Inquest Into the 'Kingmaker's General's Death: A Test for ZANU-PF?
The inquest into the death of Zimbabwe's former military chief, General Solomon Mujuru, that started last week, could have an important impact on intra-ZANU politics and the security sector. Already, the witnesses' testimonies have been riddled with anomalies, contradictions and inconsistencies.
On Monday, 16 January 2012, the much-anticipated inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of General Solomon Mujuru, in an inferno at his Beatrice farm, 60 km south of Harare, in August last year opened at the Harare Magistrates Courts. Over 40 witnesses will be summoned to give their evidence at the inquest. This follows the much-maligned Zimbabwe Republic Police’s (ZRP) significant decision to refer the case to the High Court after completing its investigation amidst unprecedented public interest in the former military chief’s death.
Indeed, the circumstances of his death offered plentiful fodder for conspiracy theorists to chew on. The idea that such an iconic liberation war hero who was perceived as Zimbabwe’s ‘kingmaker’ and leader of a Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) faction in the race to succeed President Robert Mugabe as president of both the party and possibly the country, could be killed so suddenly was a shock. This was especially true of Retired General Mujuru; gallant fighters die of combat intrigue or under other glorious circumstances; they do not get killed by burning beyond recognition alone in an accidental house farm fire. Even President Mugabe, during Mujuru’s burial ceremony at the national heroes shrine on 20 August 2011, said: ‘It is hard to imagine that such a glorious soldier died in such an inglorious way, so uneventfully. But this is how God willed it and we cannot do anything about it, except to grieve, to ask so many questions and finally accept his demise even though it will always hurt’. General Mujuru was second-in-command of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), ZANU-PF’s guerrilla wing, during the 1970s war of independence and served as the country’s first black head of the army in 1980.
On the opening day of the inquest the State presented forensic evidence that no trace of explosives or inflammable liquids had been found at the scene of General Mujuru’s death. While this significantly allayed allegations that fuel, chemicals or explosive devices may have been used to ignite the fire that charred the General’s body, it did not completely rule out foul play. Testimonies at the inquest have so far revealed security lapses. Thakor Kewada, the lawyer representing General Mujuru’s family, has charged that the three ZRP details guarding the Mujuru residence were negligent as they did not patrol the premises at regular intervals resulting in their failure to discover the blaze before it intensified. One of them even admitted sleeping on the job. Having belatedly discovered the fire, the ZRP officers failed to speedily call the fire department since their police radio was broken and they did not have credit in their mobile phones - an occurrence symptomatic of the country’s economic crisis.
Particularly in the light of well-documented concerns about the professionalism of the ZRP as well as over the independence of the judiciary, the perception that the inquest is free from taint and succeeds is critical to public confidence in Zimbabwe’s criminal justice system. However, history may not be on the side of such a positive outcome. Previous such inquests into the untimely death of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation minister Border Gezi and that of businessman Peter Pamire were inconclusive.
Already, the witnesses’ testimonies in this case have been riddled with anomalies, contradictions and inconsistencies and may thus be discredited by the coroner. These irregularities have centred around whether the General was drunk or lucid, alone or with a passenger in his car when arriving at home earlier that evening, or whether gunshots were fired in the house or not. There is a danger that if such a trend continues throughout the inquest the verdict could be inconclusive just like with the other precedents. Against such a possible backdrop it may be difficult to put to bed the variety of conspiracy theories spawned by the General’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. It will also leave the conspiracy of ZANU-PF having been responsible for the death of one of its own hanging.
The late General was seen as a ‘power broker’ in ZANU-PF where intra-party politics have been for some time reported as being constituted around two main factions with an eye for both the party’s and country’s presidency. His power and influence lay in his ability to marshal his strong politico-military-business connections. General Mujuru, together with his wife, Vice President Joice Mujuru, were viewed as leaders of a moderate faction of ZANU-PF that favoured amenable relations with the MDC. The retired army general stood as an instrumental force in promoting the political fortunes of his wife. This included her ascendancy to the Vice-Presidency of ZANU-PF and government in 2004 against the powerful Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, following the death of former Deputy President Simon Muzenda in 2003.
The Vice-President has her own liberation struggle credentials having been the only female member of ZANU-PF’s Dare Rechimurenga (War Council) and commander of female combatants during the war. Vice-President Mujuru has also been a ZANU-PF cabinet member since independence. She is now expected to fight the succession battles in ZANU-PF against a rival faction led by Mnangagwa without the support of her husband. In fact, one of the conspiracy theories flying around claims that the fire accident was actually an assassination by hardliners in ZANU-PF who viewed General Mujuru as a moderate and could have played a central role in negotiating with the country’s service chiefs to accept a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) victory in future polls.
An interesting dynamic is that the death of General Mujuru has reportedly created an opening for a former military colleague to throw his hat into the ZANU-PF succession ring. General Constantine Chiwenga, the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), is now believed to head a third military-based function. The security sector is seen as the real ‘kingmaker’. The sector has increasingly been involved in Zimbabwe’s politics since the country’s closely contested parliamentary elections of June 2000. In the run-up to the June 2002 presidential elections all five service chiefs affirmed their allegiance to President Mugabe publicly declaring that they would not salute or recognise any leader without ‘liberation war credentials’ in an apparent swipe at the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
A Joint Operation Command (JOC) - comprising the service chiefs as well as the defence and state security ministers - has continued to exist and reportedly even directs state affairs as effectively placing Zimbabwe under subtle military rule. It remains to be seen where the allegiance of the real ‘kingmaker’ will lie in ZANU-PF’s succession race.
Gwinyayi A Dzinesa, Senior Researcher, Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Division, Pretoria Office
