the generals. I was then Mugabe’s personal assistant and head of security . . . Once inside the room, Smith said: “Mr Mugabe, before you speak, I want to say something.” Mugabe said: “Ok, go on.” Then Smith said: “Mr Mugabe do you know why you won this election?” Mugabe said: “Why?’” Mnangagwa told the New African magazine.
He added: “Smith said: ‘Me, as Ian Smith, I represent white interests and I have been championing white interests, but I have been able to call other African leaders to discuss issues with them. People like (the late James) Chikerema, Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Chief Chirau of Zvimba and others.”
“All these lost elections because the African people of this country have realised that these leaders do not only stand for the interests of the black people, they can also be swayed by me to represent white interests. But you have not met me. You have refused to meet me. So the people know that you are the only one who represents their interests. So Mr Mugabe, you should be grateful to me for not having met you.”
Mnangagwa was responding to a question on what he thought had kept Mugabe in power since 1980.
The VP added: “. . . You see, I am telling you this story to say that President Mugabe has survived because he is a principled leader. He makes sure, eh, champions the interests of the people.
“So his people, the majority in this country, stand with him in good and bad times, and he does not desert his people. This is why he has survived. That is the secret.”
Following his claim that Nkomo, one of the founders of the nationalist movement, represented white interests, Mnangagwa is unlikely to win any friends in the south western parts of the country, where his support is shaky due to his alleged role in the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s, which claimed an estimated 20 000 lives.
Mnangagwa’s claims were likely to be met with scepticism, as Nkomo was rewarded with the nickname, Father Zimbabwe for his role in the country’s fight for independence.
In 1978, Nkomo met with Smith after a meeting of Frontline States, where he demanded a government to the liking of the Patriotic Front — Zanu and Zapu — and an end to the internal settlement and that Mugabe would have to be part of any agreement, according to a report from The Blade, an American newspaper.
Since his appointment as Vice-President, Mnangagwa has claimed Zapu leaders wanted him killed, an accusation the revived party’s leader, Dumiso Dabengwa has strenuously denied.
COMMENTS
This is totally unacceptable in the same way Zambians said Kaunda was a Malawian despite ruling for 27 years? This is the problem of living in the past. If RGM is for the people, why are the people poor and suffering more during his rule than before? Talk of shooting one’s foot?
Totally unacceptable and uncalled for for an aspirant?
If this is what he said it is one of the worst things he has done. What he is saying is that ZAPU was a party of sell outs. That would include everyone who was in ZAPU. We stand or fall with our leader. In that case some of the sell outs would be Mdala wethu himself, Josiah Chinamano, Joseph Msika, Willie Musarurwa, John Nyashanu, Lookout Masuku, Thenjiwe Lesabe, Mama Mafuyane, C.G Msipa, Dumiso Dabengwa, Report Mpoko if true he remained loyal to ZAPU till independence and after, Ambrose Mutinhiri, Angeline Masuku, Cain Mathema, Cain Nkala, Kembo Mohadi, John Nkomo,Jason Moyo, Nikita Mangena, Ruth Chinamano, Ariston Chambati and all gallant forces that comprised ZAPU and ZIPRA. That would be a dangerous and divisive view from someone supposed to be a national leader. That would explain why there was gukurahundi against ZAPU and the Ndebele people. I just hope it is a fabrication against the vice president as it is not going to be condoned by any history loving individual.
At any event, why do we continue with an onslaught on the dead? Is it because we are so cowardly we do not want to deal with those that can answer for themselves. Rex Nhongo this, Big Josh that, Josiah Tongogara that. Why? We have decided to forget our culture of never attacking our departed loved ones. If they were sell outs they would have found no room at the heroes shrine.My heart bleeds to see these people tearing this nation apart like this. ZAPU revivalists were right after all.
Mugabe stole the 1980 election by planting cells in every constituency to manipulate the vote. He admitted it to the English governor’s office at the time. Nkomo and anyone else never stood a chance.
Mnangagwa is lying. This is self evident because Ian Smith and the other idiots of the Rhodesian Front hated Nkomo more than any other black leader as it was ZIPRA who shot down the 2 Viscount Aircraft, and whose members were more effective in the war. They had also pinned their hopes on Muzurewa managing to get enough seats to deny ZANU an outright victory, this was wishful thinking. If he had said anything at any meeting it would have been to the effect that Mugabe had won because his threat to the rural voters that the war would continue if they didn’t vote ZANU was what caused Muxurewa to fail to obtain enough seats. Mnangagwa is just a liar.
Mnangagwa is totally in the dark. Not aware of the ZANU PF he is dying to lead. The facts are ZANU-PF was formed by the late Roy Bennet’s father in the very early 60s. Bennett senior worked for M6 and Rhodesian Special Branch early {CIO}. He bought 6 Land Rovers from Malawi delivered to ZANLA’s early Senior Command in Mbeya. Opened the Dar-es Salaam ZANU/ZANLA External Wing Barclays account.
This was to kill ZAPU/ZPRA political dominance.
Hence Roy Bennet’s ugly knocking down Mafikizolo Chinamasa in Parliament. Roy Bennet’s family was severely angered by ZANU’s Mafikizolos’ behavior taking a farm from the family that formed ZANU.
Could journalists further investigate this shocking informing. {KNOW THE TRUTH} Who is a sellout ZANU or ZAPU?
Matoko.
Its amazing how everyones perception of history is different. And everyone thinks that their perception is the right one. I grew up in a family with a Sotho mother who was raised in Mat South among a Zapu population but is so staunchly Zanu and will swear black and blue that the elections in 1980 where not rigged because she has made a personal choice after watching her siblings being kidnapped by Zapu during the war to become fighters, schools being closed in Matebeleland by Zapu because their view was that it was wrong for people to be living large going to school whilst they fought, yet Zanu was leaving schools in Mashonaland and Midlands open because they understood that war would end and they needed professionals to fill in the jobs that the whites held and that not everyone could go to war but they could feed, clothe and shelter those that did. My grandmother lived in Midlands and used to carry food to guerillas and she voted not because she was tired of war/threatened but because she had witnessed both Zapu and Zanu fighters and the Zanu ones had shown her respect and not judged the youth that did not go to war. This is another issue that even the MDC gets wrong even now, this mentality that people in the villages need to be coerced to vote for Zanu, but then Zanu is the one that they see during the years that there are no elections, Zanu are the ones that have enough strategy, I know in Gwanda rural area they voted for a Shona man from Midlands in 2013, because he started campaigning in 2009, dug boreholes for them, set up a womens coop for them that helped them feed themselves and their families and the wives eventually convinced their husbands to vote for him. During this time where was the MDC MP, why was he not in the faces of these villagers. So Mnangagwa has told a story of the perception that Ian Smith had on why Bob won the war, its a perception. Should he have said it probably not but he was trying to highlight a point that everyone has decided to by pass that RGM, love him or hate him has always been able to think 5 steps ahead of everyone of his opponents.
All these people that are now lamenting RGM are the same ones in the 80’s and 90s praised him and did nothing.
I was born in the 80s (gen free)and I have often thought my generation is a lot more open minded than my parents or people born during the war for example in preschool my best friend was a white boy (my father nearly died with shock when he found out), and I grew up in Matebeland and I am Shona, this Gukurahundi theme was there when I was young, but it was not as much of a mountain as it is being made out to be now. I could interact with Ndebeles freely when I was young without having to hide my Shona heritage, I think the politicians of this country should be really careful, its one thing to advocate for justice, its quite another to incite hatred in the younger generation as they are doing. Now everything is a generalization of Shona and Ndebele every wrong that a shona does in the country has a person linking it to Gukurahundi even when it is not linked to it. Worse for the younger generations it is being made to sound like an ethnic cleaning, yet the actual history is that it was started by Ndebeles and the initial atrocities were being committed by Zapu probably Ndebele people. Yet a child today is told they killed us, and you don’t explain why and who started it. So politics is a dirty game, but lets not ruin the lives of our children by separating them on issues that are best left in history.
@lucy,shame on you for commenting on a subject you don’t even have enough facts about. Can you explain to readers of this paper how Ndebele people started this Gukurahundi genocide. I think you need to be lectured on this one and only you will know exactly what happened.
@Mangena. You cannot just say Lucy is wrong without explaining and giving your version. Please tell us your version of how Gukurahundi started. If you say Lucy is wrong then you are saying that the soldiers just woke up one morning and started killing the Ndebeles for no apparent reason. I think we all now know what happened and that you cannot blame the army without dealing with the Zipra leaders who created the dissident units which wreaked havoc in Matebeleland. You can read a piece that was written by Professor Welshman Ncube which confirms the terrorist activities perpetrated by the Dissidents in Matebeleland. I personally know a few Shona people who lived in Bulawayo at the time who witnessed the killing of Shonas by the Ndebeles. So any statement that says the Ndebeles played no part in this fiasco should be dismissed. However, the truth is that the response by the army was too heavy handed and frankly quite reckless by all accounts. I would support calls to set up a commission to investigate how it started and prosecute those who are found guilty. We should work as a nation to ensure that this never happens again and that it does not breed tribal division in the country.
@Mangena are you saying that the soldiers just woke up and decided to slaughter +20000 Ndebeles for no good reason. Or that the dissidents did not kill Shonas in Bulawayo and in Midlands? I am not saying that the 5th Brigade did the right thing, Im sayng as Petros has said that it is not fair and right and does not help out future generations to focus on one side of the story because you are creating divisions in our society that threaten stability and peace. Its small things like these that led to the genocide of the Tutsis because you create an environment where children take up hate of another tribe and suddenly its easier to see them as not human at all. This Gukurahundi issue is something the Fathers of this Nation moved on from when they went into Unity Government, why is it more important now that they are dead instead of when they were alive. I’m also saying that this should remain a issue based on political affiliation instead of tribal lines. Gukurahundi was ZAPU disidents and the Govt (ZANU), leave it at that do not incite hate in children and make it a Shona and a Ndebele issue.
Bob was the one who bedded with the whites at independence. Why was he knighted soon after independence. He must have done really “wonderful” for England in order to be knighted.
Mugabe was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1994.
This was sent to me by a friend who will remain nameless but who has liaised the past 30 years with every major Western intelligence agency. CIA, Mossad, Mi6, the Jordan, Iraq, you name it.
His speciality is Africa, specifically East and our old loc and his comments are as follows:
Roy’s dad was one of the Bennett Brothers who farmed at Karoi. Roy’s uncle George Bennett owned Matlock Service Station in Waterfalls and George’s son, John (Roy’s nephew)was in the BSAP. It would be a surprise if the old Bennett Bros even knew such a thing as MI6 existed: they were farmers pure and simple.
ZANU-PF was not formed in the 60s. It was formed in January 1980 when it became clear Sithole had prior rights to the ZANU name so Mugabe added the (PF) for his own brand to contest the Soames election.
ZANU original was a split from ZAPU.
MI6 was not involved with setting up nationalist groups in the 60s . In those days MI5 ran Britain’s covert ops in Commonwealth countries and this only changed around 1972. But ZANU’s funding was originally from Moscow, then when Brezhnev took a shine to Nkomo, he switched to ZAPU and ZANU was picked up by China. Sweden gave money to both camps.
Nlomo won his seats in all elections (until the Unity accord of 1987) based on tribe. ZAPU never won an electorate in Mashonaland nor ZANU in Matabeleland.
Sithole was not Shona but Ndhau from Chipinga and won the seat there, again with a tribal vote.
The stuff here blog about MI6 and Roy B’s father is like believing Gokwe might host the next Olympics.