TO go or not to go? That is the question. And damned if he
does; damned if he does not.
This is the dilemma President Emmerson Mnangagwa faces
tomorrow over whether or not to attend the burial of liberation war hero Dumiso
Dabengwa at his Ntabazinduna rural home outside Bulawayo.
Dabengwa died in Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday last week,
while coming from India where he had gone for treatment.
Government sources and insiders within the Dabengwa family
said there had been serious agonising on both sides over Mnangagwa’s presence.
On his part, sources say, he wants to attend, but he fears a backlash. On the
part of the family, insiders said, he is not wanted there.
The presence of MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, the
president’s bitter rival, Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni and Dabengwa’s allies
from the region, especially South Africa, also further complicates Mnangagwa’s
position, insiders said.
Dabengwa is expected to be airlifted to Ntabazinduna
tomorrow morning where he will be laid to rest later in the day. A funeral
service will be held for him today at White City Stadium in Bulawayo.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend.
Foreign dignitaries, among them members of South Africa’s
governing African National Congress (ANC), as well as its former military wing,
Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), are expected to attend Dabengwa’s burial.
Dabengwa worked closely with MK commanders during the
struggle against apartheid. Zipra and MK had joint operations, including the
Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns in 1967 and the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station
bombing in Cape Town in 1982.
However, Mugabe, after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980,
refused to allow MK to operate from Zimbabwe, while Mnangagwa was sent to cut
deals with apartheid generals who were fighting the ANC and its military wing.
Mugabe only reluctantly offered political and diplomatic support after many
repeated requests.
Zapu secretary Strike Mnkandla, who is leading the
preparations for Dabengwa’s burial, said a number of foreign dignitaries are
expected to attend the burial.
“We have been receiving various notices from people who
want to attend,” Mnkandla said. “We have been advised dignitaries from South
Africa are going to be in attendance. There are some from other countries such
as Botswana, Zambia, and other countries where Dabengwa operated from who have
indicated that they will be coming for his burial.
“At home, we expect representation from From all the
political parties, government included. We have put in place a programme and we
have lined up various speakers who will deliver messages to the nation as well
as the Dabengwa family on Saturday.”
However, government could not confirm Mnangagwa’s
attendance.
While presidential spokesperson George Charamba’s phone
went unanswered, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said she was not the
right person to comment on the matter.
“The person to talk to is George Charamba who is in charge
of presidential communications,” she said.
Mnangagwa was instrumental in the framing and arrest of
senior PF Zapu leaders and Zipra commanders during the early 1980s as his then
boss, former president Robert Mugabe, sought to crush Zapu and its leader
Joshua Nkomo to ensure a one-party state and consolidate power.
“Mnangagwa is in a dilemma over the Dabengwa funeral and
burial,” a senior government official said. “Ordinarily, he would have wanted
to go given Dabengwa’s illustrious history and record — remember last week he
paid a glowing tribute to him — but the atmosphere is hostile. Even senior Zanu
PF leaders who went there led by Vice-President Kembo Mohadi could feel the
tensions. They were given a frozen reception after government tried to hijack
Dabengwa’s body from Kenya to transport it to Bulawayo via Harare for
authorities to pontificate over his body at army barracks. How about Mnangagwa
himself seen as Dabengwa’s main tormentor and the Gukurahundi enforcer?”
Besides helping to arrest and jail Dabengwa, even after
being acquitted by the courts, Mnangagwa is widely accused of spearheading the
Gukurahundi massacres.
A close Dabengwa family member said: “The truth is that
Mnangagwa is not wanted here. The mood is sombre and explosive. If he attends,
he might be confronted with hostility as a result of the frosty relations that
existed between the two of them and the tensions within the family over his
role in persecuting Dabengwa.”
Mnangagwa last year made several attempts to lure Dabengwa
back to Zanu PF and government, but the former Home Affairs minister turned
down the offer, saying he would only be willing to serve in government as a
Zapu leader in line with the 1987 Unity Accord between PF Zapu and Zanu PF.
He had also demanded that government, among other remedial
actions, return Zapu properties seized by government and implement the
devolution of power as enshrined in the constitution.
During his lifetime, Dabengwa and Mnangagwa had a turbulent
relationship stemming from the latter’s role in his incarceration during the
Gukurahundi era.
Mnangagwa was the State Security minister at the time.
The late Zipra intelligence chief was arrested alongside
Zapu leaders, including the late Zipra commander Lookout Masuku, following the
alleged discovery of arms caches on a farm owned by Zapu near Bulawayo in
February 1982.
Masuku died in chains in hospital as a result of the
detention and torture.
Although Dabengwa and Masuku were acquitted of treason in
April 1983, they were immediately re-arrested and detained until the latter’s
death in 1986. Dabengwa was released in 1987.
In an interview in 2017, Dabengwa said late former Defence
minister Enos Nkala, the late Edison Zvobgo and Mnangagwa visited him in
Chikurubi Maximum Prison in 1986 after the death of Masuku offering him freedom
on condition that he joined Zanu PF.
“I said to them that could only happen over my dead body. I
made it clear that I would not betray Zapu. I would not turn my back on the
people that were being killed by them,” Dabengwa told them.
Dabengwa once told the Independent in an exclusive
interview in 1999 at his Mkwati Building offices in Harare that if he had a
chance to be alone with Mugabe or Mnangagwa, he would not hesitate to punch
them in the face.
This week, Zanu PF MPs stoked the tensions over the
Dabengwa issue after they refused to observe a minute of silence in his honour
in the National Assembly following a request by MDC chief whip Prosper
Mutseyami.
Opposition and independent MP Temba Mliswa stood up to
observe the minute of silence, but Zanu PF legislators remained seated. Mliswa
accused Zanu PF MPs of fuelling toxic politics and tribalism.
Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Phillip Valerio
Sibanda yesterday described the late Dabengwa as a humble man who did not abuse
his rank in the army to get favours.
Sibanda spoke at Dabengwa’s funeral wake in Bulawayo where
he and other service chiefs visited the family to pay their last respects.
Accompanying Sibanda was Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional
Services commander Paradzai Zimondi as well as Air Vice-Marshal Biltim Chingono
and other service chiefs.
“I would like to say that all of us here worked with DD
(Dabengwa) in one way or another, either during the war or after the war of
liberation. We thought that as leaders of security services we would come and
pay our respects to the family,” Sibanda said. “I met DD in around 1976. If
there is one thing that struck me then and up to the time of his passing on, it
is his humility. He was quite senior in the party (Zapu), but he was never
imposing on anyone.”
Sibanda said despite Dabengwa being soft spoken, the former
Home Affairs minister was firm in his execution of duties.
“DD has gone. But one thing that he did was that even when
he was a minister (of Home Affairs), he never pulled rank. That is a legacy
that he has left.
Secondly, he has left us and taught us to dedicate
ourselves to our country. That is a gift that God had given him and we are
grateful for his contribution and sacrifice to the country.” Zimbabwe
Independent
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