Simon Muzenda
Simon Vengai Muzenda (
October 28 1922 –
September 20 2003) was a
Shona from the Karanga group, a
Zimbabwean
politician who served as a deputy prime minister and vice president under president
Robert Mugabe, a Shona Zezeru.
Muzenda was born in the
Gutu district of what was then the
Victoria province of
Rhodesia, firmly under
British colonial rule, as a son of a peasant farmer, and brought up by his grandmother, who ensured his regular attendance of a local Catholic missionary school. A relatively bright child, he was sent for teacher training after spending his teenage years herding the family's cattle, and, following the advice of his tutor, travelled to the
Marianhill mission in
Natal,
South Africa, where he showed a proficiency in
carpentry.
Between completing his carpentry course and furthering his studies, Muzenda became aware of politics during contacts with fellow students, which included several men prominent in black activism
South Africa and
Rhodesia; after his return to Rhodesia in
1950, he worked in a furniture factory in
Bulawayo and became involved with
Benjamin Burombo, an activist who was among the earliest to challenge discriminatory laws.
After marrying his wife Maud, a nurse, Muzenda moved to the Midlands town of
Umvuma in
1955 and started his own carpentry business; he also stayed active in political activism and eventually become administrative secretary of the
Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), attracting the attention of Rhodesian security forces and being imprisoned in
Salisbury's central prison for two years, which he described as a "place of study" later in his life, as it gave him and his inmates the opportunity to complete their educations.
In
1964, he was arrested again, this time for possession of a pistol after having been elected deputy organizing secretary of ZANU; at this time, Muzenda had become convinced that the only way to overthrow white colonial dominance was an armed revolution, and began organizing young blacks to receive military training in other
African countries, in the
USSR and in
China. He was soon imprisoned again and remained in jail until being released under the
Anglo-Rhodesia agreement in
1971.
Following his release, Simon Muzenda went into exile in Zambia, and later to Mozambique. Failing to draw
Joshua Nkomo and his
ZAPU movement into a unified political front, he backed
Robert Mugabe, who was then also hiding in
Mozambique, as the leader of the ZANU Patriotic Front (PF).
After the ensuing guerilla war, which ended with the
Lancaster House Agreement, and a brief interregnum of
British government while democratic elections were organized,
Mugabe was elected as the first president of the new independent
Zimbabwe and made Muzenda the deputy prime minister and foreign minister in
1980; Muzenda also retained political power over his home area despite quarrels between his own tribe, the
Karanga people, and the
Zezuru from which Mugabe stemmed. In
1987, when Mugabe became executive president, Muzenda was appointed as his first vice-president.
In Zimbabwe's early years, Muzenda was generally respected by the people as a no-nosense, plain-spoken man from the working class, but in later years, he appeared more and more crude. In
1990, his campaign for a seat in Zimbabwe's parliament suffered a blow after opposition candidate
Patrick Kombayi was shot and left permanently disabled; two state agents were convicted of attempted murder, but pardoned by Mugabe shortly after the trial ended, and even though Muzenda was not publicly accused of being involved in the shooting, it affected his standing with the public.
During the years of Mugabe's rein, Muzenda always gave unreserved backing to the president, even when the regime began muzzling the independent press, curb the activities of foreign correspondents and crushing political opposition. He also participated in Mugabe's
land redistribution programme, seizing control of a cattle ranch south of
Harare in
2002 and forcibly and illegally ejecting the white farm owner, an incident which caused a controversy with the Commercial Farmers Union.
In the two years preceding his death, Muzenda had been in failing health, with problems including
hypertension and
diabetes; after returning from medical treatment in
China in July
2003, he was admitted to the coronary care unit of Harare's main government facility, the Parirenyatwa hospital, where, according to medical sources, he fell into a semi-conscious state. Nevertheless, two weeks before his death, Zimbabwe's state-owned media dismissed reports that he was in declining health, instead announcing that he was making "remarkable progress" towards a full recovery. Muzenda nonetheless died on
September 20,
2003.
*
History of Zimbabwe*
Robert Mugabe*
Lancaster House Agreement*
Land reform in Zimbabwe*
Obituary for Simon Muzenda (from
The Guardian)
