via Zapu wanted to kill me says Mnangagwa – The Zimbabwean 21 January 2015
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made sensational claims that a cabal of Zapu officials led by ex-intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa decided to kill him in Zambia in 1962 after falsely accusing him of insulting the late Joshua Nkomo.
He told hundreds of Zanu (PF) supporters in Mvuma over the weekend, where he bade them farewell as legislator for Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency, he was saved from the planned murder by the late nationalist Leopold Takawira after discovering they both hailed from Zvishavane.
The VP said the incident happened at Freedom House in Lusaka when Dabengwa falsely accused him of having insulted the ZAPU leader, Nkomo, who had visited the party regional office on his way to Britain and United States of America after it had been banned in Rhodesia. At the time he was secretary for youth. While relating the incident in Ndebele, mimicking the Zapu officials, Mnangagwa said:
“UDumiso wasukuma wabe esithi, Mdhala (Nkomo) kulomfana konapha ukhade elithethisa. Kwatwa ungaphi? Kwatwa ukhonapha. Kwatwa sukuma. Ngasikhuma. UNkomo wabe esithi khonoku ukunje… wabe ehleka wahamba. (Dumiso rose up in a meeting and said to Nkomo, old man, there is a boy who was insulting you.
They told me to stand up – Nkomo laughed and said how can a small boy like this do that, before walking away).” When Nkomo left the Zapu officials, who included a Mlala and Nkiwane, held a Kangaroo court and decided that Mnangagwa should be killed for the “offence.”
“The officials who had passed the verdict, with Dumiso having been their judge, then said so how do we kill him. One of them answered and said we cannot discuss that in the presence of the boy.
So I was put in a separate room. However, the guy who was made to guard the room asked me where I came from in Zimbabwe and I told him that I was from Shabani, now Zvishavane.
He then said his mother also came from the area and felt sorry for me. He then went straight to the hotel of Takawira to tell him of my predicament.
“In order to fool the Zapu officials, Takawira, who held a high position in Zapu, sent back the boy to where I was with the message that I was supposed to be one of six people to be sent to Ghana for some mission. That is how I survived,” said Mnangagwa.
He also told the gathering that when the Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency was put together in 2008, Zanu (PF) assigned him to “represent the people because of how he had been saved from death by people from the area.”
Mnangagwa’s claims of attempts on his life by Ndebele-speaking people come at a time when there is still an outcry over his role in the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres, which claimed lives of more than 20 000 people in the predominantly Ndebele speaking areas of Midlands and Matabeleland. Dabengwa, currently president of the revived Zapu, dismissed the claims. “I do not remember that. It is the first time that I am hearing about it. However, we have someone like Mlalazi who was mentioned as having played a role as a Zapu member in that incident,” he said.
COMMENTS
These Zanu puff rogues will never cease to amaze. They have a bag of all sorts of mischief and lies. Rather than Emmerson telling people of what and how the economy will be revived, he is on about some bulls**t allegation of 1962 that can not be corroborated.
Supposing that is true, is that reason he arrested and jailed Lookout and Dumiso even when there was no substance to charges against them? Is it his admission of killing 20 000 defenceless people? What is the motive of such statements? Just after being sworn in as VP he preached unity and I cautioned on his sentiments, and exactly a month later he is sowing seeds of division and tribal hatred. Enda unofa Mnangagwa you have nothing to offer to the people of Zimbabwe.
This fool should not be using isiNdebele. You see, he is speaking ngesiNdebele to make it look bad. The spellings are all wrong for a start. Then the facts are all imagined. Okay, so, lets say, you planned to kill Nkomo at some abscure wherever!!! A meeting is called where it was said some boy insulted you to which Joshua said where is he? In siNdebele it appears Mnangagwa stood up voluntarilly ‘ukhonapha’ means he is among us – as opposed to ‘nangulu la’ which means ‘uyu’. At which point he could even have denied the alegations.
Lets just say all this is true, but why now? 40 years of silence? Only now? Last month we hear Mujuru wanted to kill Bob, and now heir apparent was almost killed JN and his Zapu? You wait 40 years to say I was almost killed?
It is really difficult to believe anything said by zanu pf people as they have graduated to being ‘shameless pathological’ liars. Not long ago they illegally expelled ‘bona fide’ members of their party for allegedly planning to kill a geriatric with no evidence at all. They have always been lying about election results and you name with no shame. It apperas they cannot tell the difference between ‘fiction and fact’ and still expect people to believe their stories, why the think so amazes me. Only fools believe this story. Cde Dabengwa do not be dissuaded from your conviction to continue fighting for what you believe to be right without fear by listening from such hogwash coming from the mouth of someone who has no conscience like munangagwa whose main pre-occupation is planning to eliminate innocen people.
And this from someone with presidential ambitions? And why remember it now 53 years later?
Obviously ZAPU requires further training.
This man called Mnangagwa is completely lost saul, he doesn’t understand a thing. Does he mean that he now wants to fix Ndebeles by reminding them the misdeeds of their leaders if true at all. Does he even know that he is supposed to be leader of all Zimbabweans. I think Mphoko should should take over both posts and this lunatic send packing.