The Chitepo Death Quandary:
By Reason Wafawarova | Everyone is arrested in 1964 on different charges, Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe, Maurice Nyagumbo, Edgar Tekere, Kembo Mohadi, Emmerson Mnangagwa and others.
This was after the Gweru Congress where Sithole was elected First Secretary of ZANU and he personally appointed Robert Mugabe his Secretary General.
From jail Ndabaningi Sithole asked Herbert Chitepo to lead the ZANLA WAR COUNCIL fron Zambia.
Mnangagwa is transfered to Khami Prison in 1965 at the request of Ken Flower, Ian Smith’s Chief Intelligence Officer, where he is not allowed to meet with others thrre like Mohadi because he was classified D Class. It has never been established what Flower’s motive for the transfer was.
This is where rumors of secret meetings with officers from Ken Flower’s Special Branch emanate from.
In 1972, Mnangagwa is transfered back to Salisbury where he hooks up with Mugabe, Tekere and others. Mugabe entices him to enrol for an LlB Degree with the University of London so they could study together. They did their essays together for the law degree, and Mnangagwa was released in November 1974 alongside Mugabe and Tekere but had to wait until late December for his deportation to Zambia since his lawyers were claiming he was Zambian to minimise chances of being re-arrested.
Sithole too was released in 1974 November, but Mugabe claimed he had sold out to Ken Flower and Ian Smith so his three friends in jail had ousted him and chosen Mugabe instead.
Chitepo argued three people were not a Congress so that wasn’t binding.
Mnangagwa frequented Josiah Tongogara’s house in Zambia but never visited Chitepo.
Mugabe then visited Mnangagwa in Mumbwa in Zambia in January 1975.
Mnangagwa by that time was completing his LLB with the Unoversity of Zambia .
A meeting between Mnangagwa, Mugabe and Tongogara happened but no details of the meeting were made public.
Mnangagwa then developed a romantic relationship with Tongogara’s sister Jayne, whom he then went on to marry.
On March 18 in 1975, Herbert Chitepo was assassinated through a bomb planted in his car, barely 3 months after his encounter with Mugabe.
Zambian police responded by rounding up Zanu leaders and Keneth Kaunda in particular fingered Tingogara.
Zanu then left Zambia to go and fight from newly independent Mozambique, and Kaunda told Samora Machel the guys were a bunch of murderers and should not be trusted. It took very long for Samora to trust Tongogara and Robert Mugabe.
Zanu claimed Kaunda had sold out through Detente with Vorster so they had to leave Zambia.
In April 1975, Robert Mugabe and Tekere fled to Mozambique and Mugabe was then made caretaker First Secretray.
Mnangagwa started working as a lawyer in 1975. He was persuaded to pay Tongogara a family visit in Maputo in 1976. He did come on holiday with his family, then Mugabe and Tongogara persuaded him to leave his job and join them. He went back to Zambia, and returned in 1977 to become Robert Mugabe’s personal assistant.
Rumors of him being a spy were spread, and the conspiracies pointing to Mugabe, Mnangagwa and Tongo as the people behind Chitepo’s assassination swelled.
RW
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