According to investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, Emmerson Mnangagwa has built his political career on a distorted version of history, exaggerating his role in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
Chin’ono argues that when Mnangagwa speaks of the war, he portrays himself as if he were a frontline commander, carrying a gun and directing the armed wings of ZANLA.
Yet historical records from 1979 show that Mnangagwa’s name is absent from the ZANLA Military High Command the body of real strategists and commanders who shaped the liberation struggle.
“Mnangagwa is no Kagame or Museveni,” Chin’ono says, “both of whom genuinely led armed movements in their countries. He was never a field commander, never a strategist, never a man at the battlefront. He simply rode on the sacrifices of others and smuggled himself into power.”
