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The military takeover of Zimbabwe on Wednesday marked the climax of a week of confrontation between the military and President Robert Mugabe, the nonagenarian leader who’s led the southern African nation for almost four decades.
Bloomberg compiled list of four key figures within Zimbabwe’s ruling party who will determine how the battle to succeed Mugabe plays out:
1. Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, has been a close ally of Mugabe’s since 1974, when the two were leading members of the political wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union liberation movement.
Mnangagwa narrowly escaped being hanged after being convicted by a Rhodesian court under the country’s terrorism act. The court gave him an 11th-hour reprieve after determining he was under 18.
2. Constantine Chiwenga is the overall commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, or ZDF. Born in 1956, he joined the war for liberation in 1973, a year after it began in earnest. He rose through the ranks to become a brigadier when, after the war ended, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army and the Rhodesian army merged into a single entity known as the ZDF.
3. Lieutenant-General Philip Valerio Sibanda commands the army, and Air Marshal.
Sibanda fought with the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army during the liberation war before rising to command Zimbabwe’s land and special forces.
Unusually in Zimbabwe, Sibanda hasn’t previously been seen to be in an overtly political position.
4. Perence Shiri
Shiri, born in 1955, commanded Zimbabwe’s notorious Fifth Brigade, a special army unit trained by North Korean instructors that was deployed in Zimbabwe’s Midlands and Matabeleland provinces in the 1980s. The brigade carried out atrocities including torture and the extrajudicial execution of more than 3,000 people between 1982 and 1987, according to New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Shiri became commander of the air force in 1992.
Bloomberg compiled list of four key figures within Zimbabwe’s ruling party who will determine how the battle to succeed Mugabe plays out:
1. Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, has been a close ally of Mugabe’s since 1974, when the two were leading members of the political wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union liberation movement.
Mnangagwa narrowly escaped being hanged after being convicted by a Rhodesian court under the country’s terrorism act. The court gave him an 11th-hour reprieve after determining he was under 18.
2. Constantine Chiwenga is the overall commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, or ZDF. Born in 1956, he joined the war for liberation in 1973, a year after it began in earnest. He rose through the ranks to become a brigadier when, after the war ended, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army and the Rhodesian army merged into a single entity known as the ZDF.
3. Lieutenant-General Philip Valerio Sibanda commands the army, and Air Marshal.
Sibanda fought with the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army during the liberation war before rising to command Zimbabwe’s land and special forces.
Unusually in Zimbabwe, Sibanda hasn’t previously been seen to be in an overtly political position.
4. Perence Shiri
Shiri, born in 1955, commanded Zimbabwe’s notorious Fifth Brigade, a special army unit trained by North Korean instructors that was deployed in Zimbabwe’s Midlands and Matabeleland provinces in the 1980s. The brigade carried out atrocities including torture and the extrajudicial execution of more than 3,000 people between 1982 and 1987, according to New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Shiri became commander of the air force in 1992.
