Pic: The late Elliot Manyika Zanu PF National Political Commissar and Junta Minister without Portfolio correctly identified as the centrepiece in Zanu PF vicious electioneering
Zimbabweans in the country and the Diaspora have greeted the tragic death of Elliot Manyika with a mixture of joy and relief.
Readers of the of the most popular Zimdaily online publication celebrated the news of Manyika’s death as if Zanu PF had conceded electoral defeat and handed the baton to the MDC.
Readers’ comments on another Zimbabwean online publication carrying the story thezimbabwetimes.com are no different either.
In Zimbabwe ordinary people in Chiweshe,Harare, Kadoma, Bulawayo, Mutare, Bindura, Shamva, Murombedzi, Murehwa and Mutoko greeted the news with absolute delight.
Every call was greeted with “nemakorokotozve ekushaya kwemhondi iyi inonzi Manyika”-[congratulations on the death of this murderous Manyika.]
Of nearly a combined 400 comments by readers of the two online publications carrying the story only a paltry 10 comments expressed condolences and commiserations for the passing away of the Zanu PF National Commissar and the Zanu PF Junta Minister without Portfolio.
Such a reaction is completely out of character with societal norms and values of Zimbabweans whose culture is to express profound sorrow and sympathy to bereaved families regardless of whether they were close relatives and friends or complete strangers on hearing death news.
Yet in the case of Elliot Manyika the outpourings of relief and a measure of vengeful triumph at his death were not to be expected.
For here at last, was terminal news, of the death of a true messenger of Zanu PF viciousness towards people of Zimbabwe that has displaced millions and impoverished the entire nation.
Elliot Manyika was a fiery supporter of Zanu PF octogenarian despot Robert Mugabe who many hold responsible for their current misfortunes in life.
He died on 6 December 2008 while on a Zanu PF mission to reorganise its dilapidated provincial and grassroots structures.
The structures he was revamping are the ones that have been coordinating vicious murder, rape bombings, abductions and torture of any one within Zimbabwe suspected of being at variance with Zanu PF at local community level.
Many a family have directly or indirectly fallen victim of these structures and loathe them with a passion.
So it was pleasing to learn that the driving force of the unholy mission had at last met with a more powerful force and succumbed never to return to haunt them again.
That he could well be replaced by a more vicious successor is to many immaterial as they savour the rare moment of natural justice triumph over the evil that Elliot Manyika represented in the Zanu PF establishment.
Zanu PF has indeed lost a key cog in its repressive machinery. This is not to say they will find it impossible to replace Elliot Manyika. No.
The Party is teeming with trained and indoctrinated assassins waiting in the fringes to take over from Manyika.
They may however find the role a bit overwhelming given that at present there are wide craters within Zanu PF following its weakened position after losing the harmonised March 29, 2008 elections to the MDC.
The death of Manyika presents the troubled head of the Party and illegitimate Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe a platform to link with disenchanted grassroots supporters at the funeral which at present is likely to be a State Hero’s gathering.
But was the late Elliot Manyika a deserving National Hero fitting in the criteria used to declare Zanu PF heroes National Heroes in the past?
The short answer is yes. If messengers of Zanu PF violence like the late Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi and Border Gezi have graves at the National Heroes Shrine there can be no argument denying Manyika similar honours after his distinguished service to the Party of despots.
However from a purely National Hero viewpoint Manyika like Gezi and Hunzvi are National Villains rather than heroes.
Be that as it may the State owned media has already pre-empted conferment of National Hero status on the late Zanu PF National Commissar and possible interment at the heroes Acre in Harare with a glossed up obituary.
“We have lost a dedicated cadre, who always worked so diligently for the party. I don’t have much detail at the moment, but I think the Politburo will have to meet over his hero status," Junta Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi was quoted by the Sunday Mail as having bemoaned.
Nothing about him having served the country that will discuss his hero status is evident there from. But the country will still debate his hero status anywhere.
“In 1974, he was arrested for allegedly writing and circulating subversive statements while waiting for his O-level results.
He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released after 18 months under strict conditions. As a result of the incarceration, he could not proceed for Advanced level,” the Sunday Mail disclosed.
The nature of the subversive material he allegedly got done for remains a mystery.
The fact is that in August 1978 the late Elliot Manyika was employed by the then Public Works Department (PWD) at its Mashonaland East Provincial offices situated near where the current Mutare road Vehicle Inspection Department is.
His criminal security vetting report was returned endorsed “No Criminal Record Traced/ Nothing Detrimental Traced” and he was duly appointed Clerical Assistant.
Further to that his “O” Level certificate had three passed subjects at grade “C” and a string of “D” grades for the rest and thus could not have been accepted for any “A” level course on the basis of those grades.
Suggesting that the PWD employed a saboteur under strict court conditions are stretching imagination a bit too far.
These are lies that can only be on his Zanu PF CV.
While employed by the PWD he was called up for compulsory National Service in 1979.
Although he was still under 30 years his poor “O” levels allowed him to escape basic Territorial Forces training at Llewellyn Barracks. Instead he was conscripted for Police Reservist training at Mushandike.
That is the same training base where Phillip Chiyangwa was trained.
There is as far as we know no former person with Rhodesia Front military training interred at the National Heroes Acre and it appears Manyika is poised to score a first because his chequered history and links with the Rhodesian army has been camouflaged by reference to him as Comrade Manyika within Zanu PF.
Many people hold that he was a former Liberation combatant when he was never anywhere near an operational area or participated in the war. Not even as a Mujibha (male Civilian War sentinel and collaborator).
“Cde Manyika joined the Zanu-PF Youth League together with the late Minister of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation, Cde Border Gezi, in 1982,” declared the Sunday Mail falsely.
There was never a provision to join Zanu PF as special league member.
Membership of Zanu PF was general membership and after joining one chose dependant on his age and sex to affiliate and be active in the Youth or Women’s League otherwise the docile members remained ordinary main league members regardless of their age or gender.
Elliot Manyika wormed into the Youth league prominence on the reputation of the late Robson Manyika whom he openly bragged was his brother.
To date it remains unclear how he was related to the late Deputy Minister but one thing for certain is they share a common surname and not many wanted to explore further the relationship after the Kopje shootout between the Deputy Minister and revellers at the Queen of Sheba brothel.
It was this connection he used to worm up employment ranks in the Civil service because of all his work colleagues in clerical positions in 1978 he was the only one who had failed accelerated advancement (affirmative action) promotion exams run by the Public Service training centre and remained a clerk class II when others were upgraded to Clerical Executive and Administrative Officers to fill the void of emigrating former White bearers of the posts.
His belated promotions in the Civil Service surprised many as he was never a high performer at work.
The meteoric promotions from Clerk to Under Secretary were rewards for sterling party work he had done with Border Gezi, James Makamba, Chenhamo Chimutengwende Saviour Kasukuwere and Nicholas Goche to return a Zanu PF clean sweep of Parliamentary seats in Mashonaland Central in the 1990 Parliamentary elections.
As a leader of the terror gangs of Zanu PF hoodlums in the province he was rewarded handsomely with undue Civil Service work promotions for vile electioneering work he and his minions executed with diligence and precision that earned the Mashonaland province the “accolade” (No go area for opposition politicians).
The disclosure that he was promoted to senior Civil Service positions without linking the promotions to political patronage is most cynical by the State Media that wants to sell a daft hooligan as a smart civil servant.
By the time this writer left the Civil Service in 1982 Elliot Manyika who had joined the service at the same grade and level with the writer was still a clerk class II when the writer had already been promoted to an Executive Officer.
In 1995 Zanu PF repeated its political dominance of the province and that success brought Elliot Manyika handsome work rewards when he was in1999, appointed Zimbabwe’s High Commissioner to Malawi only to be recalled home the following year as Mashonaland Central Governor and Resident Minister.
Zanu PF needed him more in the country to spearhead the chaotic land reforms it had been forced to embark on by an embarrassing Constitutional referendum defeat and an even more humiliating electoral defeat to the MDC it had to reverse through ballot stuffing rigging by Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede and his Electoral Commission team.
He did not disappoint as he led marauding gangs around the province chasing off White farm owners and pummelling them into submission to his vicious onslaught.
When in 2001 his predecessor mentor and idol Border Gezi died in a car accident after a reportedly similar tyre burst to the one reported in his accident causing death, Elliot Manyika became a natural successor to both Gezi’s roles of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation and Zanu PF National Commissar.
Little did he know that he had also inherited death in similar circumstances to those of his predecessor? How ironic?
Drawing on his experiences in National Service while at Mushandike police Reservist training he teamed up with hoodlums like Reason Wafawarova to draw up a National Youth service spiced with militia tactics and institutionalised the Zanu PF violent electioneering strategy.
The products of his thuggish training curriculum for National Youth Service are there for all to see and evaluate.
Cold blood murder, rape, torture and theft of civilian property in Youth manned electioneering bases countrywide every time the country goes to elections.
And more he mobilised the Youth to commit these crimes jovially by teaming up with compromised musical outfits like the POLICE band and Brian Muteki to compose and sing praise songs for the murderous regime he was part of.
Is it any wonder then Zimbabweans have greeted news of his death with joy and relief against their cultural norms and values. I guess not at all.
The wisdom in the vernacular Shona language that wafawanaka (the dead is good as he is no longer a threat worth counter strategising about) may hold true in many instances but not in Elliot Manyika’s case.
He was a vile political monstrosity with little respect for human life and died unrepentant.
He was bad for Zimbabwe and will be bad in death. Zimbabweans will worry a about his legacy long after his burial wherever his party will decide to honour and bury him.s online publication celebrated the news of Manyika’s death as if Zanu PF had conceded electoral defeat and handed the baton to the MDC.
Readers’ comments on another Zimbabwean online publication carrying the story thezimbabwetimes.com are no different either.
In Zimbabwe ordinary people in Harare, Kadoma, Bulawayo, Mutare, Bindura, Shamva, Murombedzi, Murehwa and Mutoko greeted the news with absolute delight.
Every call was greeted with “nemakorokotozve ekushaya kwemhondi iyi inonzi Manyika”-[congratulations on the death of this murderous Manyika.]
Of nearly a combined 400 comments by readers of the two online publications carrying the story only a paltry 10 comments expressed condolences and commiserations for the passing away of the Zanu PF National Commissar and the Zanu PF Junta Minister without Portfolio.
Such a reaction is completely out of character with societal norms and values of Zimbabweans whose culture is to express profound sorrow and sympathy to bereaved families regardless of whether they were close relatives and friends or complete strangers on hearing death news.
Yet in the case of Elliot Manyika the outpourings of relief and a measure of vengeful triumph at his death were not to be expected.
For here at last, was terminal news, of the death of a true messenger of Zanu PF viciousness towards people of Zimbabwe that has displaced millions and impoverished the entire nation.
Elliot Manyika was a fiery supporter of Zanu PF octogenarian despot Robert Mugabe who many hold responsible for their current misfortunes in life.
He died on 6 December 2008 while on a Zanu PF mission to reorganise its dilapidated provincial and grassroots structures.
The structures he was revamping are the ones that have been coordinating vicious murder, rape bombings, abductions and torture of any one within Zimbabwe suspected of being at variance with Zanu PF at local community level.
Many a family have directly or indirectly fallen victim of these structures and loathe them with a passion.
So it was pleasing to learn that the driving force of the unholy mission had at last met with a more powerful force and succumbed never to return to haunt them again.
That he could well be replaced by a more vicious successor is to many immaterial as they savour the rare moment of natural justice triumph over the evil that Elliot Manyika represented in the Zanu PF establishment.
Zanu PF has indeed lost a key cog in its repressive machinery. This is not to say they will find it impossible to replace Elliot Manyika. No.
The Party has an abundance of trained and indoctrinated assassins waiting in the fringes to take over from Manyika. They may however find the role a bit overwhelming given that at present there are wide craters within Zanu PF following its weakened position after losing the harmonised March 29, 2008 elections to the MDC.
The death of Manyika presents the troubled head of the Party and illegitimate Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe a platform to link with disenchanted grassroots supporters at the funeral which at present is likely to be a State Hero’s gathering.
But was the late Elliot Manyika a deserving National Hero fitting in the criteria used to declare Zanu PF heroes National Heroes in the past?
The short answer is yes. If messengers of Zanu PF violence like the late Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi and Border Gezi have graves at the National Heroes Shrine there can be no argument denying Manyika similar honours after his distinguished service to the Party of despots.
However from a purely National Hero viewpoint Manyika like Gezi and Hunzvi are National Villains rather than heroes.
Be that as it may the State owned media has already pre-empted conferment of National Hero status on the late Zanu PF National Commissar and possible interment at the heroes Acre in Harare with a glossed up obituary.
“We have lost a dedicated cadre, who always worked so diligently for the party. I don’t have much detail at the moment, but I think the Politburo will have to meet over his hero status," Junta Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi was quoted by the Sunday Mail as having bemoaned.
Nothing about him having served the country that will discuss his hero status is evident there from. But the country will still debate his hero status anywhere.
“In 1974, he was arrested for allegedly writing and circulating subversive statements while waiting for his O-level results.
He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released after 18 months under strict conditions. As a result of the incarceration, he could not proceed for Advanced level,” the Sunday Mail disclosed.
The nature of the subversive material he allegedly got done for remains a mystery. The fact is that in August 1978 the late Elliot Manyika was employed by the then Public Works Department (PWD) at its Mashonaland East Provincial offices situated near where the current Mutare road Vehicle Inspection Department is.
His criminal security vetting report was returned endorsed “No Criminal Record Traced/ Nothing Detrimental Traced” and he was duly appointed Clerical Assistant.
Further to that his “O” Level certificate had three passed subjects at grade “C” and a string of “D” grades for the rest and thus could not have been accepted for any “A” level course on the basis of those grades.
Suggesting that the PWD employed a saboteur under strict court conditions are stretching imagination a bit too far.
These are lies that can only be on his Zanu PF CV.
While employed by the PWD he was called up for compulsory National Service in 1979. Although he was still under 30 years his poor “O” levels allowed him to escape basic Territorial Forces training at Llewellyn Barracks. Instead he was conscripted for Police Reservist training at Mushandike.
That is the same training base where Phillip Chiyangwa was trained.
There is as far as we know no former person with Rhodesia Front military training interred at the National Heroes Acre and it appears Manyika is poised to score a first because his chequered history and links with the Rhodesian army has been camouflaged by reference to him as Comrade Manyika within Zanu PF.
Many people hold that he was a former Liberation combatant when he was never anywhere near an operational area or participated in the war. Not even as a Mujibha (male Civilian War sentinel and collaborator).
“Cde Manyika joined the Zanu-PF Youth League together with the late Minister of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation, Cde Border Gezi, in 1982,” declared the Sunday Mail falsely.
There was never a provision to join Zanu PF as special league member. Membership of Zanu PF was general membership and after joining one chose dependant on his age and sex to affiliate and be active in the Youth or Women’s League otherwise the docile members remained ordinary main league members regardless of their age or gender.
Elliot Manyika wormed into the Youth league prominence on the reputation of the late Robson Manyika whom he openly bragged was his brother.
To date it remains unclear how he was related to the late Deputy Minister but one thing for certain is they share a common surname and not many wanted to explore further the relationship after the Kopje shootout between the Deputy Minister and revellers at the Queen of Sheba brothel.
It was this connection he used to worm up employment ranks in the Civil service because of all his work colleagues in clerical positions in 1978 he was the only one who had failed accelerated advancement (affirmative action) promotion exams run by the Public Service training centre and remained a clerk class II when others were upgraded to Clerical Executive and Administrative Officers to fill the void of emigrating former White bearers of the posts.
His belated promotions in the Civil Service surprised many as he was never a high performer at work.
The meteoric promotions from Clerk to Under Secretary were rewards for sterling party work he had done with Border Gezi, James Makamba, Chenhamo Chimutengwende Saviour Kasukuwere and Nicholas Goche to return a Zanu PF clean sweep of Parliamentary seats in Mashonaland Central in the 1990 Parliamentary elections.
As a leader of the terror gangs of Zanu PF hoodlums in the province he was rewarded handsomely with undue Civil Service work promotions for vile electioneering work he and his minions executed with diligence and precision that earned the Mashonaland province the “accolade” (No go area for opposition politicians).
The disclosure that he was promoted to senior Civil Service positions without linking the promotions to political patronage is most cynical by the State Media that wants to sell a daft hooligan as a smart civil servant.
By the time this writer left the Civil Service in 1982 Elliot Manyika who had joined the service at the same grade and level with the writer was still a clerk class II when the writer had already been promoted to an Executive Officer.
In 1995 Zanu PF repeated its political dominance of the province and that success brought Elliot Manyika handsome work rewards when he was in1999, appointed Zimbabwe’s High Commissioner to Malawi only to be recalled home the following year as Mashonaland Central Governor and Resident Minister.
Zanu PF needed him more in the country to spearhead the chaotic land reforms it had been forced to embark on by an embarrassing Constitutional referendum defeat and an even more humiliating electoral defeat to the MDC it had to reverse through ballot stuffing rigging by Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede and his Electoral Commission team.
He did not disappoint as he led marauding gangs around the province chasing off White farm owners and pummelling them into submission to his vicious onslaught.
When in 2001 his predecessor mentor and idol Border Gezi died in a car accident after a reportedly similar tyre burst to the one reported in his accident causing death, Elliot Manyika became a natural successor to both Gezi’s roles of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation and Zanu PF National Commissar.
Little did he know that he had also inherited death in similar circumstances to those of his predecessor? How ironic?
Drawing on his experiences in National Service while at Mushandike police Reservist training he teamed up with hoodlums like Reason Wafawarova to draw up a National Youth service spiced with militia tactics and institutionalised the Zanu PF violent electioneering strategy.
The products of his thuggish training curriculum for National Youth Service are there for all to see and evaluate.
Cold blood murder, rape, torture and theft of civilian property in Youth manned electioneering bases countrywide every time the country goes to elections.
And more he mobilised the Youth to commit these crimes jovially by teaming up with compromised musical outfits like the POLICE band and Brian Muteki to compose and sing praise songs for the murderous regime he was part of.
Is it any wonder then Zimbabweans have greeted news of his death with joy and relief against their cultural norms and values. I guess not at all.
The wisdom in the vernacular Shona language that wafawanaka (the dead is good as he is no longer a threat worth counter strategising about) may hold true in many instances but not in Elliot Manyika’s case.
He was a vile political monstrosity with little respect for human life and died unrepentant. He was bad for Zimbabwe and will be bad in death.
Zimbabweans will worry a about his legacy long after his burial wherever his party will decide to honour and bury him.
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