FEARED former security Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s sordid past has caught up with him following revelations that his henchmen pushed Godfrey Majonga from the second floor of a Harare woman’s flat to the concrete-paved ground, breaking his spine in the process.
Former energetic radio and television personality and Lonrho Zimbabwe public relations executive Majonga is now confined to a wheelchair at Danhiko Rehabilitation Centre in Msasa, Harare. Doctors say he will not be able to walk again.
Mnangagwa’s former bodyguard, who did not want to be identified for obvious reasons, divulged the details to ZimDaily over the weekend, solving one of Zimbabwe’s puzzles since that 1986 incident.
Majonga was introduced to Febby Chikanga by the late Edgars director Edward Makovah. She worked at the Edgars Training School, then in Third Street, Harare, now Speciss Computers. The two started a relationship which later almost cost Majonga’s life .
Unknown to Majonga, Febby Chikanga was also involved with Emmerson Mnangagwa and the two had a child, called Frank.
According to the source, Febby was in the process of dumping Mnangagwa because, apart from his busy schedule as a minister in charge of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), he had a harem of concubines, leaving him with very little time for Febby. Mnangagwa is said to have got wind of it and set his boys on Majonga.
“They made one fatal error,” said the former bodyguard, “. . . Mnangagwa had gone to Bulawayo and was going to be there for some days. Mind you, it was during the dissident time in Matabeleland and he was there most of the time assessing the situation.
The two (Febby and Godfrey) decided to go to Febby’s flat in Avondale.” Mnangagwa’s henchmen trailed them and waited until it was well in the middle of the night and pounced. They used spare keys to the flat provided by Mnangagwa to gain entry and found Majonga having a wonderful time with Chikanga.
He was given two choices: either to sit on a red-hot stove or jump from the second floor balcony of the flat to the ground. “He could not take any of the two, so we took him to the balcony and pushed him explained the former bodyguard to ZimDaily . . . and there he was on the ground wailing in agony . . .”
Upon realising they had badly injured him, they took Majonga to another block of flats where his best friend Chris Somo lived and dumped him there. He was found early in the morning by residents of the flats, among them, Somo.
When contacted by ZimDaily for comment, Mnangagwa hissed: “Who told you that? It’s all lies. Be careful about what you write because I’ll get you.” When told this writer was using a public phone, he sneered: “Even then, I’ll get you!” before hanging up. Chikanga, who now lives in Hatfield, admitted Frank was indeed Mnangagwa’s son but denied Majonga was found by Mnangagwa’s henchmen at her flat.
Quizzed further on circumstances surrounding Majonga’s injury, she retorted, “Do I live with Godfrey? Am I his wife? Go and ask his wife or Somo. Efforts to contact Somo were in vain.
The matter almost came to light in 2001 when a grown up Frank Chikanga (Mnangagwa’s son) was jailed for armed robbery. He reportedly boasted to a fellow inmate that he was going to be released as his father was a powerful cabinet minister.
He was indeed released under unclear circumstances prompting a parliamentary inquiry. Mnangagwa was the Minister of Justice and he had ordered his release. He wriggled himself off the hook claiming he was not related to Frank Chikanga and that his release was a mistake by one of his officers.
Majonga has remained mum. In the meantime, he remains a pitiful and helpless sight at Danhiko.
Details are emerging of how Robert Mugabe’s preferred successor Emmerson Mnangagwa caused debilitating life injuries to rising television star Godfrey Majonga, ending his broadcasting career.
War veteran and former ZBC employee Milner Chaka told Now Daily’s undercover reporter exclusively that Mnangagwa and Majonga clashed over the late television news anchor Tsitsi Vera. Vera’s family now blames Mnangagwa for the incident, which plunged her into alcoholism, drug abuse and wild sexual behaviour, which resulted in her premature death from AIDS.
Chaka was with Majonga on the night in 1987 when the incident happened.
According to Chaka, Majonga and he visited Vera at her apartment in Avondale. Apparently the married Majonga was having an adulterous affair with Vera.
As the pair were meeting Vera, Mnangagwa suddenly appeared.
Narrating the ordeal, Chaka said Mnangagwa immediately flew into a rage. The then feared state security minister, now justice minister, ordered his bodyguards to switch on a stove. When it was red hot, the furious Mnangagwa gave Majonga two choices, either to sit on the hot stove or to jump out of a third floor window. Majonga was thrown out of the flat and landed on hard concrete, breaking his spine and suffering injuries which would confine him to a wheelchair for life.
However, little is known about the people who drive him forward. I caught up with his Ugandan-born wife Grace, a God-fearing woman. I said to her: “After the tragedy that befell your husband, you could have deserted him like some spouses do. You are not Zimbabwean, but you decided to stay on here. Where do you draw your strength from? Where does the inspiration come from? What spiritual power do you tap into?” Below is an abridged version of Grace Majonga’s testimony on the goodness of the Lord.
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This is a long story. When the tragedy that befell Godfrey and the family happened, I can say I wasn’t really a born-again Christian. I was very young, only 31 years old, and been married for seven years. I had two little girls – Caroline my eldest had just started Grade 1 and Fungisai, the little one, had not started school.
This tragedy happened overnight. One day, things are going on well and the next day I woke up to this tragedy.
I don’t know if this was how God called me. I remember that the first thing that I did was to call upon God.
I cried out, “Oh my God, what am I going to do?”
I looked around and to be honest with you, nothing made sense. I just cried to God and before I knew it, people I did not even know started calling saying “we are praying for you”. And I remember one woman in particular. I don’t know if it was an angel because I never got to meet her since she did not want to meet me. She just said she was going to pray for me and that she had been praying for me.
I asked her where she was because I wanted to meet her, and she said “no”.
That’s when I realised that there is a God up there and that’s when I gave my life to God in 1988.
The minute I did that, a friend said, “Grace, I am coming over to pray for you,” and I told her that I just pray that my husband gets well and I am going to be with him, and I want him to survive, even in a wheelchair.
I said that although at the time there was no sign that he was going to pull through. And I was here on my own, no family except my two little children.
I didn’t know where the energy came from but the minute I tapped into this power and accepted Christ as my Saviour, somehow power just kept on coming and I tell you, one day at a time God was giving me this energy.
It wasn’t like it was all there.
I remember teaching my kids a song. All of a sudden we started singing: “Lord do not come to my house, I’m unworthy. Speak . . . ” I think it was our prayer.
Every morning I would sing it with my little girls. We just started praising God. I also taught them another song: “To God be the glory!”
Just praising even though Godfrey was in hospital. I sang with the kids in the car, everywhere. To this day that’s our song.
At my daughter’s wedding she said, “Mummy, we have got to sing that song.”
I will say that God has been very kind to me. He was waiting for me all along, but I guess that we were all too busy with worldly things.
The tragedy was as if to draw my attention and say, “Grace, I am here.”
And I accepted Him.
I remember when I was getting married and saying the vows “in sickness and in health”, but I never really paid attention. I didn’t really understand them and didn’t know that sickness would come.
I woke up one day and we were in sickness and all these worldly things had vanished. We had nothing left and now I know that when you don’t have God you won’t survive. I am glad that I accepted Him as my Saviour because He is walking with me every step of the way.
He is a miracle-working God and when He really comes on board He can do things that you don’t expect.
I didn’t know where my help was going to come from. There I was: my husband in hospital. Mind you, he had just changed jobs and was still on probation and we were not on medical aid.
And to this day I still have a letter which his boss wrote confirming him as a permanent employee, two months before he was supposed to be confirmed. And by confirming him, he was actually putting him on medical aid. This took care of the hospital bills. Because he was now confirmed, his employer said they would continue paying fees for the children. And they said I could also use the company car. It was a miracle.
More miracles happened.
It was miracles throughout when it comes to the children’s education and Godfrey’s rehabilitation to enable him to work. God has multiplied whatever I had in the house and it has always been adequate, just like the miracle of the five loaves of bread and two fish.
Godfrey underwent rehabilitation in Zimbabwe and the UK and I expected him to come back walking, but it was not like that. I asked God and He told me that Godfrey was now walking spiritually. He is whole now, you are whole and the whole family is whole.
With God’s things you just have to pray and start moving. You don’t remain where you are. I feel that God used this tragedy in order for us to realise that He is God and to bring us together and use each other to heal. I have seen God’s goodness.
If you look at me and say “how do you manage”, I will stand there and brag that with God nothing is impossible. He is a glorious God and deserves all the honour and praise.
He has provided me with everything, and the joy that is in my heart, I really can’t explain it and I am not even pretending.
I also tell my friends that as I look after Godfrey, I don’t feel the burden. It can only be God, and I am enjoying my marriage. God showed me things that I didn’t know about, and He said I should just believe in Him.
I have an Anglican background. My husband grew up in the Catholic Church. That’s where we fellowship – Rhodesville Community Church. But I do a lot of interdenominational work because I believe in the church of Christ. That’s what drives me. I do any work in any church if I am required to do so.
You remember the Great Commission? I believe that all of us are ministers of the gospel wherever we are – in our marriages where we should minister to our families, husbands and relatives. We all have a ministry and I think that all women have a ministry. The power of positive thinking and faith has carried us through.-Zimdaily
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