Obituary: Solomon Mujuru, Solomon Mujuru, politician and soldier

General Solomon Mujuru, the power behind the throne in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, died in a mysterious fire on one of the many farms he took from white owners in the years following independence.

Under the nom de guerre Rex Nhongo, Mujuru was the leader of Mugabe’s guerrilla army which fought in the 1970s to end white-minority rule in Rhodesia. Following Zimbabwean independence in 1980 he became commander of the nation’s armed forces and masterminded the mass killings of Ndebele tribespeople in western Zimbabwe.

Mujuru retired from the military in 1990 to concentrate on his extensive business interests. He became a multi-millionaire, acquiring a huge empire of farms, property, diamond trading companies in collaboration with Saudi businessmen, mines and other interests. The 3,500 acre Alamein Farm at Beatrice, south-west of Harare, where he burned to death beyond recognition in a fire that raged through the main farmhouse, was seized from a white farmer in 2001.

It was one of many farms he acquired forcibly. Mujuru sent gangs brandishing clubs and axes to evict the owner, Guy Watson-Smith, and his family from the maize and tobacco property valued at several million pounds. Half the land was a game reserve, and Mujuru and his friends subsequently held alcohol-fuelled hunting parties in which giraffe, zebra and antelope were shot down. Watson-Smith fled to England.

Mujuru, the key player in engineering Mugabe’s rise to the political leadership of the ruling Zanu guerrilla movement and subsequent Zanu-PF government, was manoeuvring when he died to have his wife, Joice, succeed 87-year-old Mugabe as state president. If he had succeeded, he would have become the de facto leader of the country, the real power behind the throne. Joice is currently Zimbabwe’s vice oresident.

Joice, now 55, had been one of “Rex Nhongo’s” toughest teenage guerrilla warriors, acquiring the nickname Teurai Ropa (Spill Blood) for her legendary and possibly apocryphal fighting skills. Her husband’s death leaves her exposed and vulnerable in the battle to succeed Mugabe with an even harder hardliner, defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, known as “The Crocodile”.

Mujuru’s death has set off an avalanche of conspiracy theories in Zimbabwe. Many allege he was murdered in Zimbabwe’s increasingly vicious political infighting.

“It’s a huge shock,” said Eddie Cross, policy co-ordinator of the beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). “The suspicion of a power play is everywhere. Everybody’s talking about it. If assassination was involved, it’s a huge event and could spark violence between factions of Zanu-PF. We’ve been saying for a long time that if there’s a civil war in Zimbabwe, it won’t be between Zanu-PF and the MDC, it will be between factions of Zanu-PF.”

John Makumbe, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said: “There is so much in-fighting now in Zanu-PF that if there’s foul play it’s anybody’s guess who might have done this… Mugabe will not find it easy to handle. It will make him age a little faster. He used to rely on Mujuru on what to do and what not to do.”

Makumbe’s fellow political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, Eldred Masunungure, said: “Mugabe’s generation is fast depleting. He’s been shaken to the core. Mujuru’s death creates a difficult situation for him in terms of seeking advice.

“These are dark days for him, but the days will get even darker as most politicians of his generation die.”

Little is known about Mujuru’s early life. He was born near Mugabe’s village of Kutama into the same tribal clan, the Zezuru, and became an early supporter of the black liberation opposition. Unlike other leaders, such as Mugabe and the late Joshua Nkomo, he escaped imprisonment in Rhodesia and fled into exile. In the murky world of Zimbabwean politics, the 26-year-old “Rex Nhongo” is widely believed to have delivered the bomb in 1975 that killed Mugabe’s Zanu leadership rival, Herbert Chitepo, in Zambia.

Chitepo’s assassination triggered a bout of terrible internal bloodletting inside Zanu in exile, but by the end of the same year Mujuru was commander-in-chief of the gathering black guerrilla forces in Mozambique that eventually toppled the white Rhodesian government.

On coming to power in independent Zimbabwe, Mugabe recognised Mujuru’s power and popularity with the guerrilla forces and made him the new nation’s army chief. Mujuru acquired huge and questionable wealth and retired to concentrate on his business interests while promoting his wife’s political career.

Along with his rival Mnangagwa, he was the main exploiter of the rich and corruption-ridden Marange diamond field in eastern Zimbabwe.

Production from Marange is controversial because of crackdowns by police, soldiers and militias loyal to Mujuru and Mnangagwa on some 30,000 small miners amid allegations of forced labour. Human rights organisations allege that “big men” like Mujuru had a vested interest in chaos at Marange. In 2008 about 150 peasant miners were shot dead from helicopters. A BBC report said recently that small miners at Marange continue to be subjected to severe beatings, sexual assault and dog maulings. Sales of “blood diamonds” from Marange have so far totalled more than a billion pounds to Israeli, Lebanese, Russian and Indian buyers.

Mujuru was father to numerous children by Joice and other women. He is survived by Joice, whom he married in Mozambique in 1977, and an unknown number of offspring.

FRED BRIDGLAND