HE FLEW BACK INTO A PRESIDENCY OTHERS BUILT: LIEUTENANT GENERAL MAPURANGA NAMES THE MEN LEFT BEHIND
HARARE — In November 2017, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa was not in Zimbabwe.
He was not in the streets. He was not in the barracks. He was not at any negotiating table. He was in South Africa, having left the country when the pressure mounted. The men he would later call colleagues stayed. They did the work. The dangerous work. The irreversible work.
That is the account laid out by Retired Lieutenant General Winston Sigauke Mapuranga. He wants young Zimbabweans to hear it plain: the man who is now President, who signs legislation, who addresses the nation, who stands at the United Nations, was not here when the transition was forced through.
“The work was done by others,” Mapuranga said. “And those others are now, one by one, being removed, silenced, marginalised, erased from the story of what they built.”
He begins with General Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga. It was Chiwenga who made the announcement. Chiwenga who commanded the loyalty of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces that night. Chiwenga who put his uniform, his rank, his freedom, and his life on the line. The soldiers moved because of Chiwenga. The institutions held because of Chiwenga. The international community measured the moment through Chiwenga’s credibility.
“Mnangagwa flew back into a presidency that General Chiwenga built for him,” Mapuranga said.
And what did Chiwenga receive? Mapuranga answers: marginalisation. The removal of his allies from institutions of consequence. The managed diminishment of his public profile. The cold distance of a man who no longer needs what was given to him.
Chiwenga’s health has been a matter of public concern. Less discussed, Mapuranga said, is the political environment around that health crisis — access denied, support withheld, institutional isolation accompanying physical vulnerability.
“I am a soldier. I do not make allegations I cannot support,” Mapuranga said. “But I say this clearly and on the record: the full story of what has happened to Vice President Chiwenga medically, politically, and institutionally has not been told. The people of Zimbabwe have a right to demand that it be told. Completely. Transparently. With independent verification.”
From Chiwenga, Mapuranga turned to General Valerio Sibanda. Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. The highest military command in the republic. Every soldier, every officer, every unit — that authority sat with Sibanda.
“General Sibanda held that position,” Mapuranga said. “He served with discipline, professionalism, and institutional loyalty. He did not grandstand. He did not politick.”
And then he was forced to step down. Not honoured. Not celebrated. Not given the send-off his rank demanded. Forced out. After that, silence. Complete, total, imposed.
“General Sibanda is not in the public life of this republic. He is not consulted. He is not acknowledged. He has been made invisible,” Mapuranga said. “I know what that invisibility costs a man. Emmerson Mnangagwa used Valerio Sibanda. Used his loyalty. Used his institutional command. And when the using was done, discarded him like a tool that has served its purpose.”
Then came a question. Simple, direct: “Where is Godwin Matanga?”
Commissioner General Godwin Matanga commanded the Zimbabwe Republic Police. For years he was one of the most visible and powerful figures in the security architecture.
“Commissioner Generals do not disappear,” Mapuranga said. “Men of that rank do not simply vanish into private life without a trace. They appear on boards. They appear at national events. They remain visible because their visibility signals institutional continuity and respect.”
Matanga is not visible. He has not been visible since his departure. “That is not the invisibility of a man who chose to step back,” Mapuranga said. “It is the invisibility of a man who was told to disappear. Emmerson Mnangagwa forced Godwin Matanga out. And then ensured that Matanga’s departure would be followed by a silence so complete that even those who worked alongside him cannot speak his name in official circles without consequence.”
Finally, Mapuranga spoke of Air Marshal Elson Moyo. He chose his words. “I have been careful because I am a soldier, and soldiers do not make claims they cannot fully substantiate in a court of law. But careful does not mean silent.”
Moyo’s departure from the Zimbabwe National Air Force, Mapuranga said, was not an ordinary retirement. “Something happened to Elson Moyo. Something that has not been fully explained. Something that the official record does not adequately account for. Something that those with knowledge of it have been strongly discouraged from discussing.”
He closed with a call: “I am calling, today, for a full, independent, transparent accounting of everything that happened in connection with Air Marshal Elson Moyo’s departure from service and the events that surrounded it.”
Signed: Retired Lieutenant General Winston Sigauke Mapuranga.
Four names. Four careers. One argument. The men who held the commands, gave the orders, and secured the transition in November 2017 are no longer in the room. And the man who was not in the country that week now sits in the presidency they secured.
That, Mapuranga said, is not politics. That is ingratitude of a magnitude with no modern parallel in the history of the republic.
There is no honour among thieves.