Simon Muzenda

 ( 1922 Births ) 

Between completing his carpentry course and furthering his studies, Muzenda became aware of politics during contacts with fellow students, which included several men prominent in black activism South Africa and Rhodesia; after his return to Rhodesia in 1950, he worked in a furniture factory in Bulawayo and became involved with Benjamin Burombo, an activist who was among the earliest to challenge discriminatory laws.

After marrying his wife Maud, a nurse, Muzenda moved to the Midlands town of Mvuma in 1955 and started his own carpentry business; he also stayed active in political activism and eventually become administrative secretary of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), attracting the attention of Rhodesian security forces and being imprisoned in Salisbury Central Prison for two years, which he described as a "place of study" later in his life, as it gave him and his fellow inmates the opportunity to complete their educations.

In 1964, he was arrested again, this time for possession of a pistol after having been elected deputy organising secretary of ZANU; at this time, Muzenda had become convinced that the only way to overthrow white colonial dominance was an armed revolution, and began organising young blacks to receive military training in other African countries, in the Soviet Union and in China. He was soon imprisoned again and remained in jail until being released under the Anglo-Rhodesia agreement in 1971.

Following his release, Simon Muzenda went into exile in Zambia, and later in Mozambique. Failing to draw Joshua Nkomo and his ZAPU movement into a unified political front, he backed Robert Mugabe, who was then also hiding in Mozambique, as the leader of the ZANU Patriotic Front (PF).

After the ensuing guerilla war, which ended with the Lancaster House Agreement, and a brief interregnum of British government while new elections were organised, Mugabe was elected as the first prime minister of the new independent Zimbabwe and made Muzenda the deputy prime minister and foreign minister in 1980; Muzenda also retained political power over his home area. In 1987, when Mugabe became executive president, Muzenda was appointed as his vice-president.

In Zimbabwe's early years, Muzenda was generally respected by the people as a no-nonsense, plain-spoken man from the working class, but in later years, he appeared more and more crude. In 1990, his campaign for a seat in Zimbabwe's parliament suffered a blow after opposition candidate Patrick Kombayi was shot and left permanently disabled; two state agents were convicted of attempted murder, but pardoned by Mugabe shortly after the trial ended, and even though Muzenda was not publicly accused of being involved in the shooting, it affected his standing with the public.

During the years of Mugabe's rule, Muzenda always gave unreserved backing to the president, even when the regime began muzzling the independent press, curb the activities of foreign correspondents and crushing political opposition. He also participated in Mugabe's land redistribution programme, taking over the Chindito farm, south of Harare, in April 2002 and ejecting the white farm owner, Chris Nel; this incident caused a controversy with the Commercial Farmers Union. "Mugabe's right-hand man grabs white farm", Sapa, 26 April 2002. In addition, he was put on the United States sanctions list in 2003 and remained on the list until his death. Blocking property of persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe