Chenjerai Hunzvi

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Chenjerai Hunzvi (born October 23, 1949 - † June 4, 2001 ) was a Zimbabwean politician.

Career

Chenjerai Hunzvi was probably born into a farming family in Chiminya in the central region of the British crown colony of Southern Rhodesia . In 1963 at the latest, his parents sent him to Salisbury (now Harare ). According to his own statements, at the age of 16 he joined the armed resistance against the predominance of the white minority population in the country. He used the battle name " Hitler ". Also by his own account, Hunzvi was incarcerated in the Gonakudzingwa and Wha Wha internment camps from 1967 to 1970 because he had organized a school demonstration against the visit of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson . He completed his high school education while in custody. Shortly after his release in 1970, he was arrested again for assisting a British journalist with research within the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). In addition, Hunzvi described himself as a leader of the ZAPU party and its armed Arms Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army . However, several veterans of the insurgency disagree with this representation, as does his second wife.

In 1974, after his release from prison, Chenjerai Hunzvi fled to Zambia. He married for the first time around 1975. This marriage resulted in two children. As part of the support of the Eastern Bloc for this politically close anti-colonial movement, Hunzvi traveled to Romania to study , where he learned both Romanian and French. In Poland he continued his medical studies in 1978 at the latest. There he married a local woman with whom he had two children. During this time he was the representative of ZAPU in Poland. In 1979 he attended the negotiations in London that led to the Lancaster House Agreement and thus to an armistice and the independence of Zimbabwe. It is unclear whether he received a medical degree.

In 1990 Hunzvi returned to Zimbamwe. First he worked at the central hospital of the capital Harare, then he opened his own doctor's practice in the suburb of Budiriro. In 1992, his wife fled the country and accused Chenjerai Hunzvi of the violence against her. Shortly afterwards he married again. He later had two more children with his third wife.

On June 4, 2001, Chenjerai Hunzvi died in Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare . Various sources cite malaria , heart disease or AIDS as the cause of death.

Political career

In 1997 (1996 according to other sources) Chenjerai Hunzvi was elected chairman of the Association of Veterans of the Zimbabwean War of Liberation. Under his leadership, the organization, which had not been active until then, significantly increased its political work. He organized violent demonstrations with which he obtained pension payments and public recognition for the veterans from President Robert Mugabe and directly criticized the president. As a result of this initiative, around 50,000 veterans received a one-off payment of US $ 2,500 each and a monthly pension payment of US $ 100. The association also succeeded in establishing a fund to provide financial support to veterans who had become disabled as a result of their involvement in the fight. The payments were staggered according to the degree of disability. This fund quickly became the subject of massive fraud. For example, civil servants, party officials and Chenjerai Hunzvi himself were assigned degrees of disability of up to 117%. In addition, the payments to settle the veterans protests are seen by numerous observers as a cause of the subsequent economic crisis in Zimbamwe.

In 1999, Chenjerai Hunzvi was arrested, presumably at Mugabe's instigation, on charges of alleged embezzlement of 45 million Zimbabwean dollars from the Veteran's Fund. A corresponding trial was postponed several times and the charges were ultimately dropped. While Hunzvi was deposed as chairman of the Veterans Association during this time, President Mugabe soon accepted him in his favor.

Hunzvi then became active on the part of the ruling party Zanu-PF in the election campaign before the parliamentary elections in 1999 and 2000 . He was accused of intimidating and threatening members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in this campaign . In this context, he is said to have described himself as "the greatest terrorist in Zimbabwe". Witnesses personally accused him of participating in physical attacks on members of the opposition and of torturing members of the opposition. The prisoner relief organization Amnesty International called his clinic a "torture chamber". He is also seen as the driving force behind attacks on around 200 factories and other business operations that were intended to hit MDC-affiliated unions.

In 2000, Chenjerai Hunzvi led a campaign initiated by Robert Mugabe, in which veterans and supporters of the Zanu-PF occupied the lands of white farmers in around 1,700 cases. In the same year he won a seat in parliament in the election.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ I spent years of terror as wife of squatters' leader. The Daily Telegraph , June 16, 2000, accessed January 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hunzvi, Chenjerai
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Zimbabwean politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1949
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 2001